Mixed traditional and digital: Ink in sketchbook and Procreate
In March of 2020, the halls of my freshman college dorm were flooded with cardboard boxes. In the middle of the spring semester, professors were asked to accommodate for the situation and eased back on projects, allowing students time to adjust to a new environment. A space meant for the excitement of Spring Break, instead filled with packing tape, masks, and hand sanitizer. After the hysteria died down, I was lucky enough to have family friends near Providence, so I stayed with them for two weeks temporarily while figuring out how to get home. In a stroke of good fortune, I booked a seat on one of the last international flights China allowed before limiting air travel. To document the process I made a video, shown below.
The process of going home, especially as an international student, even more especially when your home is China, was a particularly daunting process. I made the video in order to document the moment, as well as to hopefully inform others who haven't returned home yet what the process might be like.
After returning home it was clear to me that the journey of getting home was not the only thing I should be documenting. Life in Shanghai during the time of COVID-19 was so different from the rest of the world, yet I felt like it was so little discussed that I had a duty to capture the moment and report it to others. There were so many little yet crucial choices made in our day-to-day lives when adjusting to the pandemic that shocked me when I first returned that I felt others must see as well.
Stepping into the elevator of our apartment building I saw a styrofoam block stuck to the wall with toothpicks sticking out, as well as a make-shift wastebasket made from half a coke bottle hanging off the wall beside the foam block. My brother informed me, per the building manager's mandates, residents should take a toothpick from the block and use it to press the elevator button, then promptly dispose of it in the empty coke bottle, allowing fewer germs to spread from dirty elevator buttons.
In this reportage project, I tried to capture these such moments along with snippets taken from my interviews with my family members to hopefully paint a picture of what life is like during Shanghai during the pandemic, as well as help others who are unfamiliar with our world gain some perspective.
I had tried to get this project published in the New York Times but was rejected. I have included the imagery, but if you are interested in the full essay please contact me via email.
When recalling my trip home from Shanghai Pudong Airport, my dad kept saying "two cars, seven people." After asking him what it meant, he said he was awestruck by the number of resources we had if even just to ensure one person's homecoming. It took two cars, and seven people total to ensure my homecoming.
