Covid-19

At the end of March 2022, Shanghai was plunged into surreal silence, and scarcity. The country’s strictest Covid-19 pandemic lockdown lasted for two months. Never, since decades, had the people minded their three meals that much, to the extent of becoming the only thing they cared about. In their struggles for self-sufficiency and survival, group buying came to rescue. Did dwellers find a new sense of community or were they more fragmented?

Increase in domestic violence, lay-offs, care responsibilities, restrictions on domestic and international movement, economic insecurities, psychological burdens - these are just a few of the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in Asia in the last two years. The gendered nature of COVID-19 impacts is obvious and has sparked large feminist responses in the region.

Technology is gendered. It may be treated as neutral, but its application and support through government policy impact gendered identities, needs and priorities. South Korea’s pandemic response and post-pandemic strategy have inadvertently reversed the nation’s progress in promoting gender equality. This article reviews two gendered experiences of the digital transformation precipitated by Covid-19. It points out the absence of gender inclusion in the national policy advocating digital transformation, and the resulting marginalisation of women. 

This pandemic has dragged the world into a puzzling time warp that resembles one of the popular “stop-and-go” childhood games such as the one known in Hong Kong as Red Light, Green Light. Depending on local transmission waves of the disease and health policies, in some months we have found ourselves socially isolated, with work nearly ground to a halt and life plans jeopardised. In other months the clock ticks again – people take a deep breath and walk in the open, hurriedly trot along old routines to make up for lost time, and some have dashed around the clock to set up massive quarantine, vaccination, or aid facilities within tight constraints.

In Asia and globally, the fight against the coronavirus has illustrated the importance of public trust in authorities, particularly when it comes to the effectiveness of various policy approaches. But what does public trust stem from? Why is it so easily lost, and what does it mean to citizens during a crisis? As the world slowly recovers and opens up, countries in Asia are continuing to grapple with new outbreaks, vaccine hesitancy and other challenges. Reflecting on the past year and a half, we take a closer look at how countries in the region have managed the relationship between the people and the state, as well as the successes – and failures – that are defining their pandemic stories.

Last year, even as the coronavirus ambushed India, disrupting the economy and wreaking untold suffering on millions of its citizens, many saw in it a godsend opportunity to hit the reset button and build back a green and just economy. More than a year later, as we crawl out of the horrifying abyss of the second wave, green fantasies have given way to the more urgent task of quickly vaccinating everyone and reviving a battered economy.