Shanghai Lockdown Nightmares Persist

Shanghai was shutdown for weeks early in the pandemic

This evening I met a man in his 30s who recently moved out of Shanghai to Vancouver and is pondering what to do next, either go to Hong Kong or Taiwan.

He has an interesting background, born and raised in Taiwan with a Taiwanese mother and father who is from China and Hong Kong. When he was six years old the family moved to Vancouver and after he graduated from university he moved to Shanghai and went into the advertising industry for almost 10 years.

The last three years of his life have been a blur, with non-stop lockdowns in the coastal city, but says he had it better than most. Migrant workers and lower middle-class families had a tough time during the pandemic, many having lost their jobs, unable to pay rent, mortgages and car payments.

A ration of vegetables, cooking oil and noodles

I asked if he had enough to eat and he said it was so hard to have enough room in the fridge to store all the food. He said when the lockdown began, it was supposed to be four days -- which was suddenly extended to 10 -- and that's when people began to panic.

Not only did people not have enough to eat, but many people didn't have enough medicine to treat their conditions or cancer patients couldn't go to treatments. As a result many people died not getting the medicine or treatments they needed.

He added after that experience, many families bought second refrigerators, worried lockdowns could happen again.

Just before the pandemic, he was planning to launch his own brand of high-protein juices, but with the lockdowns, everything was put on hold, delayed and then eventually he gave up even trying to release the product in China. I suggested Hong Kong because the consumers there are open to trying anything and willing buy an expensive product even if they think it's good.

Being here in Vancouver he is still adjusting -- he says in Shanghai the regulations would change on a daily basis on what people could and couldn't do. But here life just goes on and he has to remind himself that he's in Canada, not China. He joked about having PTSD, but it really is a trauma that he went through, being confined for so long and restricted from freely moving around.

Dabai or "big whites" harassed people

He doesn't have adverse feelings towards China, but probably wants a break from it and wants to move onto something else. One thing he can't get out of his mind is seeing videos of the dabai or the men in white hazmat suits beating up people, which he found shocking and inhumane. 

It was things like this that made him think hard about why he was continuing to live in the country, and decided he had to get out.

He's not sure what's net yet, but having a Chinese background, fluent in English and well traveled, he will surely land on his feet in another career very soon.