China’s Political Discourse April 2022: Struggling Against the Epidemic in “Magic City”

By China Media Project

The major event in news and public opinion in China in April 2022 was without question the fight against Covid-19 in the country’s largest metropolis, Shanghai, which has continued also through May. For many Chinese, Shanghai has long stood as a symbol of China’s economic vitality and cosmopolitan spirit, and the city has held a magnetic attraction for many in search of wealth and excitement. This spirit has earned Shanghai the nickname “Magic City,” which traces back to the Japanese writer Shōfu Muramatsu, who in 1924 published his novel Demon City (魔都), or Mato, depicting the dark underside of what was then a glitzy, vibrant colonial port. The appellation was eventually popularized in China using the more flattering sense of “magic” for the first character of the novel’s title.

But as lockdowns took hold in Shanghai in April 2022, frustration mounted among city residents, and the failings, and sometimes cruelties, of China’s “zero Covid” approach became a focus of widespread concern …