04.09 | what is happening in shanghai right now?
'It is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary.' 'A melancholy conclusion,' said K. 'It turns lying into a universal principle.
– Franz Kafka, The Trial
✉️ letter #33
Good lord Shanghai. What a fucking mess.
In case you don’t have half your friend base still living in that city, here’s what’s been going on:
- On March 11 and 12, the city began conducting mass testings and closing major attractions. Rumors of a possible lockdown began to swirl.
- On March 26, residents were told it was in fact going to go into a four day lockdown starting on April 1. The news caused a run on supermarkets and groceries
(which incidentally led to people making fun of other people for being reactionary hoarders... oh if only they knew that...) - On April 4, the lockdown was extended indefinitely. This is when a lot of the panic started about whether or not everyone had enough food.
- As of now, April 9, about 24,000 infections have been discovered and Shanghai is preparing another round of mass testing before hopefully making a decision on when lockdown will end.
The last week-and-a-half has been just on the edge of chaos as the government has tried to enact measures that worked on 2 or 3 cases (full on hospital quarantines whether you're symptomatic or not, no matter your age, no matter if you have animals or little people at home to take care of) on 24,000 cases.
And while there’s the argument to be had that not every one of Shanghai’s 25 million people are suffering in the exact way that the BBC or NYT are highlighting, in no sense has it been fantastic for anyone.
As someone who does have dozens of people living there that I’m still constantly in contact with, here’s a smattering of experiences I’ve heard to give you a sense of the not-so-bad and also the just kinda actually bad.
All anonymous and with any personal details taken out:
- “We aren’t allowed to leave our apartments and deliveries are hard to come by because many delivery people are also locked down. This seems to be a major issue rather than an actual shortage of food, but the end result is many are struggling for food. Food retailers that are able to deliver are being overwhelmed by demand while struggling with only a small percentage of their normal workforce. Most are offering “bulk buys” where one apartment compound groups together to make a big order which is then dividied up among those who participate… sadly, some people have also reported that by the time their food package reached them, many items had been stolen…
Overall there’s been a strong sense of community and people have been exchanging items or just giving them away to those that need it… We Can’t leave our apaprtments, but we can ask building management to collect and bring to other units within the same compound. Building management have been working extra hard to deliver items to each apartment – not an easy task (over 1000 residents).” - “The building group chat generated a new group chat, hundreds of messages swarm all day exchanging information regarding where and how to purchase food when most of the stores are closed, online ordering and deliveries are extremely limited, and above all, none of us is allowed to leave our apartments. A few days ago, the government sent us a bag of vegetables and meat, but what if that was all I had? What about the elderly people who aren’t smartphone-savvy? How are they going to get hold of food? What if they get sick?...
A WeChat post titled “Help!” was reposted thousands of times today and by numerous people I know. But before the end of the day, it was erased from the internet.” - “We’ve all banded together in my building, creating trading groups on WeChat. We trade items by leaving them outside and picking them up from one another. I parted with 10 packs of Nescafe and got a much-needed 2-lb container of dish soap! I’m fine with food and water for quite sometime, and there is access to ordering food in large quantities with other neighbors. Today, my next-door neighbor threw me an orange from his balcony. He’s a good egg… I’ve started being really grateful for my small balcony table and stool setup because at least I can actually go outside and enjoy tea, breakfast and lunch these perfect 70-degree days.
- “I got my government rations… I ran downstairs like it was Christmas morning. I believe this was the equivalent to coal in my stocking. It was milk, beef jerky, spam, and a package of 7 vegetable-flavored crackers. Does vegetables on the packaging count as greens? I got fruit though, I’m grateful for fresh fruit.”
- “I tested positive. I couldn’t take my dog with me [to the hospital]. They initially wouldn’t even allow us to send him to the dog hotel citing potential covid risks and that nothing from our house can go out, even including the garbage. They wanted us to leave the dog alone at home, no promises he won’t be “dealt with” if necessary.
We called and complained to the authorities day and night… I posted about this cruelty on Weibo and tons of people in the community helped, putting pressure on our neighborhood committee. Even the police called asking if I’m willing to delete my post and telling me not to post anything “too negative” or “anti-society.”
Luckily the evening before I got sent away, we were able to get doggo out after quite a fight. While we were both exhausted with fever. I will never trust these people again, for our wellbeing as well as our dog’s.” - “Lockdown day 8 in Puxi. We’re safe & sound but there is a lot of sad news on Chinese social media that keep on coming & some got deleted because of violation rules (you’re not supposed to say bad things… The most important thing for the city currently isstill to fulfill the basic needs of citizens = get them food!
From everyone’s stories, threat of food insecurity aside, the mental toll has been the hardest.
A lot of the resources being shared in English (besides grocery recommendations) has been for Lifeline, the on-call English-language mental health resource in the city. Mandarin mental health hotlines have been similarly flooded with calls.
Not surprisingly, being forced to stay in your house for who knows how long is not great for anybody’s psyche – but it's even worse when it makes absolutely no sense to do it!
And really, I think as an impotently angry observer from afar, what bugs me the most about this situation is that it makes absolutely no sense.
When Wuhan was locked down for 76 days at the start of the epidemic, it was to combat a variety of unknowns. People were getting sick and actually dying, emergency hospitals were being erected because beds were filling with people who needed ventilators to survive. The transmission rate was unknown (except, it seems, high), the symptoms were mostly unknown (except that sometimes it resulted in organ collapse), there was no ability to test for it, and there was no vaccine.
As similarly unfortunate as it was to be locked down at that time, it wasn’t unreasonable to take extreme measures to try to keep as many people safe as possible. And it worked. For the last two years, China could live like covid barely existed. Looking at the death rate in other countries, it's very possible millions of lives were saved.
But Shanghai now has lockdown rules that are even more extreme than Jan 2020 – Wuhanites at least were allowed to designate people from their households to leave their apartments and pick up things from around the neighborhood. It’s a toss up in Shanghai if you’re even able to go out into your hallway.
And for what? 90 percent of Shanghai is vaccinated. Rapid testing exists. So far, of everyone carted away to a hospital, almost all (over 90%) have been basically asymptomatic. In fact, it’s arguable that more people are dying because they can’t get into a hospital for regular medical checkups than from Covid.
People have asked me why the Shanghai government has chosen this route and I’m honestly baffled. The best I can guess is that the top down order was that “Covid must be eliminated” – with no recommendations on how to do that if a breakout became more than just 20 cases here or there.
While Xi himself has asked local governments to take more “targeted” approaches than city-wide clampdowns, there are no protections for officials who let any kind of covid spread happen.
Which means that, in order for a city mayor or prefecture party secretary to say “Hey, look, we’ll cancel planes and trains so less people leave the city until this is done, but it looks like the spread isn’t particularly serious so we’re just going to let everyone live their lives since the medical stuff we all clamored to create is working,” they also must be ready to risk losing their jobs as the numbers climb up.
In fact, that's what's happening anyway. Three officials have been sacked as of today. They're being fired for "failure to fulfill their duties in epidemic prevention and control."
And maybe what's gotten me so mad about this is ... that is such a banal and bureaucratic reason to make 26 million people miserable.
It's turning what should actually be a success - "Hey, look, we waited out Covid until it wasn't really harmful anymore. See how most of the people who get it are so healthy they don't know they have it?" - into the fulfillment of every conspiracy theorist's hack opinion on the CCP.
I just can't even.
🌱 the ethical ideas newsreel
As someone who can only offer support from a distance away, I've seen people struggle with what to say to the folks that are suffering through some pretty frustrating circumstances.
So I figure it's as good a time as any to re-up some resources on how to back away from "toxic positivity" (aka "cheer up! it's not that bad!") and embrace "tragic optimism."
Time has the folksiest definition I've found out of all the articles on "tragic optimism" from since the start of the pandemic. It's a quote from moral philosopher Anna Gotlib reinterpreting Viktor Frankl's (Holocaust survivor, neurologist, psychiatrist) concept:
“Frankl argues that we can make suffering meaningful, view guilt as an imperative to improve ourselves, and interpret the fragility, unpredictability, and transitoriness of life as motivation to find meaning.”
- You can measure your current ability to practice "tragic optimism" utilizing this Life Attitude Scale that was developed based off of Frankl's concept.
- Dr. Paul Wong, who created that scale, also has this advice to offer in practicing this resiliency method:
- Focus on situational meaning rather than global meaning;
- seek both causal and existential understanding;
- develop a meaning mindset as a frame of reference for both positive and negative events, and
- learn how to make full use of our capacity for meaning-seeking and meaning-making.
Not suprisingly, it's easier said than done, right? But I mean, what kind of self therapy and self reflection has ever been easy?
🎵 song of my week
A mix of gorgeous visuals and beautiful music for this week - Fazi is a post-punk band from Xi'an. They recently released this 45-minute visual album that's worth the time sitting with it.
Shout out to long-time indie music writer Jake Newby for always having his finger on the pulse of great Chinese sounds.
✨enjoying: one final piece of pop culture fun
Okay, one of the most adorable mangas I've come across recently has been Spy x Family, a comedy series taking place in what seems like a multiverse version of Berlin and East/West Germany. It's stylish and gorgeously drawn and downright hilarious considering the bodycount.
Master spy Twilight is told his latest mission is to infiltrate an "Eastern" elite school, and somehow manages to adopt a kid (who is a secret psychic) and convince Yor (a secret assassin) to be his fake wife. Hijinks ensue.
I've been reading it on the Viz manga app, and apparently an anime version is going to come out soon.
Did you enjoy it?
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