For various reasons, we are staying in Shanghai during this Chinese New Year. With the outburst of the coronavirus in Wuhan, it now seems to be a wise choice. In less than a week, the number of people affected climbed to over 800, with more than 20 patients confirmed in Shanghai. Many of our friends had to cancel or postpone their travel plans, and rumors are flying everywhere on WeChat. When checking with the pharmacy downstairs on Tuesday, I was told that all facemasks had been sold out overnight. Having no other alternatives, I had to buy those masks online for twice the regular price.
I guess I am just less prepared compared to others-I would never think of wearing a facemask back in the U.S., while here, they are considered sort of daily necessities. People would stock them at home, or rush to make purchases as soon as the smog appears, which can happen on any normal day.
As we all know, Chinese New Year is when every family reunites, whether in a small village, or a distant town. Most people are determined to go back to where they grow up, after a year of hard work in another city. Such reunions trigger the largest annual human migration on earth; it’s what we call in Chinese “Chunyun” (spring transportation). This year, the expected passenger volume during Chunyun is estimated at 440 million. With this amount of travelers, I do not see how it is possible that the new disease would not be spread further.
So it is better just to stay here. We do not have families in Shanghai, only some of my college friends who are all going back to their hometowns, or first-time foreigners who do not know much about this grand festival in China. Shanghai, like Beijing, is a gigantic metropolis filled with expatriate workers; as the holiday approaches, the majority of the population will be gone for a week, and we are eventually going to live in a quiet town, half-empty, a description so unfit for this city.
Life may get a bit difficult during this time of the year because all businesses will halt- the laborious Chinese people are finally granted a long rest. Right now, most logistic services have stopped; the few carriers that are still running are generally more expensive- you could sense the anger of the delivery guys who are still working by the sound of them banging on the door. Besides, you’d have to pay extra in order to get food delivered, and no “ayi” is available to help with cleaning the apartment. It is getting harder to call cabs on mobile apps, although once on the road, there is much less traffic. One may face such situations every Sunday in Europe, but in China, you’d only see it once a year, for seven days. With all this, plus the increasing concerns of a potential nationwide epidemic, I decide to stock up the refrigerator and prepare for the worst to come. When going to the supermarket for food supplies, the store was packed with long waits in the checkout lines. I wonder if it is because many people think likewise, or they are simply preparing for the annual party at home.
When we were still young kids, Chinese New Year meant big gatherings at my grandma’s home in Tianjin. An hour train ride from Beijing, Tianjin was the favorite city in my childhood. Mother would prepare for days before our departure, trying to take on as many things as possible to bring back to grandma and my aunts, so we always ended up carrying an excessive amount of luggage on the train. When we arrived, grandma and my aunts would be busy cooking in the kitchen on New Year’s Eve, preparing a feast for almost twenty people. The house grandma lived was small, but somehow we always managed to stay in, run around with my cousins, and finally have everyone seated at the table. The dinner would last until past midnight, with people drinking, talking and watching the Spring Festival Gala on TV at the same time.
Those days have long gone. Most of the families moved abroad, and grandma passed away a few years ago. The only New Year activity we’d do as a family nowadays, is sending out “red packets” in a WeChat group, which would probably be the same for this year, despite the fact that I am now back to China. I somehow realized that what changed all was not the distance, but the time passed.
But after all, this is only the first Chinese New Year that I am experiencing in China in ten years, under “abnormal” circumstances. Maybe next year things will be different, and I will be different too.