Todd Sandel's Blog from Macau

Here in Macau we are seeing some kind of light, or at least an opening of what a "normal" life looks like and resembles what we did way back in January. My daughter's international school will resume classes in May , and my wife can start teaching private art classes. Both of them are very happy!  Here at the university, we are not resuming in-person classes, but we can soon have in-person MA and PhD thesis defenses (after returning students are quarantined). Two of my MA students who finished writing their theses are trying to arrange their defenses. And some of the students - namely last semester, graduating undergraduate students - are back to take exams and attend their graduation ceremony. This past week it was almost a shock to see students walking on a campus that has been mostly empty for more than two months. These are all great signs that we have turned a corner here in Macau, a place that has not had even one new case of Covid-19 in more than two weeks . 

Back to normal? Apart from watching the increasing number of deaths and confirmed cases, when we can back to "normal" seems to be the biggest question on everyone's mind. How much longer until I can get back to the life that I had on January 24th, the last day that I picked up my daughter from school, and I didn't have to wear a face mask when out in a crowded area? Will a "normal" life resume on May 1? That looks highly unlikely. Will it be on June 25th, the day of our scheduled flight from Macau to the US? The odds for that happening are decreasing. Will it be on August 19, the first scheduled day of classes at the University of Macau? Even that day seems too soon. The consensus emerging from experts in public health, and something that I said in January when I saw how rapidly covid-19 was spreading in China, is that "normal" cannot resume until a vaccine is developed and widely available. And even then, everyone will still have to be careful

Today, April 4, 2020 is Tomb Sweeping Day, or better known in Chinese as Qing Ming Jie 清明節 , “Clear and Bright Holiday.” In a tradition dating back millennia, this is the day in the spring when families go to the tombs of their ancestors, “sweep” them clean, and have a ceremony of remembrance. In typical Chinese fashion the ceremony represents the search for balance in life. On this day in the spring, a season of new growth and hope for the harvest of a new year, you take time to look back, and remember the lives of those who have preceded you, and now have a time of rest. Since moving here to Macao I have not done anything special on this day as I do not have any ancestors here. But in the past I have been in Taiwan during this holiday, and participated in remembrances with Donna and her family. I find it to be a moving and deeply meaningful ceremony, as it is a time for the whole family to be connected, both the living and the dead, and reminds you not only of where you came fr