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December 19, 2022

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A bittersweet, proud moment as city moves on

By Andy Boreham | 00:31 UTC+8 December 19, 2022 | Print Edition

IT was a bittersweet moment being awarded a Magnolia Award this afternoon: only around half of the recipients could make it because of the epidemic situation as Shanghai, and indeed the rest of China, has greatly relaxed its strict COVID-control policy.

Today was the ceremony for the Magnolia Silver Award, given to foreigners in Shanghai in recognition of their “eminent contributions to Shanghai’s development and international cooperation.” For many of us present, that has included work over the past three years as Shanghai and China fought COVID-19.

Nearly three years ago, when COVID first hit Shanghai and as many foreigners fled the country or stayed safe at home, I was out and about doing daily vlogs in order to keep expats in the city up to date on the latest novel coronavirus news. How many have picked up the virus? What are the symptoms? How to stay safe?

I did about 40 daily video updates on local streets, without taking a break, in the hope of providing some sort of comfort, especially for those who can’t understand Mandarin Chinese.

As Shanghai and China gained control of that first wave, life was open and safe. Probably for about two years, life in Shanghai was the envy of the rest of the world.

Fast forward to today, and there I was receiving an award from the Shanghai government as China has just lifted its COVID controls. Just weeks ago, people testing positive for COVID-19 were required to enter central quarantine facilities. Whole buildings and communities were frequently shut down for days on end as the virus, now much more transmissible than two years ago, made its presence known.

Now, as all those restrictions have been removed, COVID is spreading through Shanghai faster than ever before. One of my colleagues who was meant to be coming along to the ceremony, informed me the night before that he couldn’t make it. In taking the PCR test required to attain the 24-hour negative result to get in to the venue, he joined thousands of other Shanghainese this week who have tested positive.

And that was the case, too, for many of my fellow recipients of the award who didn’t make it to the ceremony.

But that doesn’t take away from their achievements, and the achievements of everyone in the city over the past three years as Shanghai, China and the world were thrown into a once-in-a-century global pandemic. Zhang Xiaosong, director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Shanghai government, thanked the recipients for going through a tough time in the city’s history, and managing to keep up Shanghai’s momentum.

It was a proud moment for me. It wasn’t easy, but we did it. All 25 million of us.

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