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By: GOH Kylan、Leone XueEdited by: Clara Ip、Mark Chen、Mereen Santirad

Business

Coronavirus outbreak forced people to work from home

  • The Young Reporter
  • By: GOH Kylan、Leone XueEdited by: Clara Ip、Mark Chen、Mereen Santirad
  • 2020-02-19

Zhang Yuxiang, a fresh graduate lawyer in Fuzhou, mainland China, has been working through online meetings since the coronavirus started. He hasn't come closer to what he dreams about - working in bed while snuggling with a cat. Mr Zhang enjoys working from home since it provides flexibility during office hours. "I have more free time and sometimes I can even loaf on the job since most of my cases are not in a hurry at this stage," he said. Employees in mainland China have started to work online at home to quarantine themselves from the rampant novel coronavirus. On February 13, the Hong Kong government also announced the "Work from Home" arrangement that will last until February 23.  Although it's convenient to work from home, Mr Zhang feels that people may use Internet delay to excuse their inefficiency, adding that communicating with colleagues is one of the major difficulties.  "I spent most of the time waiting for others to reply," said Mr Zhang, feeling annoyed while checking his WeChat to see if he gets any reply from his colleagues. "Even a simple conversation can take up a whole day," he added.  With the city shut down, on-site work could not proceed. "The procuratorate and the court are not open to the public during this period. Trials and many cases that need follow-up are postponed," said Mr Zhang. However, some employees found that working online has brought them closer to their family. "Home office lets my parents understand what I am doing," said Wang Yiqing, a Chinese teacher at a high school in mainland China. Ms Wang's mother is also a teacher, but she could never understand the notion of self-learning.  "She thought self-learning is just an excuse for being an irresponsible teacher," said Ms Wang. "I'm glad she finally …

Health & Environment

WeChat "group buying" helps mainland community survive COVID-19 quarantine

Stores are closed along the street with packages piled in front of the doors. Residents wait in line to fetch their deliveries at the entrance of Fenglin Oasis Compound in the south-west of Xi'an, Shaanxi province, mainland China.  Fenglin residents normally shop at a supermarket a block away from their homes. But since the coronavirus outbreak, they cannot leave the compound without a gate pass. The government requires residential communities to limit citizens' daily movements to control the spread of the disease. So WeChat groups have become the go-to grocery store. "I buy things from the WeChat groups every day," said Wang Hui, 49, a resident from the community. She didn't use the service very often before the outbreak because the choices are limited. However, food prices in the grocery stores inside the community have gone up since the epidemic.  "A bunch of dry noodles used to be 10 yuan, but it cost 16 yuan on New Year's Eve", she said. According to one organizer of a WeChat group that sells fruit, suppliers deliver fresh produce from wholesale markets or farms to the compound every day. Customers pay by scanning the QR codes on the packages with their order numbers when the goods are delivered. Some people transfer their payments to the retailers using "WeChat red pockets" ahead of the delivery.  Zhang Wenai, 21, is a volunteer at the Fenglin Oasis Community. She helps to record personnel information at the entry. "There is an open package collecting point at the entrance of the compound," she said. "Every day retailers send the goods according to the time agreed with the consumers. They drop the goods and leave." The person-to-person contact is restrained in this way.  One shopping group generates more than one hundred messages one day. However, not all are about …

Health & Environment

How district councillor is helping the community

Amid the shortage of sanitary equipment, the newly elected district councillor Jimmy Sham in Lek Yuen area has been distributing masks to the residents in his district.  With most of its residents being elderly, Jimmy Sham is worried that such an old area would have a higher chance of coronavirus outbreak. “As the elderly are having poorer immunity than normal people, they are more likely to catch diseases. So if the coronavirus is spread here, that would be a big issue.” However, elderly in the estate usually have less social resources to catch up information for buying masks. Ms. Chan is among them. The 64-year-old woman has reused her surgical mask for a week, and she was going to use it again tomorrow. "We really don’t have many left at home. And we need to spare some for my son because he needs to go out to work everyday." "Some people have donated a few boxes of masks to us. We are figuring out how to distribute them in a relatively fair way, as we can't help them all," said the councillor. In order to benefit more people, they unboxed all the masks and repacked them for every 10 masks. Instead of distributing the masks to all the residents, they registered for around 600 residents who have asked for help, and spare enough masks for them.  Ms. Chan has got two packs, in a total of 20 masks, for her 3-people family. She was happy about the service of the new district councillor. "He is helpful as he knows we do not have enough masks." However, the method of distribution has aroused dissatisfaction among the community. A 78 years old man complained that he did not know they were distributing masks, therefore he didn’t register beforehand. "We have already tried …

Health & Environment

"We are doctors and we are mothers.": The first medical team from Yunnan in support of Wuhan departed on January 27

Accompanied by her husband, Wang Qiuwen arrived at the Third People's Hospital of Yunnan Province. She joked around her husband and friends as usual, took a photo with 24 other allies, then left by taking the bus heading towards the airport.  To fight the expanding coronavirus outbreak, the Chinese authorities have sent medical teams from less-infected parts of the country to support hospitals in Hubei Province. Yunnan sent its first medical team with 25 health workers from the Third People's Hospital of Yunnan Province to Hubei on Jan 27. Wang Qiuwen is one of the nurses of the Yunnan medical team. "Once we decided to be here, we have prepared ourselves for the potential infection. The only thing I can do for my family is taking good care of myself.", said Ms Wang. She signed up for the team voluntarily, leaving her 6-year-old son, who is with mental retardation and asthma, to her husband. "My son's life was changed by the persistent bronchial infection after having pneumonia when he was small." said Ms Wang, "It (signing up to Hubei) feels more like my mission as a nurse." Ms Wang said interprovincial support minimizes cross-infection between health workers and the public. "We don't get in touch with anyone outside of the hospital so that we won't have such worries of cross-infection like local doctors, who would contact their family members." Bearing the burden of taking care of their child, her husband Wan Hong, a doctor, still strains to handle the enormous workload of coronavirus control in Yunnan.  "I supported her because I understand how hard the choice is for a health worker while facing such an epidemic." said Mr. Wan, "I have to stay optimistic being the one stayed at home. The family is on me now."  Doctors, defined as "Non-emergency …

Health & Environment

No-contact deliveries in Beijing: local residents want to minimise contact when picking up online purchases

Boxes, handbags and takeaways stapled with order forms are placed messily in the depository at the entrance of Haojing Jiayuan, a Beijing residential community, after the novel coronavirus caused the management property to restrict access. On February 10, the Information Office of Beijing Municipality held a news conference to encourage people not to come into contact with those who deliver their online orders.  "We advise couriers to deliver packages to a designated area where few people normally pass. We may set different schedules and sections of depositories so that people don't meet each other too often," said Wang Ge, a spokesperson of the Office at a press conference on Feb 10, according to a video from the Beijing News. Some residential communities in Beijing have since set up delivery depositories in order to get their daily supplies and other purchases during the coronavirus epidemic.   The property management of Haojing Jiayuan, for example, has been restricting access to the complex since January 31, and body temperature of every person who enters the community has to be taken. "They (security staff) looked at me as if I'm highly contagious," Song Jiazhu, a ZTO Express courier, said after he was denied access. He added that due to his responsibility, he couldn't "simply put the package here and leave." Eventually, Mr. Song left the community with the package after his client agreed to arrange another time for delivery. However, not all communities strictly follow the no-contact delivery rule. Xu Xiangnan, who lives in Jinyu Huafu, a community in Changping District at the outskirts of Beijing, said there are no such depositories near his home. "Our community has been closed, but the courier called me from outside the gate and I took the package from him," he said. He added that "although it's rather convenient to …

Health & Environment

Couriers cannot go into the housing estates: how do people take food and deliveries?

In Xinjinan garden, in one of the housing estates in Baoan, Shenzhen, a shed is built near the entrance of the garden for people to take their food and packages. When they come into the garden, the guard takes their temperature. As the coronavirus cases are still showing an upward trend in mainland China, people are forced to stay at home. Shenzhen, a city with the most ports in China, has been most affected by the outbreak in the Guangdong province. The number of coronavirus cases has exceeded 400 and even now surpassed Guangzhou. To reduce the human-to-human transmission, all delivery men and couriers cannot go into the housing estates, according to the latest policy. Individuals, who do not want to go to the supermarket, need to go downstairs to pick up their delivery.

Health & Environment

Community teams in Hebei cope with scarce resources while fighting epidemic

Since February 1, Zhangjiakou government has required each residential community to form a coronavirus prevention team composed of at least 10 members to control personnel access and register residents' health situation, while due to the medical resources in short supply and limited joint members, community workers overworked only with basic protection. At the gate of some communities, temporary board houses or tents are built as epidemic checkpoints for community workers to check the identity card of the residents and detect the temperature of entering personnel. Some of them even continue working for 4 hours only with a table under the degrees below zero. "I put on 3 pieces of the warmest jacket in my home to resist cold weather," said Angela Zhang, the one assigned to the community to assist epidemic control work during the outbreak of coronavirus. "It's tough work for limited community workers." Aside‌ ‌from‌ ‌guarding‌ ‌at‌ ‌the‌ ‌gate‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌community,‌  ‌she‌ ‌needs‌ ‌to‌ ‌distribute‌ ‌and‌ ‌collect‌ ‌the‌ ‌health‌ ‌registration‌ ‌form.‌ ‌The‌ ‌health‌ ‌registration‌ ‌form‌ ‌includes‌ ‌the‌ ‌names,‌ ‌the‌ ‌telephone‌ ‌number,‌ ‌and‌ ‌the‌ ‌travel‌ ‌situation‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌residents‌ ‌in‌ ‌the‌ ‌past‌ ‌two‌ ‌weeks.‌ ‌ ‌ "I‌ ‌paste‌ ‌the‌ ‌form‌ ‌on‌ ‌the‌ ‌door‌ ‌of‌ ‌each‌ ‌household‌ ‌and‌ ‌remind‌ ‌them‌ ‌to‌ ‌fill‌ ‌it‌ ‌in‌ ‌by‌ ‌phone," ‌said‌ ‌Ms‌ ‌Zhang. Such‌ ‌work‌ ‌will‌ ‌repeat‌ ‌3-5‌ ‌times‌ ‌to‌ ‌get‌ ‌the‌ ‌effective‌ ‌response‌ ‌of‌ ‌each‌ ‌family." ‌ The community epidemic prevention work is facing a shortage of workers. Primary and secondary teachers are also required to be on duty at the gate of each community to assist community workers' work from February 1to 7.   "The secretary of our community joint committee has not been home for several days because of the work to prevent the epidemic," said Ms Zhang. Medical supplies in short cannot guarantee the basic needs of community workers. Ms …

Culture & Leisure

Cultural differences you may face in St. Petersburg

"Rude" maybe tourist's impression towards people in St. Petersburg, Russia, but there may be an underlying misunderstanding behind the image. St. Petersburg is always considered a must-visit city in Russia, no matter for international or domestic travellers. Being the second-largest city in Russia, the area consists of canals and world-famous spots such as the Winter Palace, Saint Isaac's Cathedral and Peter and Paul Fortress.  St. Petersburg remains attractive to tourists, but there are some factors pushing international visitors away. Russians rarely speak English. The majority of middle-aged and older people do not understand the language. According to a survey done by Romir research holding, 30% of the Russians can speak English to a certain degree, and only 3% of the interviewees claimed to be a fluent speaker. The low English speaking rate leads to a rough time for those visitors who do not speak Russian. No one can answer their questions if they face obstacles during their journey, resulting in an unpleasant travel experience. Хао Yu-Fei, a 20-years-old tourist from China, believed that language is the problem travellers face. As English is not widely-used among Russians, they cannot communicate fluently with the tourists.  "When locals answer questions with simple English and do everything in a rush, travellers get an impression that Russians are impolite and rude. We understand that being straightforward may be a characteristic of Russian, but some people might have hard feelings towards that," Xao said. Xao also noticed that no matter what ethnicity people appear to be, Russians always intend to start the conversation using the Russian language. "In Russia, many people with an Asian face can speak Russain. The locals are used to it, thus feel natural to communicate in the Russian language with foreigners." Tourists may feel insecure when facing an unfamiliar language during travelling. …

Business

Copenhagen's rising rainbow economy

The rainbow flag, a symbol of gay pride, is common as one strolls down the streets of Copenhagen. Businesses proudly display rainbow stickers on their windows as a show of support for Copenhagen's diverse community.   Copenhagen is widely regarded as one of the most LGBT+ friendly cities in the world. But some say it is just a colorful facade for clever marketing strategies that focus on making a profit. Over The Rainbow Rainbow marketing, rainbow capitalism or the rainbow economy, refer to companies which brand their products with rainbow flags and colors.  This is especially noticeable throughout the city during Copenhagen Pride. The annual event held in this August draws over 300,000 people to the streets to celebrate the diversity of Denmark’s capital city.     Thomas Rasmussen, Head of Communications for Copenhagen Pride, though says the increasing popularity of rainbow marketing may harm businesses and brands because they might be perceived as "attempting to make a profit by catering to the LGBT+ community. There hasn't been any official claim of how big Denmark's rainbow economy market could be, however, the huge profits potential of such a business model can be seen from the American LGBT+ community. According to the latest data from the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, America's LGBT+ community holds an estimated buying power of $917 billion annually. "It is of great importance that the marketing directed at the LGBT+ community is backed by action and real change," Mr. Rasmussen said. Different Orientations, Different Views For some LGBT+ community members, such “supports” from the businesses which only can be seen in the pride season might not be genuine enough. "Showing real support is not how you brand yourself one day or a month, but it's about how you run your business and all of the other days of the year. I think that's what really counts," said Sami Kleit, 27, an openly gay student from …

Society

Mainland students at Hong Kong universities dissatisfied with suspension of on-campus teaching due to novel coronavirus

Hong Kong universities suspend on-campus classes until 2nd March, sparking worries of poor online teaching quality, graduation delay and financial loss among mainland students. Online teaching measures including Zoom, Moodle and WhatsApp will be applied during the suspension. Make-up classes, examinations and approval of graduation lists will be duly deferred. “The suspension sucks! Now I’m just wasting my tuition!” raged Xu Zheng, a mainland senior at Hong Kong Baptist University majoring in advertising and branding. Twelve mainland students at the University drafted a “Joint Declaration of Mainland Students at Hong Kong Baptist University,” worrying about financial and academic loss caused by another suspension on the heels of the 6-month political upheaval last year. The Declaration received 1079 effective supporting signatures by 19:30 1st Feb before it was submitted to the University. The Declaration demands graduation support, focus on teaching quality and tuition compensation, expanded qualification for full tuition refund and subsidy for the living of non-locals. The drafters claimed that flaws of online teaching such as inaccessibility of on-campus equipment would discount the outcomes of the tuition paid. About half of 1305 respondents felt “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with the quality of online teaching due to political turmoil last November, according to a survey conducted by Association of Mainland and Hong Kong Youth, HKBU. About half prefer extension of semester to online teaching. According to official websites of Hong Kong universities, yearly tuition for non-local students is about 100,000 HK$ more than that for local students. Based on a Mingpao survey, 28.6% to 46.0% of Hong Kong university entrants were from Mainland China in the academic year 2018/19. “We talked with the mainland student organization and they said some students would be misrepresented if they were to publish a declaration, so we came up with this joint letter asking for …