Lunar New Year: the Chinese left ‘trapped and helpless’ overseas
- Uncertainty and loss linger for mainland Chinese working abroad, as the annual ritual of returning home for the holidays has been put on hold yet again
- Pricey airfares, mandatory quarantines and the risk of Covid-19 infection are the hurdles they face if they do make the trip
“It is a very sad feeling to not be able to ring in the new year with my family and friends back home,” said the 29-year-old, who works in the education industry. “And it’s worse not knowing when I can see them next.”
This time, with the coronavirus still raging around the world, a sense of uncertainty and loss lingers among Chinese nationals living abroad as a longer list of considerations keep them from home, among them the higher price of air tickets, the long quarantine period and the risk of getting infected on the way back.
Yang, who last saw her family in Wuhan in October 2019, said the cost of her plane ticket home had shot up dramatically because of the limited number of flights into the mainland – to as much as S$1,600 (US$1,200) for a round-trip ticket, from the S$600 she used to pay.
Currently, the Chinese government mandates that inbound travellers serve a 14-day “centralised” quarantine at a designated facility, such as a hotel, followed by a seven-day isolation period at their own residences.
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The situation is even more dire for those without direct air connections to their home provinces. Amy, a 33-year-old from Jiangxi who works in Singapore’s e-commerce industry, said she would likely be required to undergo an initial quarantine at whatever major airport she first landed at in China, then face another quarantine upon arriving at her final destination.
Because the situation remains fluid in the mainland, with fresh regulations emerging periodically, Amy said she feared that there could be last-minute policy changes that could prolong her stay and, in turn, jeopardise her job in Singapore.
Facing such “disheartening” circumstances, she said, “I am not considering going home for Lunar New Year.”
Others, like Gao Feng, a native from Hubei province who is now based in Beira, Mozambique – on the southeastern coast of Africa – said he felt like there was an added risk of catching the virus on the way home. Even before the pandemic, the journey from Beira to his hometown of Anlu, about 100km from Wuhan, took almost 30 hours and typically required two layovers, he said, describing it now as a nearly impossible.
For these reasons, he said, he had lost hope of reuniting with his family.
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Villagers in southwestern China greet Lunar New Year with traditional rice cakes and bamboo horns
“Someone I know had caught Covid-19 on the way when he travelled back home, and he ended up spending about 300,000 yuan [US$46,600] on treatment.” he said.
Gao, who works as an interpreter and marketing manager, added that travellers would also need to present a negative Covid-19 test from the country they travelled from – and in some cases, countries they transited through – when they landed in China, adding even more costs.
“They really want me at home for the Spring Festival,” the 34-year-old Gao said. “My wife sends me messages every day asking, but I have to wait without any other choices.”
Also waiting in vain is Qiu, a 33-year-old mechanic engineer in Bangalore who also wanted to be identified only by his surname. He arrived in the Indian city at the end of 2019, initially hoping to return home within a few months.
All of us feel trapped and hopeless
Now, he faces a double whammy, with his job disrupted by India’s nationwide lockdown and his travel plans for returning home on hold. His problems have been exacerbated, he said, by the worsening ties between the two Asian giants.
Qiu said he celebrated the Lunar New Year last year with about 60 mainlanders at a Chinese restaurant in Bangalore, but this year, with restaurants shut and most Chinese workers already having left for home, he will celebrate it with four other colleagues. “There will be nothing special this year as we have very limited choices,” he said.
While Gao will feast on lamb for his Lunar New Year’s eve dinner and Singapore-based Amy will cook up a spread of Chinese dishes with some friends, other mainland expats said there wouldn’t be much to celebrate, considering that their families and friends back home would also be holding muted celebrations in line with coronavirus restrictions. This was especially so for about 20 million people in Shijiazhuang, Xingtai and Heilongjiang cities, which have re-entered lockdowns.
You, the Shenyang native in the Lion City, said that regulations in her hometown prohibiting visits to other people’s houses meant that her brother would not be allowed to see their elderly mother this year.
Zhuo Haiying, who is from Fujian province and has been living in Singapore for more than two decades, said that she and her Chinese friends were heeding the Chinese government’s advice to not return home so as to stop any importation of the virus.
“All of us feel trapped and helpless,” she said. “Looking at the virus situation around the world, we just want to safely get by this new year. Our aged parents are all at home hoping the virus will end soon so we can go home.”
You said she would treat the long Lunar New Year period as just an ordinary work week, in order not to have to think about being away from home.
“There is a different atmosphere of celebration back home when you are surrounded by family and friends. I am here all alone so there is really not much to celebrate,” she said.
“It just feels depressing to be spending it in solitude.”
