Rayna Li, Shanghai in Shadows, 2022
Mixed media on canvas
12 x 24 in
I am one of the millions of overseas Chinese nationals who are unable to return to their home country due to China’s “Zero COVID Policy” and the resultant mass cancellation of international flights. This stringent public health measure, while often criticized as harsh and unaccommodating, is originally designed to protect the country’s most vulnerable populations and prevent a staggering death toll that would result from the spread of even the weakest of COVID variants. My piece visualizes the dilemma and presents a speculative future where the country removes all COVID control measures, allowing us to come home at the expense of millions of death from the spread of Omicron.
Based on the statistics from the outbreak that hit Hong Kong in March 2022, some researchers have predicted that if omicron BA.2 were allowed to spread freely in the Chinese mainland, then 830 million people out of the 1.4 billion population would eventually be infected, with 1.68 million deaths (mortality rate = 0.12%). Would this be a cost worth paying?
