I lived in Shanghai, China from 2013 until 2022, and was there throughout China’s infamous “Zero COVID” measures. Doorframe lockdowns, masking, mandatory quarantine and vaccination—these measures initially created a (only slightly) dystopian pandemic bubble that enabled us to return to the office by March of 2020—Shanghai Disney Resort, my employer at the time, re-opened by May of 2020—and ended with the White Paper protest and a dramatic reversal that led to unknown number of fatalities by December 2022.
When Shanghai Disneyland closed on January 25, 2020, I saw it on the news in Taipei. I was having lunch with my mother, home for a brief Lunar New Year visit. I insisted on returning to Shanghai for a very simple reason: My cats were there. You can’t text your cats and explain why you can’t come home.
No one knew what COVID was then, COVID wasn’t even the name we could agree on, so my choice to go back led to many, many, many messages from concerned loved ones around the world. I began posting daily about my 14-day self-quarantine to ease their anxiety and minimize notifications.
I came to call these my #COVIDCatLady posts. I didn’t expect these posts to span nearly 3 years—COVID’s direct impact on my life was not officially over until I extracted my cats and flew them to New York with me in 2023… And something else happened on that evac trip that I never dared write about until I decided I would never be returning.
Today marks the 4-year anniversary of the beginning of Shanghai Lockdown. It took me these 4 years (plus therapy) to feel ready and able to confront my own writing from lockdown again.
Here’s a post from early April, 2022.
The hardest parts about isolation? Not being able to explain to my friend’s dog Mocha (covid foster, my friend is in quarantine) that it’s ok to go to poop indoors.
I did a Turning Red Zoom viewing party last night with a group of friends, and a lunchtime (what is time? what is lunch?) Zoom workout. I can’t help but notice the contrast between the people online lamenting the food shortage (there isn’t one* but the stores were definitely overwhelmed and understaffed because many workers were under lockdown), the chaotic quarantine measures, and the virtual face-to-face conversations of cooking, eating, exercising.
*2026 Vickie edit: yet.
It seems like whenever people get together these days, in person or in Zoom, we talk about how the world has gone crazy... But the world that we’re discussing seem to mostly exist online?
I’m not denying the realities of hardship. But like in 2020, I am again wondering how many of us share and consume moving, charming, joyous sentiments online as opposed to angry ranting opinions.
There’s privilege there, for sure. And luck. I happen to rent in a wealthier district in Shanghai, where the recent pandemic measures have surfaced some seriously classist attitudes and resource disparities. Some neighborhoods have plenty of staff and resources, others are massive or old residential compounds with too many residents and not enough volunteers. The medical system in Shanghai is overwhelmed with asymptomatic Omicron-positive people who are “taking up beds while scrolling on their phones” as one often cited online comment said, while unable to provide treatment for those in need.
Last night, folks starting reposting a “promise,” which states that they will not stigmatize or ostracize neighbors who test positive, and will support at-home quarantine. This might seem odd to folks outside of China, but understand that until a couple of weeks ago, we had resided in a massive covid bubble. While most people have recovered from and lost loved ones to covid, we were sheltered. The city went from a handful of imported cases to thousands in the matter of weeks.
Now it seems like the public sentiment is shifting. Hopefully we’ll see policies shifting along with that, too.
Dear Reader, I was wrong. Shanghai doubled-down on the harsh lockdown measures and set up makeshift quarantine camps in unoccupied offices, gymnasiums, and exhibition centers. What was supposed to be a 4-day lockdown turned into a 60-day of man-made crisis.
I’ve decided to revisit the COVID Cat Lady posts and compile them into an e-book. To me, there’s value in telling the story of how I chose to comply in advance, compromised for financial reasons, rationalized and built up tolerance for life under an authoritarian regime.
I don’t know why anyone else would want to revisit COVID, but the cat photos are cute. And as I work on my memoir, this helps me unpack how 9 years of self-imposed censorship and identity erasure affected me.
I spoke about Shanghai Lockdown with a long-running English-language podcast, Talking Taiwan, and the episode was just released yesterday.
I’ll keep y’all updated on this little e-book!
This will be a regular section where I recommend books, comedy specials, and Taiwan stuff I love. Got recommendations for me? Drop them in the comments!
Onto the fun stuff! Since this issue is all about Shanghai, I’d be remiss if I don’t tell you about one of my favorite comedians from Shanghai, Jamie Wang.
You might have heard us being interviewed together on NPR, aptly titled A Chinese and a Taiwanese comedian walk into a bar... She recently relocated to New York City (yay!) and became a regular on Wang’s World Comedy. You can check out some of her clips on Instagram, or better yet, come to a show!
Next Wang’s World Comedy will be at Comedy Village (near Times Square) 8:00pm Thursday, April 9.
Another comedian I’d like to share with you had been living in my earbuds long before I moved to New York City. Jackie Kashian is one of those rare comedic creatures—a woman who’s been doing comedy for decades. She has a podcast with fellow comedic veteran and Conan writer Laurie Kilmartin called the Jackie and Laurie Show where they talk shop and recommend an awesome female comic because clubs around the country keep saying they don’t book women because… Supposedly… Women… Aren’t… Funny? Hilarious.
Anyway, watch her special. You won’t regret it.
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.