Zero-Covid: Chinese artist speaks out against policy by wearing 27 hazmat suits in Times Square
On Sunday morning, a puffy, Michelin-like man trudged through Times Square in New York, gasping for air from trying to move while wear 27 hazmat suits.
Inside the white cocoon is Zhisheng Wu, a Chinese man the artist staged a street performance to criticize China’s non-stop lively policy.
“The protective suit has become a visual symbol of each Chinese person’s collective experience and collective memory,” said Wu, a 28-year-old graduate student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
With a hood tightly wrapped around his head, revealing only his nose and part of his eyes, Wu said he had been transformed into a “monster” with fuzzy senses. He was originally going to wear 100, but found out that 27 was the most he could fit. As he staggered forward, the artist stooped lower and lower until he has to resort to crawling. Finally, he fell to the ground and was helped by his assistant to get out of his clothes, his face red and drenched in sweat.
The artist wore 27 hazmat suits for his performance. Credit: Yong Xiong / CNN
“I want to use it as a metaphor for the fact that each individual Chinese is submerged in political water,” he said.
In China, however, Covid workers wearing head-to-toe hazmat suits are still ubiquitous nearly three years after the virus emerged. Dubbed the “dabai,” or “big white,” they toiled at Covid testing sites and quarantine camps, guarding airports and train stations, and spewing clouds of substance. Disinfection on streets and residential communities.
For many in China, they have embodied the government’s zero-tolerance approach, which relies on mass testing, widespread quarantines, and rapid lockdowns to stamp out infections at all costs. prices – even as much of the world has moved into the pandemic phase.
For Wu, dabai is also the embodiment of power and submission. “You feel like you can never get out of their control. There’s an invisible sense of oppression,” he says.
The artist said that when he wore the clothes, he was transformed into a “monster” with blurred senses. Credit: Yong Xiong / CNN
The dabai are foot soldiers in the government’s zero-Covid campaign. They include residents who volunteer to help their neighbors during lockdown, as well as officials and public health workers who take measures that – especially for outside observers – may be illogical.
“They can be ordinary people or your neighbors. But once they put on a dabai suit, they become an estranged manager, an emotionless machine,” Wu said.
The cost of zero-Covid
He was locked up in Beijing for two weeks, filled with anxiety and fear for the future. But the Covid situation in China soon improved. By April, the outbreaks were largely contained and life returned to normal.
Wu was helped by his assistant to get rid of the clothes. Credit: Yong Xiong / CNN
It didn’t take long for Wu, who was vaccinated, to overcome his fears: he finally caught Covid and was lucky enough to quickly recover from his cold-like symptoms. . Meanwhile, restrictions in China have become increasingly stringent following the emergence of the highly infectious variant of Omicron.
Wu’s father, a professor in an eastern province, was punished by his university for escaping an impending lockdown and driving back home to Beijing without his employer’s approval. . His mother was prevented from visiting his sick grandmother due to travel restrictions. Many of Wu’s friends in the art industry lost their jobs as galleries and exhibitions closed amid the ongoing lockdowns.
“All of these expenses are born to every Chinese person, small and insignificant as a speck of dust,” he said.
Mandatory action
Many of Wu’s friends who work in the arts have lost their jobs. “The art sector (galleries and exhibitions) was cut first during the pandemic as it was deemed irrelevant and useless to the country’s economy. Credit: Yong Xiong / CNN
Such a performance would be unthinkable in China, where artists have faced increasingly stringent censorship since leader Xi Jinping came to power in 2012. But the staging it could also be risky for Wu and his family.
The artist said he was worried about his parents’ safety when he returned to China, fearing they might be retaliated against by the government. But he said he nonetheless felt compelled to continue the project and express emotions that had been repressed for years. towards zero-Covid.
Some analysts see this as a sign that China is unlikely to ease pandemic restrictions anytime soon. For Wu, China’s insistence on zero-Covid is directly related to the country’s political environment.
“I feel like the power of (the government) is growing stronger, getting bigger and bigger like a giant,” he said. “And as individuals, our feelings and emotions will sink more and more as we get smaller and smaller.”
