HUNGER AND ANGER IN SHANGHAI'S UNENDING LOCKDOWN NIGHTMARE
0Hunger and anger in Shanghai's unending lockdown nightmare
When my 73 year old father raised concern about his shrinking food supply late last week. the catastrophe brought by Shanghai's citywide COVID 19 lockdown suddenly hit home. 'Will be running out in a few days if no government handout soon.' he messaged me Thursday. Then. as if anticipating my inevitable worry. he added: 'Still have some rice and crackers – and plenty of coffee.' It was a startling revelation on the grim reality in China's biggest city and financial hub –from a member of the generation that lived through the Great Famine and the tumultuous Cultural Revolution that killed millions during the first few decades of the People's Republic. founded in 1949 by Communist revolutionary Mao Zedong. Even during the darkest days in Mao's China. my parents – Shanghai born and bred – used to remind me that. unlike many in the countryside. they were fortunate enough not to fear the prospect of starvation. Now. with lockdown measures turning increasingly draconian. a once almost unthinkable topic has struck a chord with residents in the city and beyond. more so than anything else: people going hungry in Shanghai in 2022. By the authorities' own acknowledgment. the food shortage has been a largely man made disaster owing to a lack of planning and coordination. Despite official pledges. government handouts have been unreliable in many parts of the city. including my father's apartment complex in northeastern Shanghai filled with retirees like him. The elderly crowd had mostly failed to secure supplies through online bulk purchases. practically the only way to buy anything in Shanghai at the moment. due to their relatively small demand and lack of tech savviness. I set out to help but never had I thought online grocery shopping would be such an emotional rollercoaster. Armed with a membership for a retail warehouse club – presumably allowing me to face less stiff competition than those using a general online grocer – I quickly realised it was impossible to grab one of the coveted delivery slots. which are assigned at 9pm daily. even with food still available on the virtual shelves. The retailer's app simply crashed each night – and would only come back online a few hours later with a glaring 'no more delivery slots for the day' message. As frustration and anxiety built up. my hope dwindled along with my father's supply. On Day Two of my futile attempts. a friend tipped me off about a 'boutique' online retailer that was still offering a grocery package with next day delivery slots. Elated to find out she was right. I immediately ordered for my father. When I broke the good news in the online family group chat. however. uncles and aunts – all facing their own food shortage to various degrees – jumped in to express their shock that I willingly paid 398 yuan (A$84) for five kilograms of vegetables and 60 eggs. 'Highway robbery!' cried one uncle. while an aunt stressed the price was more than four times what she would normally pay for the same amount of food in the market. I was relieved that my father's fridge was replenished in time but. hearing relative's comments. felt a sense of 'survivor's guilt': What about the countless residents who can't afford price gouged groceries? Literal survival wasn't a concern for most of Shanghai's 25 million residents before April. For the past two years. the city had bolstered its status as the most important international gateway to China – for both people and goods. It had prided itself on its more targeted and lenient approach to COVID 19 containment. despite Beijing's strict zero COVID policy. With Shanghai shunning citywide mass testing and adopting less restrictive quarantine rules. it once looked like a potential role model for the whole country as the rest of the world had largely chosen to live with COVID 19 with an emphasis on vaccination. Then came Omicron. with the highly contagious COVID 19 variant sweeping through the city and infecting...
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