While we all watch with morbid fascination the daily scenes emerging from locked-down Shanghai, one student in Nanjing thought it was time for a closer look to see the bigger picture. And as it turned out, he was just the man for the job.
Chen Haoliang (陈昊良) is a freshman at Nanjing Communication College (南京传媒学院). Chen is also originally from Shanghai where he lived for the first 18 years of his life before coming to Nanjing.
陈昊良是南京传媒学院的新生。陈先生也来自上海，在来到南京之前，他在上海度过了人生的前18年。
But as any good media student should, when Chen found out about the severity of the epidemic situation in Shanghai, he took the decision to return home, in order to document what was happening in his city.
但作为一名优秀的传媒专业学生，当陈知道上海疫情的严重性后，他决定回国，记录上海发生的一切。
Speaking with The Paper, Chen said, “As a Shanghainese, I know exactly what Shanghai should look like. [I thought] it’s unlikely that it can be as unbearable as it looks on the internet”.
陈在接受澎湃新闻采访时表示，“作为一个上海人，我很清楚上海应该是什么样子。（我认为）它不太可能像网上看起来的那样难以忍受”。
But just before he left, Chen’s health code turned yellow. His plans were put on hold. But he remained determined to go, and a few days later managed to take one of the few trains operating from Nanjing to Shanghai.
但就在他离开之前，陈先生的健康码变成了黄色。他的计划被搁置了。但他仍然决心要去，几天后，他设法乘坐了从南京到上海的少数列车之一。
But he kept it a secret from those closest to them. “I never told my family. They all thought I was still filming in Nanjing”, he said.
但他对最亲近的人保守了这个秘密。 “我从来没有告诉过家人。他们都以为我还在南京拍戏”，他说。
“After returning to Shanghai, my first feeling was that it is so empty. The whole city has never been so empty”.
“回到上海后，我的第一感觉就是好空，整个城市从来没有这么空过”。
While most people in Shanghai would likely now do anything to get out of the city, Chen being prepared to return is admirable. But the student also has one eye on the future, both that of Shanghai and himself.
虽然大多数上海人现在可能会不惜一切代价离开这座城市，但陈准备返回的准备令人钦佩。但这位学生也着眼于上海和他自己的未来。
Chen says his film is “a souvenir of this moment for the future” and that he hopes the “images can be used to record the perseverance and courage of the moment”.
陈说，他的电影是“为未来留下这一刻的纪念品”，他希望“用影像记录下这一刻的毅力和勇气”。
But as a media student, Chen is also smart enough to know that his making of a documentary in this time and place means he will likely never be short of job opportunities.
但作为一名传媒专业的学生，陈也很聪明，他知道在这个时间这个地点制作纪录片，意味着他永远不会缺少工作机会。
