[02] Two years of suspension: the story of the border town of Ruili

In this folded land, for a long time, more eyes and better resources have almost "naturally" flowed between a few big cities, so that we are all actively or passively used to the sound of small towns. absent. When it comes to the closure of the city, memories easily take us back to Wuhan, which was shrouded in panic at the beginning of the epidemic, or the helpless city of Shanghai, which was just waiting for a breath. Over the past few months, when we felt angry and sad for unnamed strangers through one screen several times, we did not know or always forget that there is a small town on the China-Myanmar border that has been around since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic. Since the epidemic in China, it has repeatedly experienced a total of nine city closures. Last year, her story briefly caught the attention of the Chinese internet, and that was probably the first time you heard her name: Ruili.

In this issue of "1 in 1.4 billion", William, a local young man in Ruili, was invited to share the story of the closure of this small border town. In addition to the huge pause button pressed by "epidemic prevention" in life, what other things have the residents of Ruili experienced that we don't understand?

At the end of the show, William mentioned his own predicament, which seems to be the same problem faced by many young people who care about society today: when life plans are rewritten by a grand narrative, fear and absurdity hit every nerve intensively, trust Collapse, can we start all over again?

——————————————

One in 1.4 billion, join us in restarting the public discussion, here, every opinion matters.

Timeline of this issue:

00:01:00 - 00:10:50 [Guarding the Border: The Great Adventure of Ordinary People under the Long Border Line]

The predicament of the word epidemic prevention is different for every ordinary person. Residents living in the border town of Ruili, especially those employed in the establishment, have ushered in their unique and arduous task of guarding the border since last year. According to William, there is no natural barrier on the border of the Ruili section, and it is particularly difficult to prevent and control the import of overseas epidemics. Keeping the border is not an easy task. The initial conditions are very simple, almost like a wild adventure. In addition to dealing with the weather, wild animals, and stowaways who are not too polite to cross the border, unarmed ordinary people. William said that there are ordinary people who were injured by guarding the border, and some people were locked in the city during the rotation and were trapped on the border for a month. Last year coincided with a military coup in Myanmar. William said: "It's really dangerous. I don't know what the government thinks." The city people were not allowed to guard the border.

00:11:00 - 00:16:00

[In and out: Those who risked their lives to cross the border]

William shared with us that the closure of the city in March last year, as well as the above-mentioned policy of keeping the border and leaving Switzerland, which will be mentioned later, are all because of the constant risk of people crossing the border, including those who left Ruili and those who came back from Myanmar.

[Strict departure from Switzerland policy: the city that cannot go out]

Since the closure of the city in July last year, the Ruili government has implemented a very strict policy of leaving Switzerland. In addition to submitting an application for leaving Switzerland, reporting the destination, and waiting for approval, you also need to queue up, because each community has only a limited number of places to leave Switzerland every day. After getting the quota of leaving Ruili, the applicant still needs to spend 14 days in a hotel or prefabricated house to quarantine before leaving Ruili.

00:16:20 - 00:23:00

[The "strange thing" in the closure of the city: the rumor will come true after twelve o'clock]

In the past two years or so, Ruili has experienced a total of nine city closures. William told us that the decision to close the city is usually announced through the official account, sometimes a day or two in advance, and sometimes it is a temporary notice. Most of the elderly living alone without smartphones can only rely on their family members or grid workers to notify. The strange thing is that every time before the closure of the city, the residents have privately spread the "rumours" of the closure of the city and began to rush to buy vegetables and daily necessities, and the government has not responded to this. What has been tried and tested is that after twelve o'clock, the government issued a notice announcing the closure of the city.

[Repeated closure of the city: the grand slogan fails, and the complaints are full of complaints]

William told us that the residents of Ruili were very cooperative at first, but the repeated closure of the city brought irreversible changes to the lives of the residents. Some shops closed down, and some people began to lose food. During the first few times of lockdown, the government did not provide policy assistance to residents, not even basic food supplies. Residents could only find their own way and use the opportunity to go out to make nucleic acid to secretly buy things. Later, in each community, the role of grid member began to appear, responsible for helping everyone buy and deliver vegetables.

【“Gridmen are people too”】

In the beginning, grid members were assigned by civil servants, public institutions and some enterprises to serve as their own employees. During the closure of the city, the residents' affairs need to be basically handled by grid staff, whether it is buying and delivering vegetables, doing nucleic acid, or applying for going out or leaving Switzerland. Since grid workers have their own jobs and also take into account the various tasks of grid workers, many grid workers choose to resign to get rid of this double burden. Later, the government recruited social workers to deal with related matters full-time and shared the workload of the grid staff. Now the grid staff are mainly responsible for approving the application from Lirui.

00:23:03 - 00:26:47

【Stewardess Announcement: Home You Can't Go Back to】

Jiegao is a border trade zone, directly connected to Myanmar by land. Before the epidemic, there was a lot of traffic and people there. Duty-free shops, jade and jade, and the rise of the live broadcast industry, many people want to get a piece of the pie. A square inch of land, a grand occasion. However, due to the need for epidemic prevention, the Ruili government asked all Jijiao residents to move out of Jiegao, which has not yet been opened. Jijiao without people is like a dead city.

【Nucleic acid controversy】

After the city was locked down several times, the residents of Ruili did too many nucleic acid tests, which almost became routine. Speaking of this, William's tone revealed helplessness and confusion. He shared a thing that sounds familiar now: there was a Ruili resident who was infected with the new crown due to nucleic acid testing and refused to be quarantined, but in the end had to compromise.

00:26:48 - 00:31:24

【Not "closed city" or "quarantine"】

William told us that after several lockdowns, the words "lockdown" and "quarantine" no longer appeared in government announcements, but new words were used instead.

【“Shanghai is an enlarged version of Ruili”】

William said that everything that happened in Ruili happened in Shanghai. Ruili is a microcosm of Shanghai, and Shanghai is an enlarged version of Ruili.

[Leaving Ruili, where to go: "My feelings for the city have not changed, and I have great opinions on systems and policies."]

Reports say hundreds of thousands of people have fled Ruili in the past two years. William told us that, like many small towns in China, young people in Ruili tend to go to big cities. After returning from studying abroad, William also planned to start a new stage of his life in the city he was familiar with, Shanghai, but the epidemic and the policy of leaving Switzerland derived from epidemic prevention disrupted his original plan. Choosing to stay at home, he finally waited until the policy in his hometown Ruili was relaxed, but news of the closure came from Shanghai...

BGM: Tao Zhe "Dear God"

"One in 1.4 Billion" is a brand new Chinese podcast, you can listen to us on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0WfgzBTIYbWybRgpzpskfR or Typlog: https://withpowerwith.typlog.io/ , you can also search on Microverse: https://withpowerwith.typlog.io/feed/audio.xml to find us.

Of course, you are very welcome to leave us a message at Matters to share your valuable opinions.

We do not catch up with the taste period of current affairs, but we hope to collect and transmit more voices belonging to this era. You are welcome to join us in restarting the public discussion, where every opinion matters.