Beijingnow

2003-05-22T19:15:00.000-07:00

Beijing 2003: Year of the virus
(Asia Times Online Staff) Even though its severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic has not yet passed, the mood in Beijing recently has eased.

On buses just a short while ago each of the very few passengers, without exception, would don a face mask. Upon boarding the vehicle, seats were available wherever one wanted to sit. Air flowed freely through the carriage, which in normal times would be hot and stuffy due to the crowding of passengers.

Now Beijingers are filling the buses once again, and although the windows are all wide open, the carriage is filled with a hot, stuffy aroma of sweat. Furthermore, many people are not wearing face masks. People are heard asking bare-faced passengers: "How can you not wear a face mask?" The response is typically: "There's no problem anymore, right? SARS is already under control."

Indeed, Beijing residents appear to be enjoying worry-free days. Chatter is everywhere once again - but people can't last more than a couple of sentences without mentioning SARS. A typical example of Beijing's relaxed SARS talk was witnessed by Asia Times Online in a barbershop:

Customer A: "Back when SARS was wreaking havoc here my hair was getting shaggy, but I was too frightened to dare going to a barbershop. Now that it's been controlled, I thought I'd come have a look."

Barber: "You can rest assured here at my shop. I disinfect this place several times every day. There's no need to wear a mask in here. I guarantee there's nothing to worry about here."

Customer B: "What's with people? Whether one lives or dies is in the hands of fate. Geez, what are they afraid of? I'm not wearing a mask, but I'm not dead, am I? I've had a couple of neighbors carried away on stretchers [to hospitals], but I was wearing a mask every day at that time."

At a beauty parlor, several friendly and optimistic young women were giving their all to serve and accommodate the few customers in the establishment. After a month of no work because of the spread of SARS in Beijing, they were obviously eagerly anticipating having business again. The girls telephoned old clients one by one to notify them that they were open for business again. However, because most customers were still apprehensive about SARS, those who ventured out to have a look were still quite few. One after another, the young women explained their situation:

"We were constantly asking [the parlor's owner] that we open up for business again."

"We need to eat. We have to support our families. How can we do anything without any income?"

But customers were still concerned, asking questions such as:

"Have proper authorities approved you for reopening?"

"Are you sanitized? Does your disinfection meet standards?" And so on.

Disinfecting bad information
In a traditional hutong, or winding alley of Beijing, Asia Times Online witnessed a conversation between two of the city's elderly denizens:

Old Woman 1: "Just a little while back everybody was being called on to disinfect. Everybody was disinfecting everywhere. Not one place was left untouched. But I searched over half of Beijing for disinfectant and couldn't find any. I saw stories in newspapers telling me to 'disinfect this three times daily', 'disinfect that three times daily' - I was a nervous wreck. I dialed the mayor's hotline, then I dialed the government phone line set up for city residents and I even dialed 315 [Beijing's consumer complaint hotline]. If the line wasn't busy then nobody was answering."

Old Man: "You really called the mayor?"

Old Woman 1: "I did. But the line was constantly busy. There's a lot of people wanting to talk to the mayor, you know. For over 10 days I was unable to disinfect. This really scared me. I was afraid that everyone else was disinfecting and that SARS would flee to my home. Then what would I do? Now the papers say that there are over 100 stores that had disinfectant. I found a pharmacy that was on a list in a newspaper. I went right away and just bought 10 bottles of the stuff!"

Old Woman 2: "Well done, but you need to hurry up and go disinfect! Kill the SARS!

Old Woman 1: "I plan on it, but the papers also said that you shouldn't go crazy with disinfectants - some cause allergic reactions, some can send you into shock, some even have fumes that can make you pass out! How do I know if I'm going to have an allergic reaction? Didn't the TV say that we need to be careful of passing out or getting sick from the fumes of the disinfectants we're using to avoid getting sick? I don't know how to use the stuff!"

In the interest of getting an understanding of all the disinfecting they've been doing, some people are taking their questions to journalists. Here's one exchange witnessed by Asia Times Online between a Beijing reporter and a Beijing resident.

Resident: "Comrade reporter, in your newspapers, television shows and pronouncements, you stressed the urgency for and importance of immediate disinfection with industrial strength disinfectant. In your reports and articles you said to disinfect three times, five times, or even more. Later, people started having allergic reactions, some went into shock and others were rendered unconscious from inhaling fumes. Then you said not to overdo it. What? Is it that from the beginning, you have not been reporting clearly and accurately about such disinfection and the precautions that should be taken when doing it?"

Reporter: "Indeed, it's difficult to avoid a situation in which the public is misinformed somewhat. But the media should serve the function of scientifically and responsibly leading the masses."

Resident: "There're also several situations that we in Beijing don't know anything about, such as the bloody slaughtering of pets and animals in Nanjing, Chengdu, Xi'an and other cities. Engaging in horrible slaughter like this isn't euthanasia. Beijing's abandoned pets have been bearing the negative effects of this lack of knowledge."

Reporter: "We in the media have invited several experts to provide explanations." Reader: "But all these experts do is express their individual opinions. Every expert has a different idea about what to do. Those who advocate killing animals and those who don't advocate killing animals all have their own logic. We common Chinese are accustomed to hearing one authoritative voice coming from the government or from a government-sanctioned expert. I hope you in the media will do some solid work without speculating, sugar-coating or swerving from one opinion to the next. Now you're always correcting previous mistakes - we common folk don't know what to think anymore."

The ever-shifting sands of Chinese journalism
But it can also be difficult for the media to get an authoritative answer from the government, as the aforementioned reporter discovered in a discussion with a friend serving as a party cadre in Beijing's Haidian district.

Reporter: "How is it that there is such a disproportionately high SARS infection rate in the Haidian district?"

Cadre: "You can't just look at bare facts. Our district has the most hospitals, so it is only natural for us to receive the highest number of SARS cases for treatment. Furthermore, people living outside of the city are aware of the high quality of Beijing hospitals, so they are determined to come here for treatment. Now we are already calculating patient statistics according to where the patients live."

Haidian's hospitals said they are compiling SARS cases according to where the patient is from, but the local governments of patients that come to Beijing subscribe to the idea that if someone from their area has SARS but is being treated in Beijing, then they shouldn't have the patient attributed to their constituency in statistics. This lack of a unified statistical methodology does not lend itself to accurate statistics, as it creates a situation where a SARS patient from nearby Hebei province that might go to a hospital in Haidian for treatment is not included in Beijing's statistics, nor those of his or her native province.

A Beijing resident asked the cadre: "Can news be trusted?"

Cadre: "When I listen to outside broadcasts, they are always saying that Beijing media are irresponsible in reporting. [To the reporter] You're a journalist - do you think our media reports are worth believing?"

Reporter: "In all honesty, there were some inaccurate reports in the beginning. Why? Well, SARS just came out of nowhere and caught the media off guard. Many journalists did not recognize the severity of the situation. Not enough reporters thought it important. On top of that, there's bureaucracy and much of the early writing about SARS was not done in earnest, etc, etc. It's always in society and abroad that Chinese media draw censure. But I believe that after the center of the Communist Party, the State Council [China's cabinet], took emergency measures media reports became trustable."

Cadre: "But there is still quite a bit of suspicion harbored toward our news reports in the foreign press, no?"

Reporter: "Being on the receiving end of all kinds of suspicion is not unusual. In the end the facts will speak for themselves. It's quite a joke how foreigners don't understand the situation in China whatsoever. Lying and making false reports about an outbreak can ensure a reporter's job security. It can even lead to a promotion. So outbreak reports and patient statistics are certainly unreliable. You can't say that it wasn't like this before. Now the central government's policy and measures state that dishonesty, misleading reports and embellishment are grounds for firing reporters. Reporters can even receive punishment via the legal system now. Now the believability of reports on the epidemic and patient statistics is quite high."

Cadre: "So nowadays, what is reported [by hospitals] is exactly what we see reported in the media, right?"

Reporter: "There's no need to get into that issue."

Public hygiene, the Olympics, and war with the US
SARS isn't without a silver lining, as a conversation with a Beijing couple illustrates:

Wife: "Maybe something will be done in our country regarding our attitude toward the nasty habit of spitting our mucus wherever we want. In the several decades since the [communist] revolution, China has endured every sort of natural disaster and human calamity imaginable, yet nothing can be done about our spitting problem? This is a deep-seated bad habit among the Chinese people. It seems as if this has never been an issue for our government - nothing has ever been attempted to end it. Seeing as it took China reaching the cusp of a life or death situation before the government decided to adopt measures and forbid spitting in public, at least in this regard SARS can be said to have made a big contribution."

Husband: "Could it have happened any other way? Even having the 2008 Olympics looming on the horizon didn't prompt the government to do anything about this bad habit. [Regarding the Olympics], the media painted a picture of a government of such massive strength and deep pockets which it speculated that over time could get the elderly to learn English for free. This was repeated in television and newspaper reports time and time again. How much real significance did any of it have? Why didn't the government and media work a little more with reality and facts and promote the notion of Chinese people not spitting wherever they would like to spit? I'm truly worried that if Chinese don't change this habit, we will lose face in front of the entire world in 2008."

Wife: "I really hope that these extreme hygiene measures put into place persist through 2008."

Husband: "I'm not terribly confident in it. Just look - how many people can urban administrators control? How many can it punish? Just a few train stations and some malls, but the majority of places are unable to be controlled. As soon as SARS has passed, there won't even be people enforcing public hygiene in those train stations or malls anymore, will there? When I look at Shanghai, I have hope. They have competent measures there. I have little hope for Beijing. The measures here are weak, just like the supervision. If you take a look at the attempts made here at prohibiting spitting, sealing off trash chutes in stairwells and battling those who sell sham products to profit from SARS, the measures all fall short and the punishment isn't stiff enough. During the Korean War when we fought the Americans, China executed anyone selling fake medicine, faulty bandages or low-quality cotton balls. In the 'People's War' against SARS, we can't just talk and do nothing else. We can't just make an initial rallying cry and hope for the best. We need to come back to reality."

Translated by Christopher Horton.

2003-05-18T02:08:00.000-07:00

At ten o’clock this morning about a dozen long chains of firecrackers dangling around a doorway and leading down the drive went off. A frenetic crowd of onlookers descended on the newlyweds when they arrived in the wake of the gunpowder extravaganza and stepped out of a shiny black car. Bottles of foam string were sprayed on thei fancy western wedding garb, then the groom carried his wife through the doorway as the crowd cheered, and several men followed with shiny new red comforters.

Fireworks are not allowed in the cities, but my apartment is far enough from the city center that nobody cares. Funerals and weddings have been ordered postponed under the current crisis, so it’s either the same as fireworks and far enough from the city center to avoid trouble, or it’s a sign that people are forgetting about SARS. In any case it’s considered lucky in China to happen upon a wedding or a funeral.

Traditional funerals are also illegal in the city. I have witnessed two from my window (before the outbreak of SARS). The first time I wasn’t sure what was happening. Held in dark green canvas tents, with high-volume singing that sometimes sounded like wailing and crying, accompanied by loud percussive music, each funeral lasted for some 50-70 hours. At the end there were parades, with the musicians and an effigy and a long group of people following behind. Nowadays such ceremonies are supposed to be relegated to the countryside, but I guess my neighborhood is on the fringe. Ten years ago this area was distant and remote to Beijing, but now it’s just another of the large new developed zones.

2003-05-17T06:12:00.000-07:00

Will the sight of people inside tightly sealed personal cars wearing face masks become a thing of the past? How long will the waitresses continue to wear their white mouth barricades? Ordering food has become so difficult…

A beautiful sunny day in the city. Watched a car getting its wheels sprayed down upon crossing the threshold of a property across the street from where I had lunch. Over-precautious rituals performed for the rich and powerful.

A sign on the wall of my apartment building states that, for the sake of being sanitary, the garbage chutes will no longer be used and everyone will have to carry their trash down instead of relying on gravity.

The number of new SARS patients in Beijing went down to 19 today.

2003-05-16T06:57:00.000-07:00

The whole city is full of blooming roses. All colors and sizes adorn the barricades between the roads, the patches of foliage around buildings, and the stretches of land along water and in parks. During the day today, the kites in the sky were so crowded they were even interfering with the traffic on the land. A cab I was riding in was hit by a big black bat but kept on driving.

The city was enveloped by rain in the late afternoon. I was surprised at how easy it was to catch a cab home, and also by the heavy traffic. Even as far out as the 4th ring road, the last toll-free circle around Beijing, cars were backed up at certain junctions.

We got caught in a “fu lu” (one of the small roads that run alongside the main thoroughfares, used for entering and exiting the main road, but also by busses and all the rest of the hectic onslaught of vehicles trying to get somewhere faster and better). I kept my window open, letting drops strike my face and skirt and the wafts of exhaust enter the car, reading red banners quivered in the downpour: “One heart united like the great wall, resist SARS,” “Keep SARS out of my neighborhood, keep SARS out of my home,” “Reverence for the sacrifice and bravery of the nurse and doctor comrades.”

2003-05-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

BEIJING (AFP) - "China reported the lowest number of SARS cases since the government admitted covering up the extent of the epidemic, with just 16 new infections outside Beijing among a population of 1.3 billion.
The new figures showed 55 new cases, 39 of which were in the Chinese capital, bringing the cumulative number of cases nationwide to 5,124."

One of the workers in our office has stopped coming in since her husband came in contact with someone who came in contact with someone who came in contact with someone who had SARS. Part of me thinks she's just using a good excuse for an extended holiday.

I wonder if there will be a whole lot of babies born in nine months or so. People have been shutting themselves up at home, and although I have read reports of people refraining from physical contact even with family and loved ones, I suspect there has been plenty of it going on...

There are reports in the foreign media of people in Beijing killing their pets for fear of getting SARS from them, or getting SARS and being unable to take care of them. My colleagues were talking about cats and one girl said ¡°better not to get one now, it might have SARS!¡± She was the same girl who left the microwave running with nothing in it because she believed turning the knob to ¡°0¡± was bad for the machine¡

I saw busses full of masked commuters this morning. Gone are the days of empty, quiet streets. Traffic is almost back to normal now.

The portable speakers in my neighbourhood this morning were blasting information about how the trash chutes would be cleaned out this week. The drive to sanitize is reaching the fundamental areas of life in the capital! Hopefully the end result will be an improved standard and overall awareness of cleanliness. But the men are still continuing the spitting habit, noisily clearing their throats and plastering the pavement with globs of shiny gel. A friend of mine urges me to berate them when they do this, to try and help upgrade the quality of people in Beijing. But scolding a few taxi drives won't make much of a difference so I doubt I will take up this responsibility.

2003-05-13T19:24:00.000-07:00

I woke to the sound of a woman's voice blaring from the speakers in down below the building, urging people to be ultra-sanitary and prevent SARS. When I stepped out there was a group of young men in camo going around with plastic spray bottles (a very hot item these days--many people carry them around to spray things with) disinfecting things. They stared at me as I walked by. They're the same young country boys, living in the city to make some money, who often yell down at me from a window over the street outside our gate. "Hallooo!" they say. I quit looking up at the window and their grinning faces a long time ago.

Last night the lake area near our office was packed with people drinking outside by the water, upon which floated little paper boats carrying candles (I don't think it was a holiday, just for fun). Other people rowed around in boats eating mangos and watermelons.

I had dinner with a client and we talked politics the whole time. He said it was inevitable everyone would suspect the USA for setting SARS loose on China... He also told me Chinese believe all foreigners are un-clean and are very likely to be carriers of the AIDS virus.

Politically it is an interesting time in China. The face-losing among the leader due to the outbreak of SARS is considerable, not only in the international community but within the country. A friend of mine taught me the phrase "wu sha mao bu bao." "Wu sha mao" is the special black hat that the mandarins of ancient China wore. The meaning of the phrase is that when something happens to shatter the confidence society has in its leaders, that symbolic cap of authority can do nothing to protect the men in leading positions... The truth of this saying is evident in Beijing, where the mayor himself was fired after the SARS debacle was revealed.

2003-05-12T00:34:00.000-07:00

This morning traffic was heavier than it has been in weeks. As I rode up to the office on my bicycle, a cloud of mist flew in my face. A man in a space-suit type of outfit carrying a big motorized blower was spraying all of the neighbourhood alleys with some kind of disinfectant.

According to rumours, the fearful villagers outside Beijing have sabotaged a major railroad leading from the capital, in an attempt to keep SARS confined to the city. Stories about Beijing travellers going to the countryside and receiving less than welcoming treatment abound. I heard about some people who returned to their car after a relaxing day outside the city to find it covered with rotting fish. People are making it plain what they feel about Beijingers getting out of town these days.

A client of mine related the story of how he was pulled from his jeep by a country person and sprayed all over with disinfectant during a day-trip outside Beijing. He then promptly grabbed his own bottle of disinfectant from the car and sprayed the indignant farmer back for good measure.

Another of my clients climbed a mountain this weekend, at the farthest spot from the city that Beijingers can go without being stopped and examined for fevers. She said there were people wearing face masks while they hiked!! How stupid can they get¡

2003-05-11T04:27:00.000-07:00

A rainy day with no new developments in the SARS scenario.

The evening news highlighted an impressive nighttime procession through the city, of flashing ambulances transporting SARS patients to a single hospital to be isolated and treated. The masses of unidentifiable figures in white garb from head to toe on TV is unsettling. The supportive bellows from state officials to taxi drivers and other categories of the public are ridiculous. The clips of townspeople energetically whisking all the corners and dumping out the trash, hosing down sidewalks with disinfectant and purchasing all types of products for dealing with the virus are laughable.

I took the bus today. It is a much improved ride with only ten percent of the regular volume of passengers.

My friend in Shandong said her neighborhood has been shut up, with only a little back door remaining to enter and exit through. She said all the trains to Beijing have been cancelled, and word has it SARS has appeared in a nearby village.
"So do you wear a face mask?" I asked her.
"No way! Do you?"
"No."
"But you should, everyone in Beijing is breathing the same air! You can wear it in the office when you are at work!"
We laughed. Too bad it is impossible for us to visit each other now...

How long is this eerie atmosphere to prolong? It is a most unusual Spring. It should be hot by now but it is dark and chilly. When will the sun come out and sear SARS from the city?

2003-05-10T04:46:00.000-07:00

On TV are the heroic shows of doctors and nurses fighting SARS. Heart-rending tales of courage and unity blossoming from the heart of this struggle. Reporters quivering with trepidation wrap themselves in plastic and enter isolation zones to document the risk and responsibility medical care workers are taking. Triumphant music and a montage of traditional and nationalistic images captivate audiences. Government officials with grave faces talk with doctors, comforting voices assuring the leaders will take care of the economy. Celebrities and common people are interviewed, and all call for a united China to get through this crisis. Pictures of floods ravaging the countryside are featured as pop stars sing uplifting songs about the mother country.

News clips showed people in the provinces lighting fireworks in warehouses to scare away SARS. Rumors that fireworks and certain grains can keep the virus away had set people on buying and sparking sprees, which eventually brought in the authorities, who hung up red and white banners to rectify the ideas of misled peasants. A few men responsible for the lucrative lies were shown receiving their sentences in court.

It seems more people are out and about these days, still many of them wearing face diapers. The guards have started asking for my exit and entry card when I return home. Most of the city is still closed down.

2003-05-09T07:22:00.000-07:00

The number of new cases went down in the news by 20 today. Our boss announced to us sales people "good news, SARS is over!"

I had conversations with several clients on the phone.
"Did you hear the rumor that it's biological warfare aimed at China from the US?" I asked a British guy.
"I think I have to take some responsibility for that rumor," he said, "I once translated an article I saw in the Russian press, (in the same magazine that said Putin is an alien), and then sent the translated article to a few people. Later I started receiving it back in forwarded e-mails from all over the place!"

I cruised through the open gate at the entrance to our neighborhood on my bike tonight. I thought I saw the man on a bike in front of me waving something from his pocket at the gatekeepers, but neither they (who probably recognize me, though I can't tell them apart in their face masks) nor the new white-robed and capped inspectors behind a folding table, said a word to stop me.

At 9pm the landlord came to give me my Entry and Exit Card. It's a thin piece of orange paper. On it is printed the name of the neighborhood, and the words "population from outside. Exit and Entrance Card. To be shown upon entering the neighborhood, along with personal identification." In the space for "name" is written my Chinese name, using the wrong characters, meaning "Love Pretty" instead of "Mugwort (a Chinese surname) Strength."

2003-05-08T06:19:00.000-07:00

Another day at work and more evidence of the economic impact SARS is having. So many sectors are tightening their belts for the next month at least. Many are still taking extended vacations, or running the business from home with only skeleton crews in the office.

My landlord called today. Have the guards at the gate asked for proof of your neighborhood residency today?
No! I said, imagining the neighborhood under quarantine.
No, they're not quarantining it, just controlling the area, he said. I already got a residency card for you today, I'll bring it by with the phone bill tomorrow evening.
We'll see what tomorrow brings...

2003-05-07T15:34:00.000-07:00

A cold wind blew into Beijing during the night. Gusts and rain and heavy gray skies dampened my cheery optimism about SARS dissipating in the summer sun. I arrived at work late to find almost nobody there. The others trickled in over the day, along with eerie rumors about the spread of SARS.

The most frightened girl in our office has submitted herself to the hospital in Chengdu city, where she is on vacation. The doctor saw shadows in her lungs and pronounced it a possible case of pneumonia, but not “fei dian” (SARS).

Our boss finally caved in to fear during the storm last night, battling a case of food poisoning and worrying that his outbreak of sweaty fever was a sign he had SARS. “I was thinking what if we were all carriers of the virus,” I remember him saying on our way to the restaurant where he ate the bad chicken yesterday. It was the first time I had heard anything but jokes and optimism from his mouth since the beginning of this whole episode… Today he was full of facts and figures about the death-rate being much higher than they had originally calculated.

I heard a co-worked explaining the meaning of mass hysteria, and I thought he said "mask hysteria!" It would make just as much sense in this context. There is a funny SMS message that's gone around several times already: "The ways of perishing from SARS: 1. smothered to death by a face mask. 2. Killed by drinking Chinese preventative medicine. 3. Scared to death by the sight of masked people everywhere. etc."

In the afternoon I visited a client across town. He’s from Hong Kong. I asked what he thought about the disease and he said, like many do, that it would fade away at the end of May. And he said dollar signs would blind all the capitalists who have fled in the face of “fei dian” and they would soon be rushing back to this boom-town for more...

2003-05-06T06:26:00.000-07:00

Beijing is all badminton, everywhere you go, amid the pollen puffs that swirl through the sky in the warm Spring wind. People swat the birdie back and forth in public areas all over the place, passing the hours out of doors in the sunlight.

I suspect gambling is even more popular these lazy May days. I see crowds of neighbors in the big apartment building courtyard below my window every day, languoring around a small squat table on which cards are being slapped to and fro. When I descend the stairs from the fifth floor I often hear the sound of majiang pieces being shuffled together.

My friend in Shandong called and said she dreamed a man came to her small town and announced he had carried SARS to everyone there, and they were all infected...

She also told me that the tourist sites around there all have signs up saying "no Guangzhou or Beijing people allowed.¡±ID cards are requested upon entrance...

News of the cover-up of the number of SARS patients had leaked out to before the Chinese government made its admission, but the official announcement struck a panic chord and marked the beginning of a movement.

The week-long labor day holiday was cancelled by the government, but all of the schools, as well as many offices and shops, closed well before May 1st, and fear-struck students and workers packed onto trains and busses to go home and escape the infested capital.

The hoarding of instant noodles and disinfectant was reminiscent of the last-minute shopping before Y2K in America. Market shelves were stormed and emptied of basic necessities. Then the blare of propaganda began, from tinny old speakers set at key spots in the neighborhoods. People began wearing the white face mask that has now become as normal as gloves in winter.

The super-vigilant attitude espoused by most of Beijing is affecting the normal bustle of life and commerce. The proximity of a mysterious disease is worrisome, especially in a densely-populated area like this. But the obsession with "fei dian" (SARS) is something more than fear and precaution.

There is a thread of humor underlying group-hysteria, as the entire city is wrapped up in a dramatic popular crisis. It's like a city under siege, with people laughing derisively at the specter of the enemy--the invisible SARSforce bombarding Beijing. SMS messages flicker through millions of cell-phones each day, some making jokes and puns on "fei dian," others beseeching friends and loved ones to stay at home and avoid danger. The only topic of conversation anymore is "fei dian."

A Chinese friend once pointed out to me that the Chinese are excellent at mobilizing the masses, but that the masses always slide back into old routines once the movements are over. Whether a little red book or little white face masks, there is always something to wave around, some collective purpose to engage in.