The History of China - 上海 Lockdown Update - Day 43/04: You Can Check Out Any Time You Like

Episode Date: May 13, 2022

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You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. The Civil War and Reconstruction was a pivotal era in American history. When a war was fought to save the Union and to free the slaves. And when the work to rebuild the nation after that war was over turned into a struggle to guarantee liberty and justice for all Americans. I'm Tracy. And I'm Rich. And we want to invite you to join us as we take an in-depth look at this pivotal era in American history. Look for The Civil War

and Reconstruction wherever you find your podcasts. Shanghai Lockdown Update, day 43 of 4, you can check out anytime you like. Well, the good news is is that the situation has significantly improved, at least here in the good old district of Shuhui. And, you know, you kinda have to take what you can. No longer are we stuck only to wondering when the next

random box of government-issued vegetables and questionable spam-like meat might be parceled out. Some deliveries are being made. I swear, just today I saw someone carrying an honest-to-God McDonald's bag and pointed it out like I'd just seen Taylor Swift. Still no word if the Burger King has been taken alive, KIA, or is being held for his royal ransom. Updates to follow.

Mostly there's still bulk or group deliveries, but they do seem to have somewhat more regularized, maybe within a day or three to arrive on average. Remember when we thought 30 minutes was real slick? So, yeah, we are able to go outside now as a whole community. I mean, the exits are still fenced and padlocked and walled off, but hey, at least you can get a walk. Really, the toughest part was that my window faces onto the main loop for walkers, and our building, lucky us, was the last to be unsealed

because there was one single positive case somewhere on the 20-somethingth floor. So that was somewhat maddening, listening to all the other people being outside and dribbling basketballs and doing whatever. But anyways, there is a makeshift barber outside of our building now. I heard tell it's one of the guards making a buck on the side, and good for him. I still haven't decided to take the plunge yet and get an amateur cut. I still need to figure out their pricing structure anyways. I'm a bit shaggy, but China only really has about four men's hairstyles, so it'll probably be fine. Although the saucer eyes whenever I walk into a new stylist and they look at my wispy,

illogical European hair does make me hesitate. They keep the playground and the exercise park taped off to prevent gathering, maybe? But to their infinite credit, the Shanghai Granny Squadron has decided to hell with that, damn it, they're going to sit there and chat anyways. And there's not a soul brave enough to tell them otherwise. Walking is definitely nice. There's definitely been some atrophy that's happened. Not that that's altogether negative. There was definitely some atrophy that I could afford. Other parts of the city remain under much stricter lockdown.

Notably, this is done much more by the community committee than any national, city, or even district tier of government. It really is ironic that for all of the external positioning of there just being one China, in the real world it's all totally atomized. It's kind of ridiculously archaic, really. I can't even bank outside the city. It's probably the most accurate thing to think of it as every single homeowners association in the entire city, all governed by the most insufferable Karens you can ever dream of, finally being given the power of all six Infinity Stones to just mess with everyone and out-draconian their neighbors to show that they're doing more about epidemic prevention,

and therefore get a pat on the head. Ultimately, that's exacerbated by the city government telling us the new, new, new plan every two days or so, giving us a nice complicated diagram, and then basically completely tossing it away about 14 hours later with a just-kidding shrug, and promising to re-update us tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow. Or the day re-update us tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow.

Or the day after. Or maybe after that. As situations permit, it's dynamic policy, you see? Lucy promises that next time she definitely will not pull the football. Then, of course, there is the national policy, which continues to amount to, it's all fine, everything is fine, we're all fine here. Who said the word lockdown? Arrest them. That'll never ever happen

in Beijing, not ever. And we Shanghai-ers just start humming that familiar tune, four days, four days, don't panic, it's not a lockdown. Shanghai is currently functioning a bit like a roach motel, or the Hotel California. Delivery people can check in, but checking back out? Not so much. As a result, there are photos, largely from people in areas actually let out of their compounds to, you know, walk the empty, desolated, still utterly closed streets before turning around and heading back in, of what amounts to tent cities. People who've been provided actual pitching tents and, I don't know, maybe some provisions, and just told to make do under the overpasses or wherever. Word came down just today that the Shanghai city government hopes to reopen by mid-May, and we all just

sort of collectively looked at our calendars, looking at Friday the 13th right here and replying, okay, sure, of which year? There are also areas going through what's directly translated as silent periods, which is, I guess, the Disney Plus of lockdowns, in which they just go back and do full lockdown with no deliveries for a few days because shit, why not? They announce them, which kind of defeats the purpose of them being silent periods, but it's all so Kafkaesque already. Why not? But they do at least have the courtesy to deny rumors of there being stealth lockdowns in parts of Beijing, so at least that

stands up to dictionary definition scrutiny. We must maintain some semblance of standards here. Ah, one other bit of good news is that they did finally realize that they were going to have a full-on insurrection on their hands if they did not allow some booze in. So yeah, everyone got to cross that off their non-essential list in a hurry. The boxes that have been coming in are impressive, I've got to say. Prodigious, even. It's kind of nice to see, in a way. Heck, we all really are fish in the same barrel.

It's a good time for really, really long movies. I'm working through Lawrence of Arabia right now, and, you know, it's funny. I'm kind of beginning to think these Brits might not be the good guys. It's still dead silent at night once everyone finally calls it quits on their rounds, although I will say I did have to close my window just a minute ago because somebody decided that they were going to have an 11 o'clock p.m. rant to themselves or probably their phone or something like that.

But yeah, that was unusual. The air sure is clear, though. So what else can we do but find little things to laugh at? Sure beats the alternative. Anyways, we delivered the bomb, chief. Have you ever gazed in wonder at the Great Pyramid? Have you marvelled at the golden face of Tutankhamun? Or admired the delicate features of Queen Nefertiti? If you have, you'll probably like the History of Egypt podcast. Every week, we explore tales of this ancient culture. The History of Egypt is available wherever you get your podcasting fix. Come, let me introduce you to the world of

ancient Egypt.