First, the randomness, then the quarantining.

A few months ago, my oven started emitting this strange, non-food-related smell whenever I started to heat it. It smelled like plastic or some other part was burning. I finally decided that I couldn’t take it anymore, so I contacted my landlord. My previous landlord was actually quite good, but unfortunately, after moving downtown, my current landlord is the typical landlord who tries to brush things off as not being a big deal. After insisting that my problem was, in fact, a problem, I got him to send over a “shifu” (a term here for a general maintenance worker).

He, of course, didn’t seem to see anything “wrong” with it, despite my having turned it on so he could smell it. After the landlord suggested that I should look for someone specialized to look at it, and after reminding him that this was literally his job as the landlord to do this, he arranged for someone else to look at it. Luckily, this person did have a replacement part for the very damaged or melted part that I was talking about. After seeing the part left on the floor, I quickly took a photo and posted it in the small WeChat group (containing myself, my landlord, and the shifu) for them to see.

In food-related news, in my previous post, I discussed my downstairs neighbors’ outdoor meat-hanging. Eventually, outside turned into inside, specifically in the stairwell. Luckily, there was no issue with odor. I do wonder, however, if things will change once the summer heat and humidity kick in.

Continuing on with the food theme, we now come to a photo that was posted to one of our social groups on WeChat. I have no idea who actually made this grammatical mistake, but it once again shows just how different a phrase can be if misspelled.

In another sex-related post about food (you’ll see), someone else posted this image of a menu item translation.

Now onto funny signage. A group of fellow teachers and I were out bowling downtown. Before we left, one of us was looking for the bathrooms, and someone noticed the rather hilariously straight-forward image used to indicate where the toilets were.

Now, onto the Shanghai COVID resurgence situation.

After what seemed like a lull in reported cases, China has been hit with another outbreak of COVID cases, and Shenzhen isn’t the only place affected by it. Much like other large countries, different parts of China have been hit at different times. Shanghai is having its time now (that being early March 2022, at the time of writing this).

This started (for me) on March 10. Everyone went into school as normal that day; however, when it was time for morning recess, we were told that it was indoor recess. I was confused as to why, since the weather and air quality seemed good enough to be outside. A little while later, the school finally told us that apparently, one parent of one of our students had tested positive (we didn’t know which student this was), and this resulted in our entire primary and secondary campus (but not the kindergarten) being locked down at school for 48 hours! That’s right, everyone-teachers, students, and staff was all forced to remain at school for 48 hours (eating and sleeping) because of this.

Just before Chinese New Year, this same situation happened to our kindergarten. My friend, who I had worked with at my previous school, was the foreign teacher in that class. As a result, she (and I think others in the class) were required to go to a quarantine hotel for 2 weeks. She sent me some brief footage she took from there.

Teachers were told to sleep in the classroom with students, but some teachers (including myself) refused to do so. I found a room in the art/dance class hallway that had carpeting and some pillows, so one of my Grade 3 team members and I stayed there both nights. The first night, I didn’t sleep at all. The second night, I managed to sleep a bit (this time, I managed to grab some yoga mats from the first floor and an extra floor pillow in the room to try to help). The local CDC supplied sleeping bags (for all) and some floor pads (for students), which didn’t do much to help with the hard floor. The ayis (cleaning ladies) and school staff helped with bringing in supplies. Parents were told to bring a supply back for their child to leave at the school gate.

The kids mostly reacted well to the situation (although one girl in my class started crying for her mom when we were told that we had to spend a second night at school). Luckily, the weather was decent, so classes received an outdoor recess schedule. Meals were served in the classrooms, as no classes were allowed to use the cafeteria and were not allowed to mix with other floors (even though students ended up mixing some anyway when playing outside).

We were told to try to stick to the normal teaching schedule as much as possible to maintain structure for the students, but after trying to teach as normal for the first two blocks on Friday, there was no way I was able to continue teaching as normal for the rest of the morning. The Chinese teachers had an easier time getting the kids to focus (as is always the case). Much of the time was spent going outside, playing games inside, and watching movies.

We were tested twice while there. Before being released that Saturday morning, we had to wait for the entire school’s test results to be announced as negative before we were released. In addition to these two rounds of testing, we were also required to do three more tests, which had to be done at the school. People asked why we couldn’t have just gotten our own tests near where we live, but I imagine this had more to do with easier logistics for the local CDC workers to have everyone tested at the same place and time. The day before being released, we all had grade team meetings to discuss going back to online learning for two weeks (at least, that’s what we were told). At the time of writing this, we have been told to plan to be online between for one or two months. The thing that gets me (and other western teachers) the most about this is that the reported positive case that sparked this whole lockdown was known about on that Wednesday, and yet the school didn’t say anything to us and had everyone come into school anyway!

At the beginning of this lockdown phase, people were sharing some interesting and funny moments on social media.

This first clip was widely shared and had a mix of praise from some locals and laughs from foreigners.

People also posted this clip of an old woman who was resisting getting swabbed by the healthcare worker.

As is often the case, humor is used to get through stressful times.

Below is a video that was shared on WeChat of a woman finding a way around the system.

However, things have become more irritating as more businesses and neighborhoods have been ordered to close down, and some restaurants (but not all…yet) now only offer delivery services. Some teachers were not able to get to the school for the final COVID test because their apartment complex was in lockdown. Mandatory testing began to be implemented, and people all over Shanghai were told that they must show proof of negative results in order to get in and out of their apartment complexes.

Some compounds and residential communities were given 48-hour lockdown notices, only to be given another 48-hour lockdown. In some cases, these second lockdowns didn’t even start immediately because personnel and/or testing supplies were not yet available, yet they still had to remain in lockdown until given official notice that the lockdown had ended. It didn’t help that it was rainy and cold for two days in a row, further prolonging the lockdown time for some communities.

On social media, there have been more posts recently about both locals and foreigners becoming more irritated by these arbitrary and subjective measures, often with residential communities having to follow different guidelines than others according to whichever areas had more reported cases. It seems that now the entire city has been given orders to continue testing.

There was also a clip posted on Chinese social media of a young girl being forced to get a swab test and furiously refusing to do so, lashing around and wailing to her mom not to force her to do it while her mother berated her (and hit her arm twice) and healthcare workers tried to forcefully restrain her. It was hard to watch, and it has since been deleted from Chinese social media (hmmmm, I wonder why).

Seeing images like this from healthcare apps also doesn’t help much to instill a sense of calm and normality.

Just this week, there was a story on social media about a hospital worker here who was home and ended up having an asthma attack but was not allowed inside the hospital where she worked because it had gone into lockdown. She tried to go to another hospital but was also refused entry. She tried to find a third hospital, but apparently she ran out of time and died before ever making it there.

Someone here in Shanghai who tested positive for COVID and was forced to go to a hospital for quarantine posted about his experience. He noted that it was ultimately quite uncomfortable and wondered why he wasn’t just placed in a quarantine hotel with what he described as mild symptoms (such as a sore throat) and only being given some traditional Chinese medicine.

China insists that their zero-covid policy is the best way to go so that it can project an image of competence and being able to “defeat” the virus. However, reality is quickly showing that this mindset is not sustainable and is, in fact, disruptive and impractical. China can’t just keep putting people into last-minute lockdowns forever. There is always going to be an evolving new strain of the virus. We also know that online learning is not a good substitute for in-person learning. I worry that the kids will fall back into a mindset of not being able to focus on their tasks from being off of the normal daily teaching schedule, as well as not comprehending the academic content from not being able to utilize the school resources.

**Update March 28, 2022**

The Shanghai government has announced two additional 5-day lockdowns. The first area will be Pudong district (everything east of the Huangpu River), and after these five days, the Puxi area (central downtown Shanghai, where I currently live) will undergo its 5-day lockdown. During this time, no one is allowed in or out of their housing communities, and mandatory testing will take place. Emergency services and utility services will still be available. All public transportation will be halted.

This notice was sent out after 10 p.m. last night, and communities went into lockdown starting at midnight! One of my friends who lives in Pudong has already been in lockdown due to it being a medium-risk area from the case numbers, and now he will have an additional five days of it. He messaged me to say that he felt hungry and was rationing his frozen foods. I feel even worse because he has roommates.

Our school sent us a message saying that they would supply each of us (who wanted it) with a meat package that could be delivered. Most of us said “yes!” but there was one Chinese teacher who works on the student support team who lives in Pudong, so she was not able to take advantage of this. I felt terrible that this offer was sent out but that she couldn’t partake in it.

Meanwhile, major grocery stores, online grocery retailers, and small shops were all getting emptied out on the first full day of the notice. Several fellow teachers with infants mentioned that while out, they had to wait anywhere between 40 minutes and two hours in line to check out (just to get nappies).

**Update: April 4, 2022**

I found this video that someone else had put together regarding the current situation. It seems as though medical workers here have been assigned to prioritize quarantining people who tested positive (even though the vast majority are asymptomatic) at designated quarantine sites. In turn, this has caused hospitals and medical facilities to be severely understaffed for other (more serious) medical situations. Someone posted a video of Shanghai bringing in additional medical workers (in hazmat suits) making their way to Shanghai. Lockdowns that were scheduled to be lifted are still in effect, and no one seems to have any answers as to exactly when the lockdowns will end. One of my coworkers messaged that one positive case was found in her entire compound, so she’s not sure if the building of that resident will undergo an additional 7-day (or even 14-day) lockdown or the entire compound. The lack of specific and timely information is really becoming a major issue for many.

The world has already had two years of this, and more countries are deciding to just live with the virus rather than continue to economically and socially upend people’s lives any further. China is a place that is extremely reactive, very autocratic, and full of top-down bureaucracy. This current situation only exacerbates my uneasiness with being here too much longer, but all I can do is continue trying to accomplish my travel and financial goals so that I can eventually start a new chapter in my life more easily.

Hopefully, the next blog post will be more positive, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

As always, thank you for taking the time to read my novel of observations.