Life after lockdown - post coronavirus reality

Last Friday I talked with Nicole Wan who lives and works in Shenzhen for one of the tech start-ups. I asked her about some insides and how life really looks like in China after lockdown? What are the new restrictions and her advice for this new situation: 

"You can't sit and wait for this storm to be over, because this is going to last for a while". 

Everyone in Poland and other countries being under lockdown now is thinking how the life will look like after new cases will be flattened and schools, business will be reopened? Is everything going to be back to normal after the pandemic ends? and when it ends? 

Nicole is saying the worst to do now is to wait:

"Best thing to do is to adapt, to think differently and start doing new things". 

I agree 100%, but it’s not that easy in all business industries. Everyone is asking today a question how this reality looks like? What are the new restrictions implemented to prevent new outbreak?

"A lot things have changed, wearing a mask has become a must, no matter who you are, going out to the public, you need to wear masks. Temperature checking everywhere you go." - Nicole said. 

A Green Pass with a QR code on your phone is issued by the authorities, as your proof of healthy status. Many businesses where crowds can be formed easily remain closed, such as restaurants, hotels, convention centers.

Chinese border will remain closed to for an indefinite period: "We can’t go out, and foreign nationals can’t come in. The comforting thing here is, we are coping well, as well as we can anyway. We see good signs everyday."

In China in order to fight with corona virus all people are being traced now. In megapolis like Shenzhen it's relatively easy, as almost everyone is using mobile phone with this type of tracing application. If someone in example on a subway had a corona virus it's easy to check who else was on the that train at that moment with this person and send others for tests and if need for quarantine. This solutions seems to be reasonable from taking care of public health perspective, but what about our privacy and possibility of over using such tool?

Are you fine with your mobile being officially traced in order to track corona virus cases and prevent spreading of this disease? The question is can such measures be taken in Europe and USA? What will be more important health or personal freedoms? Please let me know your opinion.

"I think Chinese people, we have always had the sense of “for the greater good”. Yes, privacy matters, so does peace, life, common wealth, community harmony, we wouldn’t have come out of this situation “alive”, if we all concerned about privacy more than the cause. And in the time of a pandemic, overly cautious is better than losing lives. I don’t think these measures will take place in Europe or the USA, different social values. We can’t really simply put a "right or wrong" statement here, everything has its pro and cons. In China, we value the Greater Good more. Even when I was a kid, we learned the principle of Majority Rules." - Nicole told me.

Exactly one year ago in May 2019 I visited Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Macau in order to explore opportunities in the Greater Bay Area. I talked with Polish and local entrepreneurs in order to find out about the startup scene and new technologies. I met some interesting people, visited new places and made a video to inspire other Polish entrepreneurs to discover and learn more about this special region. I also learned about “Shenzhen speed” - in this megapolis people make quick decisions, develop ideas and companies ultra fast and can go millionaire or bankrupt in a blink of an eye. 

Now, one year later, I talked with Nicole Wan about what life looks like after the coronavirus pandemic in Shenzhen, one of the topics Nicole mentioned is to change the way we think and adapt really fast. I have to say I like this mentality very much. 

"Think differently and act quickly." - Nicole said. 

In the second part of the interview I asked Nicole which business developed in China thanks to lockdown? No surprise that online is the new (?) king. I'm also interested in how online education looks? I asked Nicole how to maintain closeness with your clients during lockdown? Are social media enough? Which business will go down and which one will use this situation to grow? 

Nicole mentioned about retaliatory consumption in China, after lock down people want to make up and buy more - is that something we will observe in Poland and Europe as well? 

Note: interview was done on 24th of April 2020.