Changing ‘practical consciousness’ of Shanghai’s middle class under covid lockdowns: a residential community’s defiance and mobilization

Abstract

ABSTRACT During the spring 2022 lockdowns in Shanghai, strict implementation of the Zero Covid policy compelled every person residing in Shanghai to confront the agents of the state and the authority behind them to develop a certain kind of practical consciousness and political sentiment – a political judgment of the dynamic reality in everyday life. During the 2-month lockdown, one witnessed both a surprising level of general compliance, as well as sporadic but widespread civil protests. Through an anthropological case study based on observations collected in the author’s own resident community, this article is an attempt to document the experiences of the residents in Shanghai under the lockdowns while examining their practice of self-governance and collective defiance. In addition, focusing on those who are considered to be ‘middle class’, it also examines how they relied on their professionalism to organize themselves in a state of high anxiety, and to make decisions and take action in a precarious and dynamic situation. It analyzes how they demonstrated a kind of ‘practical consciousness’ that initiated change and fragmentation in the collective will through the process of collective action such as negotiation, conflict, and resolution with those representing the power of the authorities. Ultimately, the political sentiments of the Chinese middle class are analyzed in terms of how they might organize their demands of everyday life into political demands and identify their own power through future collective action.