Fighting COVID-19 Together: Oscar Fuchs’ Story in Shanghai

During the outbreak of COVID-19, Oscar Fuchs, an international student from the UK who studies in the master program Modern Chinese Studies at SJTU, stayed in Shanghai. Despite the situation here, he still felt the warmth of the city.

He recalled his 85-year-old neighbour’s care for him which made him feel warm and comforting. “I could immediately feel the humanity of my neighbourhood, which was so different to what was appearing in the international news at that time,” said Oscar. He also spoke highly of the local community because they had communicated everyday changes to regulations very well, and he was also happy that the right balance had been found between public safety requirements and individual human dignity.

During his spare time, Oscar hosts an English podcast called “Mosaic of China” on Ximalaya which is a human-interest series of 30 short interviews with interesting people in China. During the outbreak of COVID-19, he focused on writing articles and sharing news and observation with the outside world. “The global press seemed to have a very skewed interpretation of events in China, so I was keen to offer an alternative narrative,” said Oscar.

Oscar also expressed his strong support to everyone at SJTU. He was very impressed with the way that information was relayed during the outbreak, and the transition to online courses had been rolled out extremely smoothly. His fellow classmates are all currently spread across three continents, and his course supervisor is stranded in Hubei. “But despite our physical distance, we all continue to feel connected to each other, and to the SJTU community,” said Oscar.

Written by Luan Jinle

Translated by Li Wenqi and Yihan Zhang

Photo by Oscar Fuchs