In 2022, it will be an indelible wound for Shanghai, and it will also be for the people living in this city.
Looking back at the end of March and the beginning of April last year, the Shanghai municipal government announced the implementation of “global static management”. . In the face of the sudden and severe measures, the functions of the entire city came to a standstill, and the previously developed e-commerce, logistics, transportation and other systems suddenly came to a standstill, resulting in “lack of supplies” and “food shortages” that no one could have imagined. Even because of the strict management methods, many “inhumane” incidents have been caused in various places. During this period, many Shanghai citizens have published records on the Internet, and they have also been “silenced” by the authorities.
The closure of Shanghai lasted for more than two months. It was only released in June last year due to the control of the epidemic. At that time, in order to continue to maintain the policy of “dynamic clearing”, people’s lives were still subject to many restrictions. For example, they must carry health Code, or in order to go out, you have to repeatedly cooperate with nucleic acid (PCR) and antigen (quick screening) every day.
In December last year, the Chinese government suddenly announced the complete unblocking. Shanghai once again experienced the peak of the epidemic, and there was a lack of medical resources and other problems. It was not until after the Spring Festival this year that the city seemed to slowly return to normal.
During the closure of the city, most of the road fences and nucleic acid kiosks that were seen everywhere have been demolished, but you can still suddenly see some remnants in the corners of the city, reminding everything the city has experienced. If you talk to Shanghai residents about this moment last year, I believe that many people will still feel tense when they describe it, as if they are shrouded in indescribable emotions.
Xiaodao and Zhiling are a Taiwanese couple. They have lived in Shanghai for more than 8 years. Both of them went to Shanghai in 2014. They met in Shanghai. Starting from scratch, they accumulated a new circle of work and friendship in Shanghai. That married and started a business, from a single state to a joint family, raising two children.
Originally they expected to continue to work hard in Shanghai, but after the closure of Shanghai last year, everything changed. They changed their original plan and moved back to Taiwan ahead of schedule.
The following is the first-person oral story of Xiaodao and Zhiling, also included in“First Hand Stories” Podcast In the first episode of the second season broadcast on April 3 (the content of this article has been sorted out, and the non-podcast content is directly translated):
▌Please click below to listen
pocket knife:I am going to be 40 years old this year. I came to Shanghai to work in 2014. I have been here for almost 9 years. My job in Shanghai is to be in charge of marketing in the food industry. Last year, when Shanghai was closed, I made a decision in July , to move back to Taiwan, the official time to return to Taiwan is November.
Zhiling:I am 36 years old this year, and I left Taipei for Shanghai in 2014, almost 9 years now. We came back to Taiwan briefly at the end of April last year, and we moved back completely at the end of November, because my husband had to transfer his work back to Taiwan in the middle, so there was a little time difference. During this time, I will return to Taiwan with my two children. I went back to work in Shanghai and waited until everything was confirmed before I officially moved back to Taiwan.
pocket knife:When I think back on the situation at that time, I still have a lot of emotions. In March last year, there were some cases in Shanghai. At that time, I didn’t think Shanghai would use very drastic measures to manage it. I discussed this matter with my wife. She said that Wuhan was very strict before, and Shanghai is also possible. I Let’s just say it’s not very good. After all, Shanghai is a very special city. The so-called “special” means that it has too much connection with the world. There are many foreigners here. If it is not handled properly, these foreigners will spread their voices. , so I don’t think so, at most it’s just letting the wind out and making the public feel a little nervous. To be honest, I didn’t take it too seriously in early March.
Zhiling:On March 2, the children’s school announced the suspension of classes. It didn’t take long for our community (community) to start “closed-loop management”, which means that people can’t leave the community. If they need anything, they can only have food delivery delivered to the gate of the community. The same goes for grocery shopping. .
pocket knife:However, until the second half of March, I found that something was wrong. Some places began to report that the epidemic prevention personnel intervened or used extreme methods of disposal. After these bad things spread, I thought it was terrible. too right. But it is not possible to leave immediately, after all, family and work are here, it is impossible to say that I will buy a plane ticket the next day, so I can only pray in my heart, this is only short-lived, as for our family’s supplies, probably It can last three to five days. I just hold the idea that static management will not be so extreme.
Zhiling:My husband didn’t think it was that serious at the time, and thought it would be a big deal to order some food online, but at the end of March, the food delivery platforms almost didn’t deliver. On the weekend before the city was closed in our community, the closed-loop management was temporarily lifted, and everyone can go out and buy some something, let’s hurry to buy it. After I came back that day, it started endlessly. I was locked at home every day, and our building was locked with a big lock.
pocket knife:During the closure of the city, for example, you may have heard that there is a lack of supplies, the management measures are very intense, and your home is sealed up. We have really encountered these things. There was even no supplies in our home at one point, just consuming and hoarding At one point, there were two days of food left in the stock. At that time, I was very nervous, because the two children in the family were still very young, and there would be a lot of consumables, such as milk powder and diapers. If there were no such things , what about the child? We adults can at most be hungry and bear it for a while, but children can’t help it, and we don’t want children to be in such a tense atmosphere. This was a very troublesome thing we encountered at the time.
Zhiling:Another thing that shocked us is that as long as the child is diagnosed, he will be taken away alone. There is a baby upstairs in our house who is only two months old. They implement the policy and do not care about the child still drinking breast milk. That is to say, take it away. This is our bottom line, that is, when your child is taken away, there is no way to contact him, where he is taken, when will he be sent back, and whether he is alive or dead now, you don’t know until one day , They informed that they would send the child back only if they could send it back.
pocket knife:All these methods have led us to a conclusion. At that time, their basic attitude towards epidemic prevention was that if you are infected, you will become a virus, so they will treat you in the same way as a virus, not a person. , I think this incident is quite a shock to me. In addition, during the closure of the city, injustice, even inhumane incidents emerged endlessly, but the government’s approach is to suppress these voices instead of Really to solve these problems, this is also the reason why I want to go back to Taiwan in the future.
Zhiling:During this month, ridiculous things happened every day. Later, my WeChat was blocked. At that time, I felt like an isolated island, locked in one place, with no way of contacting the outside world. You I don’t know if someone will knock on the door one day and say “you are positive” and take you away. All these are situations beyond your control.
pocket knife:That is a very restless feeling, is it that you don’t know when it will come? You don’t know how violent it is when it comes, and you don’t know when or how it will end. This is a kind of abuse to a person’s mental state. I can only describe it with the word abuse. Even after a year, I look back and think, yes, maybe I was lucky at that time, and I was able to survive in the later period. Running out for a while, but that didn’t take away the feeling of dread I was getting at that point, not at all.
I was very desperate at that time, if today such an important international city, such a decent place for China, is managed in this way, then I can only say that I am very desperate.
I didn’t think that the door of my house would be locked by a big lock, nor did I think that they said they would distribute supplies but they didn’t give you the supplies, so I had to figure out a way by myself. From the beginning of the closure of the city until April 12th and April 13th, I was in a state of despair, but then I felt that it was impossible. I still have children and a wife. I can’t sit still like this, so we started to initiate this kind of community Group buying, go to collect supplies by yourself. (Remarks: During the closure of Shanghai, due to the large-scale shutdown of the original developed e-commerce logistics system, people can only contact merchants and manufacturers near their homes to purchase materials, but a delivery usually requires a certain amount and amount of accumulation, so Residents in various communities began to form group buying groups to help deliver materials to the community, and organized volunteers to deliver materials.)
Zhiling:If we don’t help ourselves, no one will take care of us, so we started to become a team leader, doing statistics, ordering, purchasing, contacting and so on every day.
pocket knife:When I first started group buying, it was a headache because no one wanted to take the lead in doing it. Later, someone was willing to solve the problem with you. (But group buying is still not easy.) Because everyone has different ideas, you have to go with it first. Communicating with the neighborhood committee, then communicating with the store, and communicating with the neighbors, it is actually not easy to get this matter done. Around April 18th and 19th, my wife told me at that time, why don’t we go back to Taiwan?
Zhiling:At that time, I decided to return to Taiwan. On the one hand, I didn’t know how long it would be closed. I did nucleic acid (PCR) every morning and antigen (quick screening) in the afternoon. I kept doing it and doing it. On the other hand, we found out that there was still a ticket back to Taiwan, but we had to go through layers of procedures to get on the plane smoothly. We had to go through the application of the neighborhood committee first. The day before boarding the plane, we tried to find a way to do a single-tube nucleic acid test. These things had to be done one by one, so after we booked the ticket, we discussed it with the neighborhood committee. At that time, we had to sign a cut-off letter. If you don’t come back before the lockdown is lifted, at least don’t cause trouble to the neighborhood committee. So we did these things, booked a special car, and the car cost 1,000 RMB per trip, so we decided,
OK, we are leaving Shanghai.
pocket knife:After landing in Taiwan all the way, after passing the customs, to be honest, I felt like crying at the moment, I felt like floating on a deserted island, and finally found a place where I could land. We returned to Taiwan on April 28. After the quarantine, we worked and took care of our children in Taiwan until July 11, when I flew back to Shanghai. Why do you remember it so clearly? Because that day was my son’s birthday, so I felt very deeply that day. I helped my son celebrate his birthday the day before, and I took off the next day. So I shed a lot of tears the day before, because I was I have to go back this time, if I can choose, I don’t want to go back to that place now.
I went back to Shanghai first because I wanted to finish my work and take inventory of my home, and then I could return to my life in Taiwan after my new job in Taiwan was confirmed. From July to October, the new job was confirmed, and I could really go back to Taiwan. At that time, I told my wife, “You come back to Shanghai in November to accompany me to collect things.” I knew she had a lot of feelings and nostalgia for Shanghai, because I did it myself, and we even proposed to find a photographer to do it for us. Realistic record. But in fact, in the last week of packing up, when we were collecting things at home, both of us had red eyes, because this city really carries too many important things in our lives.
pocket knife:For me, these 8 years are a bit like the rough stone of my soul. I don’t think my previous life was mature enough to look like a 30-year-old person. After arriving in Shanghai, because I want to rebuild my own field and life circle, it really I have to rely on myself in every aspect, whether it is work, making friends, love, or even starting a family, all of which are piled up bit by bit, so I say that the original stone of the soul is, I don’t think the life before going to Shanghai is very important. For the soul, I can only say that I have fun, but after going to Shanghai, it really gave my soul life. During these 8 years, my identity has changed a lot, and my mood has also changed a lot. Maturity has also increased a lot.
Zhiling:Our good memories of that are those people, things, and then those places, but there is still nothing to do, because the memory of this wound is too huge, you don’t know when it will happen to you, even if There are many good memories, but I can only bury the good memories in my heart and move on.
pocket knife:I kept telling my wife at that time that we had many memories, and these memories can be taken away. Being able to return to Taiwan also has a good side, that is, the life of the children, their sense of security, and their education, etc., so we have actually done a lot of discussions for the sake of the children. We always feel that our final decision is for the children, It is good for the whole family, as well as for our own body, mind and soul.
