One Person City: Photographer Captures Shanghai During Coronavirus Outbreak And The 24M Metropolis Looks Unrecognizable (32 Pics)

All of this is really different from what Nicoco had experienced before. “I’ve been living in Shanghai for about six years. It is an amazing city where you see elders in tracksuits doing synchronized dancing, feel safe running late at night as a woman, and can access much of East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is a place of rich history where change happens instantaneously. In the time I have been privileged to live here, I’ve watched Shanghai transform from a cash-based society to completely mobile payments. Thousands of public bikes have seemingly materialized from air, and new metro stations open every year. In the ’90s, people saw Tokyo as the city of the future. Today, that city is Shanghai.”

According to Nicoco, for the past two weeks, everything has stopped. “The government extended the national holiday, and only critical businesses are allowed to open (for example, grocery stores, sanitation and water facilities, etc.). Everything’s empty. Fresh products were completely bought out. As of Monday, February 10th, most businesses are allowed to reopen, but the city remains eerily empty as people stay self quarantined in their homes. There is a lot of anxiety in the air.”

Working on the series made Nicoco think about class privilege a lot. “As I traveled around the city and saw primarily low-wage workers such as sales clerks, janitors, and security guards, it was when I realized these people would be considered more fortunate than workers who are unpaid during this period or simply fired.”