The People of China Continue to Persevere

On March 17, early in the morning, so early that the sky still is painted black from a lingering night, forty-three medical workers load buses to return to their homes in the Shaanxi Province. It marks the end of their journey in Wuhan, a journey marked by unmeasurable heroics and profound bravery as doctors and nurses helped combat the deadly spread of COVID-19 in the birthplace of the virus. While far from over, the crisis in Wuhan has abated to an extent that some of those who came from distances long and far to help Wuhan no longer have to give their assistance. While the bus pulls out of the hospital driveaway, some of the medical workers begin to sing as tears belonging to an indescribable emotion cascade down their face. They have spent months here, called upon to a city ransacked by tragedy as they persevered through a seemingly unmountable situation to treat the vulnerable, often at the expense of their own health. It would’ve been an incredibly demanding, stressful and personal experience for these men and women. As the buses speed along on empty highways, the dark sky begins to give away to light. 

 

Of course, news stories can only do so little to paint a picture of what actually living in China currently entails. This is where Christian Molitor comes in, an ESL teacher in Zhongshan, China who has witnessed the evolution of the coronavirus in China first hand. ¨Currently, there have been 2 or 3 days now with no new domestic infections,¨ Molitor explains. ¨What that means is no new infections that were contracted here in China. Our city of 3 million has been ´new case´ free for 3-4 weeks.¨ This is a massive distinction from only weeks earlier, where there were hundreds of cases being observed each day. The progress to get to this desirable stage of the pandemic, however, were aggressive, strictly enforced and yet remarkably effective. Molitor reflects on the fervent mood of the country by saying ¨Up to this point, we´ve had temperature checks coming/going from our condo complex, going into most stores, and, in the first month, temperature checkpoints on the street.¨ In addition to using an app to keep track of the far-reaching spread of coronavirus cases, Chinese officials saw to it that nearly every building and business imaginable was closed. ¨Pretty much everything was shut down for a month, except for market/grocery and convenience stores,¨ Molitor says of the situation in Zhongshan, China. Eventually, albeit at a rationally slow place, things started to open up again. ¨Wireless stores, bakeries, and some daily needs´ kind of stores started opening up about a month and a half in.¨ One area that has been reluctant to reopen its doors, much to the disappointment of educator Molitor, are schools, which Molitor explains ¨…have been shut down since mid. January and may not open for another month.¨

 

With the combination of both business closures and citizen lockdowns, the cities looked resoundingly bleak and desolate. Streets were rendered silent by the lack of usual city-life hustle; restaurants, theatres, museums and so many other places that help add flavour to a usually stressful life all enforced locked doors in the absence of customers. For many in the west, the appeal of an observable decrease in coronavirus cases is not enough to suade them from living in gloom of the aforementioned reality. But it should be. Nobody relishes in a quarantined life, or takes pleasure in the lack of places to go to or people to see. Rest assured that the people of China were not always finding it easy to be compliant with the strict rules put in place, and grappled with the same feelings of boredom and loneliness that has become commonplace in the world. But they did, however hard, or boring, or depriving that it was, they stayed inside and listened to the advice of health officials. The coronavirus has brought on a period of darkness, not just for China, but for the world. If everybody plays their part though, stays inside just a little bit longer, and listens to the advice of experts, then it will not be long until the sun starts to rise again, and sets a beautiful sunrise for the world to see.