Clashes, comments prompt return home
Some Chinese studying and working overseas are moving back for greater security. Yang Zekun reports.
After chatting with her parents in China about the novel coronavirus, Lin Yating feels like she is living in a crack between two worlds. The Chinese national, who lives in Melbourne, Australia, is experiencing culture shock related to the antipandemic measures.
While her parents are pestering her to stock up on face masks and wear them whenever she goes outside, she is concerned that her local friends may look unkindly on her for taking urgently needed protective equipment from medical professionals.
Some Chinese who work or study overseas have experienced cultural shocks and even unfriendly treatment as the pandemic continues to wreak havoc and force lockdowns in many countries in efforts to contain the spread of the virus.
She (Tong’s roommate) thought I was overreacting by wearing a mask and gloves and disinfecting everything, even though the situation was serious.” Tong Xumin,
Masks
Lin and her boyfriend are information technology consultants. They have been working from home since the middle of March, only leaving their apartment once a week to buy necessities.
However, the 26-year-old has noticed that her Australian neighbors rarely wear face masks when they go out.
That is at odds with her parents’ description of events in China, where almost everyone wears a mask, and no one can leave or enter a community without wearing one or having their temperature taken.
“Some locals think masks do not protect healthy people from the virus because the authorities have stated they should only be worn by those who are sick — to prevent others from getting infected — and medical and care workers,” Lin said.
She also found it difficult to buy masks after bushfires wreaked havoc in Australia.
She planned to buy them from a company in China, but the order was canceled after tariffs were increased and the number of international flights fell as a result of the pandemic.
“I don’t even know when the fires were extinguished and the coronavirus attracted everyone’s attention, but the masks were sold out before we knew the virus was coming. Actually, when people don’t have masks, they are more likely to believe that they are useless,” Lin said.
“We guessed that local governments didn’t urge people to wear masks at the beginning because they were worried that supply shortages would provoke panic. We Chinese have a strong awareness of wearing masks in daily life, such as against smog.”
Tong Xumin, a designer for a Chinese company in London, United Kingdom, used one of her video logs to try to understand why her nonChinese friends didn’t wear masks.
She discovered that some thought face masks offered no protection, while others were aware that the virus can enter the body via contact, so they thought they only had to wash their hands frequently to avoid infection. Others simply didn’t have masks to wear.
Tong and her roommate, a United States national, experienced a number of conflicts after Tong returned from China on Feb 25, despite having shared an apartment for about 18 months and generally enjoying a good relationship.
Tong spent a two-week self-quarantine period at home. However, her roommate, an architect with a multinational company, was unhappy because her boss had ordered her to work from home for two weeks as a result of Tong’s return.
“She didn’t understand why she and I had to be quarantined. Also, she thought I was overreacting by wearing a mask and gloves and disinfecting everything, even though the situation was serious,” Tong said.
“I could understand her feelings at the time because she had no idea about the virus. Now, the pandemic has progressed and she understands my actions.”
On March 23, the UK government announced a lockdown, albeit far less strict than the one imposed in Wuhan, capital city of Hubei province, one of the places hardest hit by the virus in China. Even so, Tong found many people were still venturing onto the streets.
“Such behavior is difficult to understand coming from China, where people would ask why you can’t just exercise at home if your life is in danger,” she said.
Tong added that she believes everyone has the right to use any preventive measures they feel are necessary as long as they do not interfere with other people.
Return
Zou Shuyue, a journalism student in London, said unfriendly behavior by some locals toward people wearing masks was one of the factors prompting Chinese students to return home.
“I was walking on the street and a stranger came close to me and yelled ‘coronavirus’ along with some dirty words, which shocked me a lot,” the 20-year-old said.
He had paid attention to the development of the virus since January, but the situation in the UK really began to deteriorate in March.
He said his Chinese friends were very concerned, but many locals in the UK didn’t take the situation seriously.
“We were very afraid because we knew how hard things had been in China since late January, both from news reports and conversations with friends. I believe people who know how dangerous the virus is are not satisfied with the control and prevention measures announced by the UK government,” he said.
In February, like many of his friends, Zou stocked up on daily necessities, masks and disinfectant, and also asked relatives in China to send masks through the post.
When he spoke with students who planned to return home, the comment he heard most was that they “felt much safer in China than in the UK”.
“Local prevention and control measures disappointed a lot of people, resulting in them facing the virus in a panic. Also, I thought the UK’s public health system was illequipped to cope with widespread infection, although the ExCel Center in London was being transformed into a Nightingale Hospital,” he said.
The hospital, a 4,000-bed makeshift facility, started admitting patients on April 7, but it is expected to close on Friday after being deemed surplus to requirements.
Zou started planning to return to China on March 14 as he waited for his school to suspend activities, and he finally arrived in Shanghai on March 21.
The journey took about 65 hours, including 22 hours waiting to transfer at Hong Kong International Airport.
Zou wore protective gear all the way and only ate and drank a few times because he was concerned about exposure in open places.
To his disappointment, he found some netizens on social media platforms were hostile to students returning from overseas.
“It is everyone’s personal choice to study abroad. Our decision to return to China at this hard time does not mean we should be condemned or suffer unfair treatment like this,” he said.
“Some of the words are so mean and hurtful, showing no sympathy for those who have shouldered huge physical and mental pressure during dozens of hours of travel just to get home.”
Changing attitudes
Zhou Andi, who is studying for a Master of Business Administration in Bonn, Germany, has been paying attention to the pandemic in the country since early February, when several cases were confirmed in Munich.
About two weeks later, the 26-year-old bought 140 masks at a pharmacy and sent them to her father in China, who needed to return to work but could not find enough facial coverings.
In March, she saw a large group of people rush to the supermarket to buy as many items as possible, which caused shortages.
“I think people rushed to buy things out of an instinct to protect themselves, and items like toilet paper and flour can be stored for a long time,” she said.
There were many jokes about panic-buying, and some bakeries even made cakes in the shape of toilet rolls as a satirical comment on the shortages.
“At the beginning, many people, including my (German) boyfriend, were indifferent to the virus because influenza kills more people every year in Germany than the total number of deaths (so far) caused by the virus. Also, most of the victims are quite elderly or people who are already ill,” Zhou said.
However, she saw her boyfriend’s attitude change in early April, when a friend of his mother became infected. The 50-year-old had difficulty breathing, but the hospital said she had mild symptoms so she was not admitted and just had to stay home and rest.
The woman was tearful every day, believing the hospital was ignoring her plight and that she would die.
As a result, Zhou’s boyfriend and his parents began to worry about the virus and started wearing gloves and masks when they went out.
“I think people like my boyfriend’s family don’t feel fear until death strikes, and their minds can only be changed when a terrible case happens to someone close to them. Then, they start taking active protective measures,” Zhou said.
Impact on life and work
Lin, in Melbourne, hasn’t been too badly affected by working from home, except that she cannot communicate with her colleagues promptly in person and is unsure of her role because she only joined the current work project recently.
“Friends in other consultancies are not as lucky as me. Their companies are planning to fire some employees, and many of my friends are only working four days a week with a reduced salary,” she said.
She has seen many people lining up to collect unemployment benefit because the economy has been affected by the outbreak.
Although the pandemic has not affected Feng Tianji’s work too much, the 26-year old lawyer in Sydney, Australia, has seen friends at other companies having their pay cut and being encouraged to take leave, unpaid or paid, because there is not enough work.
“The impact on each industry is different, and mine may not be representative. I do know that banking and property business volumes have fallen significantly,” Feng said.
She noted that the pandemic has changed everyone’s way of socializing, and said she has almost become accustomed to sharing her daily life with friends via video chats and social media.
Many of her friends and colleagues enjoy working from home. However, those with young children don’t like it because they need to take care of the youngsters all day, which makes them tired and inefficient.
“I think the outbreak will raise awareness — the country may suffer a recession and people may lose their jobs, but people have families to support and bills to pay,” Feng said.
The pandemic may also change some people’s work plans, and even the direction of their lives.
Some of Feng’s Chinese friends have yet to get their Australian “green card”, or permanent resident’s permit, so if they lost their job and could not quickly find a new one, they would have to abandon their plans and might even have to leave Australia.
“Some of them have spent years and millions of yuan in the country, with their future well-planned. If they lost their jobs, everything would have been in vain because it is so difficult to find a new one now,” she said.
Feng and her friends have joined several WeChat groups, including those for sharing pandemic information and even food deliveries, which makes life more convenient.
Now, she is desperately hoping that the situation will return to normal as quickly as possible.