Rachael M. Rudolph, 12th September 2023

Introduction

Fall of 2019 was hectic but like any other since I had come to China in 2018. It was full of classes, campus events, and travels outside of the country for professional events. It began with a trip to India and ended with another to Italy. The latter trip occurred in December. When I returned, I had fallen ill, but there were many others who were also sick. COVID was not something on our radar at the time.  We knew from news reports that there was a new virus going around, but there were no tests or mask requirements. I chalked up my illness to a very hectic schedule and change in temperature.  All I knew was that I needed to get well since I was planning to head to Latin America for fieldwork for the winter break.

I finished all the required administrative reports, packed, and boarded a plane to head back to the U.S. to pick up a new mobile before heading to El Salvador in the beginning of January 2020.  The new mobile was necessary since mine had been stolen after a dinner party on my second to last day in Rome and my Chinese phone would not work. My Chinese mobile carrier didn’t offer a plan for foreigners to use their mobiles outside of China at that time. With a new phone in hand, I left the Jacksonville International Airport for San Salvador, El Salvador, which was to be my base for the rest of January and half of February 2020. By the time I arrived in El Salvador, news of COVID dominated the airways.  Our employer also implemented procedures requiring all employees to report daily about their health and exact location, even if we were outside of China.    

Despite the reporting requirements, we were not overly concerned until February, which is when there was talk of postponing the start of the semester and borders started closing.  Most of the foreigners whom I work with travel outside of China when the semester is not in session.  Some of them were Thailand and Vietnam, while others returned to their home countries.  I work for a joint program between Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island and the Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai Campus (BITZH).  Our program is unique in that it is one of the few joint programs in China offering a dual degree recognized by China’s Ministry of Education.  

With not being able to return to China and no clear date as to when we could, I returned to my family home in the northern part of Florida to prepare for teaching online for the spring semester. On my way back, I was stopped by the CDC in Houston, Texas since I had a Chinese visa in my passport. They detained me for some time, asking when I was last in China; how long I had been there and why; where I traveled to in Latin America; with whom I would be staying with in the U.S.; and my contact information including address and telephone number.  I was annoyed to say the least since the questioning resulted in me missing my flight and the fact that I was an American citizen. At the time, the U.S. had not implemented entry restrictions.  They would come shortly thereafter.  

I would remain home in Florida for almost eight months before a small window of opportunity opened for me to return to China. My employer informed me that I had to try to make it back as soon as possible because if I missed the opportunity there was no certainty as to when I might be able to return. By then, the plane tickets to China were running between five to seven thousand dollars per ticket. My employer offered to reimburse my return trip of up to five thousand dollars. I booked a ticket, leaving from Texas to Guangzhou, China since that was the only state near me that could do the required tests within a 24-period.

On the day I landed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs suspended residency permits and closed the borders to foreign nationals.  My colleagues who did not make it back were informed they could not return until the government changed its policy. Some of them would return a year later and others decided to take positions elsewhere after being informed their visas could not be renewed due to new legal requirements for foreign talent.  Those of us who did make it back have an experience that is not only unique, but also one that helped to forge a comradery akin to a very close-knit family. What follows is the story of that experience and how it shaped our identity, helped build a sense of community, and transformed the way we live and teach.    

A Changed Environment: Life in Zhuhai During COVID

At the airport upon arrival, we had to register on an APP that recorded our tests and provided us with green or red codes after being tested again for COVID. A green code denoted our tests were negative while the red code implied, we were either exposed or positive for COVID. Everyone entering the country who had not cleared the required quarantine period was given a red code. The quarantine for me was only two weeks. The length of quarantine would change some time thereafter to three weeks, which some of my other colleagues experienced.   Quarantine was at our own expense and so too was the food. However, for the latter, we could not order from outside of the hotel. Thankfully, my employer covered the cost. 

The time spent in the hotel went by quickly since I was teaching online and attending professional events. Almost all professional events across the globe moved online by then. From a professional perspective, the movement of everything online was great because all throughout the day and evening I could attend events in London, Washington D.C., and many other places around the world.  Networking was far more convenient than it had been in the past. In the past, I would have had to be selective in the events I attended because of travel expenses and time.  The online professional events also allowed me to offer extra credit to my students for their attendance and participation in them; they would have to write up a paper summarizing and evaluating the event they attended. The students gained an exposure to a range of activities and topics they would not otherwise be able to attend in China. 

After my quarantine period ended and I was given a green code, my employer sent a car from Zhuhai to Guangzhou to pick me up and bring me back to campus.  By then, the campus had implemented a policy where only approved personnel could enter. Entry and exit were monitored through biometric scanners at designated spots, and there were only certain gates where cars and individuals could enter or exit.  We also had to show our green codes to the security guards on duty at the gates.

Once I was on campus, classes moved back offline. It was normal so to speak in the classroom; I say so to speak because the impact of the online period was quite evident for us all. Both students and faculty struggled with the social anxiety and awkwardness that came with the one-year period of online teaching.  Online teaching was great in the sense that we were able to cover a lot more content in courses than we could in the normal in-person classroom setting. The problem though was that most of the content was delivered via lecture either asynchronously or synchronously. A hybrid-teaching method combining lecture, discussion, and other participatory methods were not easily implemented in an online setting. They worked for the outspoken, overachieving students but left others behind.  Of course, there were also the problems of logged-on computers but no students and numerous internet disruptions due to poor bandwidth and VPNs that just simply stopped working. With in-person teaching, we could resume using hybrid methods in the classroom.  Some catchup was necessary, and the pace had to be slower because another issue that emerged in the immediate aftermath was a decline in students’ English capabilities.  All courses in our program are taught in English, thus requiring students to have a very good ability to read, write, and listen to Academic English. My courses are always a struggle for many of the students since I teach the Social Science requirement for their American degree. They take a freshmen level course with me studying a range of human security issues like human trafficking, refugees and irregular migration, gangs, and other sensitive topics. The junior level course is research-based but tackles violence, terrorism, and extremism.

Some of the above difficulties aside, life in the classroom returned to normal for the remainder of 2021. Life outside the classroom was far from normal, however.  For much of 2021 and 2022, students were unable to leave the campus.  Thankfully, the campus is large enough to host around 26,000 students.  It takes about 45 minutes to walk across the campus. There are food shops and stores for us to buy things we need.  Online carriers such as JD and Taobao also allowed us to purchase what we could not find on campus.  Faculty were able to enter and exit the campus but with approval. We had to fill out an application requesting to enter or exit, the reason why our trip was necessary, and required to show our green codes. For the foreign faculty, exiting the campus was necessary at least once or twice a month because of needing to go to the bank or do some other things that we could not easily do via the APPs due to the language barrier.  Most of the Apps are in Chinese, which require us to use translations APPs or ask our Chinese colleagues for assistance.

Outside of campus, our green codes were necessary to take a DiDi (taxi/Uber) and enter a store, restaurant, or pharmacy.  While it was frustrating at first, particularly when the internet service on our mobile phones was slow or down due to the network being busy, it became routine. We also became dependent on our phones and WeChat for communication.  The hardest thing for me to get used to outside of campus was the discrimination that came with being a foreigner and the way COVID was being covered by the media.  It was presented that the spread of COVID was because of it being brought into the country by those returning.  Foreigners were still prohibited from returning so that meant those coming in with positive results were Chinese nationals.  The government did a decent job attempting to address the problem and clarify that it was not foreigners who were responsible for the outbreaks, but it did not stop some people in the general public from moving to the other side of the street when we were walking with our masks on, changing seats in a restaurant or on public transportation, or refusing to ride in elevators with us. I had not really experienced overt discrimination until that period, but it made me think a lot about the discrimination being experienced by our Chinese students and other Chinese Americans living in the U.S. during the COVID-period. Their discrimination was far worse than what we experienced.

2022: The Year of Closed-Loop Management, Weekly Testing, and Youth Protests to End the Zero Tolerance COVID Policy

By 2022, the COVID environment was beginning to take its toll on foreign faculty and students alike. More outbreaks outside of campus brought a change in how universities were to manage the campus to prevent against an outbreak.  They implemented what came to be known as Closed-Loop Management. Students were still prohibited from leaving the campus and faculty and staff had to continue to apply for entry and exit. However, even the latter was suspended when there was an outbreak close to the campus. Increased security was placed on the perimeter of the campus to prevent students from sneaking out and COVID-testing was increased. There were some weeks when we had to get tested only once and others where we had to go every other day. To be able to exit to go to the store or bank, we needed to have a 24-hour Green Code when there was an outbreak near our area. Once the outbreak had been cleared, then we only needed either a 48-hour or 72-hour Green Code.  The time indicated how long it had been since we were last tested.  Security was only allowed to let us enter or exit so long as it was within the designated period set by the policy for that week. 

Policy changed according to the proximity and duration of outbreaks.  When there was an outbreak on campus, buildings where either students or faculty lived were placed on lockdown.  A lockdown meant that we could not leave our building or apartment until we were cleared.  Security and community volunteers would ensure food and other supplies were provided as needed to residents in buildings on lockdown.  There were times when we were extremely frustrated because life outside of the campus had resumed COVID normalcy, but we were still restricted in our movements and had to seek permission to enter and exit. 

By fall, student protests calling for an end to Zero Tolerance became widespread topics of conversation among students, faculty, and staff.  As a foreigner, it was not something we were allowed to openly discuss or acknowledge but that didn’t stop the students from sharing photos and videos of what other students were doing at campuses and in other locations across China.  However, all of us hoped that they would bring an end to the Zero Tolerance Policy.

The Zero Tolerance policy was believed to be necessary and widely popular in the beginning.  However, by 2022, most felt it was neither necessary nor openly supported the strict measures that came along with the policy. There was open defiance among the students and grumbling from many who normally shied away from anything critical of how things are managed. Many foreign faculty had even started looking for other positions because of not wanting to continue to live as we had been living for the past two years.  Then, almost overnight, policy changed 360.  Students were dismissed early for the winter break in December; barriers were removed; and we were informed that it was no longer necessary for us to apply for entry and exit or to get tested.  As we rang in the new year, there was still caution as to whether we were going back to operating as before in the pre-COVID environment but that soon went to the wayside toward the end of the month when it became evident that we were now in the post-COVID environment.  To be honest, it was the constant outbreaks and no change in policy that really ushered in a sense of confidence that we were back to normal.      

Conclusion

The return to normalcy also ushered in a silence about what we experienced during the years of Zero Tolerance COVID policy.  Faculty and students returned to what they did prior to COVID and performance of both increased. What did change though was the sense of a shared identity and realization that what we experienced was unique in comparison to others outside of China. The time brought the foreign and Chinese faculty and staff closer together and ushered in a sense of belonging, one that I must admit was not present prior to COVID.  As we attend social events or take leisurely walks outside of campus every night, the one thing we will not take for granted is the return to normalcy. Students are thriving and far more active than in the past, which makes the classroom environment more enjoyable. The one thing that did not change is the greater flexibility in how we deliver our courses; that is, combining both online and in-person teaching to enhance the learning environment.

Rachael M. Rudolph, PhD is Assistant Professor of Social Science and Researcher at the Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, PRC, and Adjunct Professor of Counterterrorism at Nichols College, Dudley, Massachusetts, USA.