Silent Protest
Our compound has officially been designated as unsealed. But surprise surprise… it’s not. This is the 35th day that Denny and I have spent behind our gate, and no-one can adequately explain why these unsealing ‘rules’ don’t apply to us. Somebody somewhere has decided that it’s just easiest to keep us behind a padlock.
We’re still totally fine. It’s not that we’re getting used to it; we’re just trying to let the nonsense wash over us. The good news is that we’re no longer constantly worrying about food supplies. Government rations and collective purchases arrive in bulk at random intervals, triggering impromptu rounds of Vegetable Tetris and Egg Jenga. Most of our neighbours are Chinese, so these deliveries skew towards the dumpling and the wonton. There’s sadly no chance of organising group purchases of Haribo and Valium.
We’ve both been receiving little burns and cuts to our hands, evidence not only of how much time we’re spending preparing food, but also of our general cognitive decline. In the shower this morning, I forgot whether I had already shampooed or not. So maybe I did it twice today, I honestly don’t know.
I can’t speak for the whole city, each compound has it’s own set of circumstances, and all I can do is describe our own. One unifying factor is that we’ve all been asked to share photos of our negative test results in community WeChat groups, so at least these have become a creative outlet for silent protest. Apart from that, there’s nothing any of us can do but continue playing our parts in this theatre of the absurd.
For the Instagram version, see here.
For the Facebook version, see here.
For the LinkedIn version, see here.
Digital Scavenging
So far Denny and I have been locked into our compound - in 2 stints - for a total of 24 days. In all this time there has never once been a positive case of COVID-19 in our lane, and it’s becoming clear that this fact doesn’t have any bearing on our ongoing collective imprisonment. We’re getting a little taste of what it means to be under extra-judicial house arrest. Shanghai has temporarily become a city of ten thousand modern gleaming mini Warsaw ghettos.
Before you worry, Denny and I are still doing fine. I’m checking in with friends and acquaintances across the city, and they’re also all doing fine, to varying degrees. None of us will starve. But on a daily basis we are all being forced to reflect on our primal needs for food, freedom, shelter and sanitation. In Chinese, one of the most common ways of greeting someone is ”吃饭了吗?” meaning “Have you eaten?” It’s only now that I’m realising the history of deprivation that must lie behind that phrase. Today, the first thing we say to each other over calls and texts is: “Do you have enough food”?
If you ask anyone in Shanghai what they’re doing, the answer will most likely revolve around food. Digital scavenging for online provisions before they sell out; keeping up with hundreds of text messages to bid for collective purchases; doing inventories of fridges and rearranging the contents in order of what’s rotting first; rationing ingredients; planning meals; preparing meals; cooking meals; washing up after meals: it’s an endless obsessive cycle. And a short sharp kick in the backside to a city that had become reliant on an over-abundance of restaurants and delivery services. Fancy diets are out the window at this point. We’re counting our carrots, preserving our potatoes, and oil is liquid gold.
This level of food scarcity may well be familiar to many who experienced some kind of lockdown over the last two years. But it’s freedom that’s in just as short supply in Shanghai. I don’t want to go into all of that right now. But let it be another wake-up call to those who complained about being encouraged to take vaccines, or politely asked to wear masks in grocery stores. Please have some perspective, your human rights will be just fine.
We’re still keeping healthy and happy, and in the last couple of days we’ve managed to get our hands on some butter, frozen steaks, and wine. This already makes us feel like some of the luckiest people in the city. So I’m not trying to elicit sympathy with this post, I just want to keep everyone up to date. Many many thanks to everyone who has been in touch, it really means a lot. I don’t plan on writing other updates after this, so you can assume that this will be the status quo until further notice. That’s going to be our assumption too.
For the Instagram version, see here.
For the Facebook version, see here.
For the LinkedIn version, see here.
A Small Taste of Freedom?
Some positive news. 😊
Firstly, we managed to secure some supplies of food through a combined purchase with 2 other neighbouring compounds. 🍚🍎🍊🥛
Secondly, we left the compound for 10 minutes for a streetside COVID test, our first small taste of freedom in 5 days. ☀️🆓☀️
And finally, I suddenly remembered that we had some spare wheat beer that was gifted to us by Peter Fuchs just before we went on a wheat-free diet. So we decided to donate it to our compound, and brought a few smiles to the community. 😍🍻
For the Instagram version, see here.
For the Facebook version, see here.
Guys, You Can’t Control Omicron
Here’s a quick roundup of our personal situation in Shanghai right now.
We initially had a 9-day lockdown, after which we had 6 days of freedom. Now we’re on day 7 of our second lockdown, which has been even harsher than the first. But there are some people who have been locked in for the entire 3 week period. And others have tested positive for COVID-19 and have been carted off to central quarantine, separated from children and pets. So the situation for us isn’t as bad as others in Shanghai.
The food supply chain has practically ground to a halt, and grocery deliveries are almost impossible. Some of the larger residential compounds have been able to organise bulk orders from a few suppliers. But smaller compounds like ours have no buying power. For the first time, all the people in our compound have formed a group on WeChat, and it’s a full-time job to keep up with our collective attempts to bulk-purchase essentials such as eggs, milk, bread and apples. We have somehow managed to form an alliance with a couple of the other neighbouring lanes, so here’s hoping we can successfully manage something soon. In the meantime none of us are allowed to leave our individual apartments, and the gate to our compound remains locked from the outside. For the last few days, the only delivery we have personally received has been a care package of 10 eggs, some cured pork, and some weird powdered medicine.
We still have
- Netflix
- Booze
- Negative COVID test results
- Enough food for the next few days
We’re running low on
- Everything else
Despite all this, we’re doing OK. The sun is shining, the air is clean, and we’re keeping ourselves active and happy. It is what it is. In Shanghai we’ve had it easier than most others around the globe until now, so now it’s our turn. And all this is nothing compared to some parts of the world, where people are sheltering in basements rather than cosy apartments, with even less access to food and water, listening to their homes and schools and hospitals being bombed. 💙🙏🇺🇦💛
You’ll notice that at this point I’m not at all worried about COVID-19 itself. We’re triple vaccinated, and the omicron variant is both low-risk and near impossible to control. Let’s hope that the authorities here can come to the same conclusion soon. In their noble efforts to take care of the people of Shanghai, they’re demonstrating the true meaning of the phrase “killing us with kindness”. 😞
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For the Facebook version, see here.
For the LinkedIn version, see here.
2022 Reads Like '2020 Too'
As you have probably read, China is experiencing its worst COVID-19 outbreak since early 2020, and around 40 million people across the country are currently on some kind of lockdown.
As I was attempting to leave our compound to get a cup of coffee this morning, I realised that this number now includes Denny and me.
The good news is that for now it’s just for 48 hours, we’re still allowed food deliveries, and the mandatory testing station is conveniently located at the school next door. The policeman guarding our gate was happy to take this photo.
We’re not the only ones in this situation, many of our friends in Shanghai also woke up to the same thing. Which is why for us, 2022 reads like “2020 too”.
For the Instagram version, see here.
For the Facebook version, see here.
Geopolitical Quagmire
We’ve traveled to the North East of China, to the ski resort of Beidahu. Planned weeks ago, it now comes as a welcome distraction from doom-scrolling through news apps.
I have Russian friends and I have Ukrainian friends, and none of them support this war. I have Swiss friends, and I have Turkish friends, and none of them predicted this fleeting moment of unity. I have American friends and Chinese friends, and we can all agree on the need to create the conditions that will force a diplomatic off-ramp.
I’m the son of refugees from the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. It took over 20 years to even begin untangling that mess. And right now I’m on a ski trip not far from North Korea, another decades-long geopolitical quagmire.
I’m just hoping that we’re not witnessing the birth of yet another one. 🇷🇺🌏🇺🇦
For the Instagram version, see here.
For the Facebook version, see here.
Retail Therapy
I’m feeling crap about the state of the world right now. So the only antidote I know to momentarily ease this existential angst is to post photos of the latest trend in China retail: brand names that sound like someone clearing their throat. 😷
For the Instagram version, see here.
For the Facebook version, see here.
The Christmas Entourage
We welcomed Christmas Cheer, but she then invited her friend Christmas Gluttony, who in turn brought along her cousins Christmas Shame and Regret. Those cousins didn’t think much of our home-made egg nog.
Now we need to meet up with Christmas Gym and Christmas Diet, those needy and pathetic acquaintances that we can never seem to shake off. 😤
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Milestone Anniversary
5 years married. 💍💙
We celebrated the day by picking pu’er tea in the hills of Xishuangbanna, the area where China borders Myanmar and Laos. More photos/videos to come..!
For the Facebook version, see here.
The Slumps Behind The Smiles
I’m not going to lie, I’ve been in a massive slump these last few weeks. Lethargy; brain-fog; inattentiveness: the works. 🌧😵💫
I wouldn’t say I’m out of the slump yet. But I’m grateful that the last few days coincided with Thanksgiving, an early Christmas dinner, and the first night of Chanukah. These three evenings allowed us to share the company of some lovely humans, and made me feel a little more reconnected. ❤️🦃🎅🕎
I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling this way. So rather than just share a bunch of happy photos, I wanted to be honest about my emotional state behind them. As we approach the end of the year, let me remind you to please take care of yourself, and - if you have the capacity - those around you. 👫👬👫
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Interview with the China-Britain Business Council
These days I have a love/hate relationship with the label ‘entrepreneur’. But the life of an independent content creator and an entrepreneur is very similar. You can be fueled with pride for your mission one day, and paralysed with doubt and self-loathing the next. But with the help of positive people around you, you do have the chance to live comfortably with this creative tension, and preserve your equilibrium.
For the LinkedIn version, see here.
For the China-Britain Business Council Website version, see here.
Noodle Art
I haven’t posted anything for the last couple of weeks because I’ve been busy making this self-portrait out of noodles.
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*No, I’ve had a stinking cold and have been sneezing and coughing all week. I used a photo filter app called Prisma to create this image in 10 seconds.
For the Instagram version, see here.
For the Facebook version, see here.
100,000 Downloads
A big thank you to everyone who helped Mosaic of China achieve its 100,000th download at the beginning of this month.
It's still a modest project, but I'm grateful for every single person who has taken the time to engage with these stories.
For the Instagram version, see here.
For the Facebook version, see here.
For the LinkedIn version, see here.
