China locks up

The interesting thing about a place like China is that it keeps you on your toes. You wake up one morning and the buildings beside yours are gone - replaced by some new, more modern, version of what was already there. When SARS hit Shanghai however, this normally fast-paced city grounded to a halt. And the sensitive SARS issue was made worse by the fact that, for the first time in Chinese history, the government was having an extremely difficult time controlling the spread of information. In the age of the Internet, and mobile phones, nearly anyone could tell another person, either within China, or around the world, what was going on at that moment. The article to the left describes how one owner of a 'net cafe' dealt with the government's feeble attempts to control the dissemination of information in order to keep his business from becoming yet another victim of the SARS outbreak.

SARS in China

Moving to China to teach and learn Mandarin was undoubtedly the best decision I had ever made - up to the point of choosing to marry my wonderful wife, of course. I loved the unique culture and fast-pace tempo of Shanghai - but when SARS hit the headlines, things changed rapidly. At the time I was a student at Hua Dong Shifen University taking intermediate Chinese language courses. SARS changed everything. Overnight most of the international students had boarded planes back home. The streets were - all of a sudden - deserted, and those who did venture out, did so under the protection of facemasks. The People's Government, fearing unrest, clamped down on everything and everyone. Doors were locked. Walls were erected. And rumors of riots in the countryside were rampant. It was a tense time to be living in China. I remember writing this article in the middle of the night, rushing to get it out by morning for the Canadian press. Tense times indeed...