«The situation in China is frighteningly normal»

Series: Families and Corona worldwide - Part 11

Stephan* comes from Bern and works for a European company in the medical technology and consulting sector. His wife Mia* is Chinese and they have lived in Shanghai since 2008. Their two young daughters are 7 and 4 years old.

What is the current situation with the coronavirus in your country?

The situation here in Shanghai is almost frighteningly normal. The only «reminders» of the global pandemic are the international news and the masks on public transport.

When I look at the «rest of the world», it's almost unbelievable how normal the whole second half of 2020 has actually been. We were the first to be confronted with this new situation. At the end of January (2020) - right at the time of the (Chinese) public holidays - suddenly, from one day to the next, nothing was the same as before. I think that the memories of SARS in particular made people incredibly scared. And the images from Wuhan were almost apocalyptic. So it didn't take much convincing to get people to «stay at home». But people are also fundamentally very pragmatic - take a break, sit it out - and then move on.

In Shanghai, however, this extreme exceptional situation was fairly brief thanks to the tough restrictions and the discipline of the people. There was no lockdown per se, but in February people voluntarily stayed at home for three weeks. By April, normality had returned for the most part and step by step. Our girls have been back at school since May. Depending on the province, the children went to school earlier or later. In Shanghai, the requirements from the education authorities are basically standardised for all schools, but it seems to be «interpreted» differently. My older daughter's school requires us to sign a declaration of symptoms, temperature and last entry into Shanghai every day, while my younger daughter's school doesn't ask for anything. Since October, there have been no more restrictions on domestic travel at my older daughter's school, while there have been no restrictions at my younger daughter's school since May.
China has divided the country into low, medium and high risk zones, and travelling to medium and high risk zones has certain restrictions. At the moment, the whole country is in the «low» zone. Shanghai, for example, had a few cases at the beginning of November, was classified as «medium» and travelling to and from Shanghai was also very restricted within China. Travelling abroad is generally possible, but returning to China is simply difficult.

What is the working situation like for you?

My work situation is still quite restricted. As I work for a European company and am responsible for China, the pandemic is still present on a daily basis. On the one hand, I can't travel internationally at the moment, and on the other hand, our employees from abroad can't visit us and therefore can't provide us with much support. A lot of our work is based on face-to-face customer contact and trust - which cannot be maintained nearly as well via online meetings.
All in all, however, we had an amazingly good year and even had significantly more work than last year.

How is childcare organised?

Our two girls' school and kindergarten are all-day schools, starting at 7.30 am and finishing at 5 pm. I usually take the children - the older one on the school bus and the younger one to nursery - before I go to work. My wife does the pick-up in the afternoon. She works in the investment sector.
Corona has almost made childcare a little easier, as we can now both work from home from time to time without much explanation.

How close is Corona? Have you been in isolation or quarantine yourself?

In the beginning, corona was suddenly incredibly close. Today it's almost just a memory. We weren't in isolation or quarantine - except for the one everyone was in. As we hadn't left China this year, the «return» quarantine was never an issue.

Christmas is just around the corner: do you already know how you're going to celebrate?

We will celebrate Christmas at home in Shanghai, with friends and neighbours. Christmas in Switzerland will not be possible this year. Partly because our children are at the international school, the whole of December was almost like in Europe with Father Christmas, Grittibänz and Advent calendars. The little ones are counting down to Christmas every day and are incredibly excited.

How do you experience the situation as a whole: has corona opened new doors for family life or rather caused additional stress?

We had a lot more time together and for each other as a family this year. As our business trips were massively restricted, this factor was eliminated, which we really enjoyed, and working from home extended our time at home. My wife and I were at home every weekend this year - which has never happened to us before.

We also liked the relationships with our neighbourhood. We have been living in the same neighbourhood for eight years now - as usual in big cities, without much contact with the neighbours. This year, people have looked after and supported each other like never before and we have made many friends with people we knew in passing but never really spoke to.
In hindsight, I think the main difference is that people had time together, which led to more closeness, familiarity and friendships. However, 2020 also required a lot more coordination, flexibility and consideration, which was certainly not always easy, but we can take this with us for the future.

What do you want for 2021?

Seeing friends and family again - not just via video call.
* Names known to the editors
This is the last part of our series Families in everyday coronavirus life around the world. You can read all the family portraits published so far here: Families and Corona around the world.

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• «No one can be forced to have the coronavirus vaccination»
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• How much coronavirus can parents put their children through?
  The second wave of coronavirus is here and every day we are confronted with news of new infections and new guidelines. How much should parents expect their children to be exposed to? And how do you react when the virus is really close; affecting friends, relatives or the child itself? Adolescent psychologist Nadine Messerli-Bürgy provides answers.
• Coronavirus dossier
  In this dossier, all articles containing relevant topics for families are collected on an ongoing basis.