Waiting for | Wang Kanyu in the quiet spring

I was supposed to leave shanghai pudong airport in early April and go to Norway to continue my PhD program.

In early March, I contacted interviewees in Shanghai to arrange the last of the interviews on my field trip back to China. At that time, there were already sporadic cases in Shanghai, and one interviewee could not return to Shanghai due to the epidemic in Shanghai, but fortunately the remaining few people in Shanghai could still travel. Who knows, as time goes by, more and more communities and other places are sealed and controlled, and fewer and fewer people can go out. On March 23, my subject and I drove out for the last time and delivered a shipment of supplies to the interviewees who were suddenly blocked, as well as several other colleagues and friends. Scheduled interview shoots had to be cancelled temporarily.

A few days before learning that Shanghai was about to be ruled by the river and sealed and controlled, the elders in my family and I were still planning to go to the cemetery in Qingming. We meet early on the day when the cemetery is open for appointment, and we will meet for a period of time so that we can enter at the same time. Who expected, the day before the comprehensive closure of Pudong and Puxi began, there were new positive cases in the communities where my parents were located, and they were sealed in different communities in Pudong and Puxi for at least 14 days of closed management. This meant that they had no way to visit the grave or see me before my original departure date.

The day before the puxi sealing began, I hurried out and purchased some supplies, and then went into the secret shop of the next neighborhood to purchase some incense candles. After determining that April 5 would not be open as planned, we were extremely glad we made this decision. On the day of the Qingming Dynasty, we set up a simple altar on the balcony, filled the incense burner with expired black rice and milk powder, placed the most precious strawberries, cantaloupes, candies, cans and instant noodles at the moment, and painted cigarettes, wine, crabs and green dough to send thoughts to the deceased relatives. I have never believed in this, and I have never had to worry about worship at home, but in this special case, this four-dimensional offering has become the only sustenance.

There is no community, there are no buses and compliant operating vehicles in the city, naturally there is no way to go to the airport, and even flights have been cancelled repeatedly, so I have stayed.

Our community has always been in full shade, and everyone initially believed that it would be unsealed at 3 a.m. on April 5, as the announcement said, so there was not much to hoard. In four days, our community only distributed supplies once, including a pack of fish, a bag of sauce duck, a pack of noodles, a pack of mushrooms, a few potatoes, and a few carrots. Not to mention how difficult it is for major platforms to grab food online, many elderly people in the community cannot operate their mobile phones skillfully at all, and everyone is in urgent need of supplies.

On April 6, a girl who grew up in the community rang the doorbell door to door, pulled up a group buying group, and got 50 pieces of 30 boxes of eggs and 25 yuan and 4 apples, all in stock. She contacted everyone for half a day, and then bought vegetables and meat from reliable channels, and in a few days she could deliver them. Another Taiwanese teacher who loves the community has efficiently organized bread and milk group purchases, solving the urgent needs of many residents with children at home. There is also a young lady who usually does procurement to give every group of steamed buns and pre-made dishes from the Apricot Blossom Building, which helps some diabetics solve the problem of staple foods. Everyone was eagerly discussing in the WeChat group, bartering, exchanging necessary materials that were difficult to obtain for a while, and even giving and helping each other free of charge. Some young people usually rely on takeaways and never cook at home, and everyone is eager to share recipes and cooking guides in the group. Some elderly people can't get information in time without adding WeChat groups, and young people in the same building knock on their doors to ask if they need help. Then, everyone thought of the foreign friends living in the community, and they did not expect that Chinese very good foreign friends had long been lurking in the group buying group in the community. Another volunteer heard from the neighborhood committee that there was a family of about a dozen young men living in the community, probably all takeaway brothers, after these days of sealing and control, they had run out of food, and the neighbors rushed to send food. A few days later, the government's second batch of supplies arrived, in addition to potatoes and carrots, more steaks and pasta, group purchases of supplies have also arrived, although the premium is a little high, the choice is also very limited, but finally do not have to starve.

On the other side, the shoemaker uncle who has been stationed at the entrance of the community for many years has also become a volunteer in the community, busy every day for the residents, handing over the residents' medical insurance cards that need to be dispensed to the neighborhood committee, issuing antigen self-test boxes, notifying nucleic acid tests, and even helping residents who accidentally shut themselves out of the door to get spare keys from their families in the neighboring community. Seeing that he was just wearing an ordinary medical surgical mask, the residents donated the N95 from home to him, asking him to be careful and protect him. There are also many residents who raise funds to buy disinfection supplies and donate them to the community property and security to ensure that every batch of materials entering the community can be completely eliminated and the virus spread through logistics channels can be killed.

In just a few days, the group purchase and material distribution of the community evolved into a more efficient way, and my object also became the building manager who served everyone, responsible for assisting in the distribution of materials and forwarding various notifications, and working with others in the community to develop a delivery site for an e-commerce platform. Our neighborhood committee is in charge of several communities at the same time, because our community is very small, many of the previous information has not been synchronized, with the WeChat group, we no longer know anything about various situations. The regimental leaders and volunteers also ensured the orderly acquisition and distribution of supplies. On April 16, the third batch of supplies distributed by the government also arrived, this time in a luxurious carton, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, cabbage, celery, onion, steak, eggs, paper towels, donations from other places taking into account all aspects of everyone's life. The anxiety we feel about the uncertainty of the precarious situation has also been alleviated.

Although the short-term freedom that was hard to obtain was changed from a guard area to a control area (after communicating with the neighborhood committee and the street, it was adjusted to a control area) because of a resident who had returned from the square cabin, and the residents did not blame the recovered person who returned, but reminded each other to protect their privacy, not to leak the house number, and asked whether they needed various materials when they just returned home. Anyway, out of the community can not buy anything on the street, everyone continues to cooperate without leaving the house, quietly waiting for the day to unseal.

The plane tree outside the window has changed from bud to new leaf, and I am still in Shanghai, waiting for uncertain flights and uncertain freedom. But the initial anxiety of leaving has turned into a determination to move forward and backward with the city.

Author: Wang Kanyu

Editor: Qian Yutong