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Shanghai authorities doubled down on their offensive against Covid-19 on Friday, launching a new round of city-wide testing and warning residents their three-week lockdown would only be lifted in batches once transmission is stamped out, Reuters reported.

The Shanghai government said on its official WeChat account, the city's epidemic was showing a "positive trend" and that life in the city could return to normal soon as long as people stuck to strict rules to curb the spread of Covid-19.

And while some Shanghai districts tightened restrictions on movement, officials in neighbourhoods that met criteria for people to be allowed to leave their homes were still preventing them from doing so, fuelling anger and frustration among residents who have endured weeks of lockdown.

"Our goal is to achieve community zero-Covid as soon as possible," the government said.

"This is an important indication that we win this major, hard battle against the epidemic ...so that we can restore normal production and life order."

Shanghai locked virtually all of its 25 million people into their homes at the start of April after infections began to surge. Residents have faced income losses, difficulty getting food, family separations and poor conditions in quarantine, according to Reuters.

Frustration with the rigid enforcement of draconian restrictions has reached new heights this week.

Health officials raised hopes for some return to normal by saying transmission had been curbed, only for city officials to pour cold water over such expectations as the highly-transmissible Omicron variant has proven hard to eliminate.

Late on Thursday, Shanghai announced a new round of "nine major" actions, including daily city-wide testing from Friday, accelerating transfers to quarantine centres, minimising people movement and ensuring enforcement of the rules, Reuters reported.

What did my parents do during the Covid-19 lockdowns? They watched TikTok videos and shared them with half of their contact list on Viber. The endless loop of videos of people dancing and lip-syncing to Hindi movie songs and dialogues kept them entertained, engaged, and out of each other’s hair. The popularity of the free-for-all app for making and sharing short videos that was launched in 2016 has snowballed—and how. 

It became the most popular global app in 2019 and 2020 with 693m and 850m downloads respectively. As of 2021, TikTok had 1.1bn users worldwide. In Nepal, too, TikTok is a household name with people of all ages either watching or making content. Quite a few Nepali TikTok makers have a steadily increasing fan base and celebrity-like status. 

Shubham Shukla, founder of AS Dance Academy in Bhairahawa who has 4.2m followers on TikTok, says there was a time when he too didn’t understand the craze. His friend convinced him to make funny videos during the Covid-19 lockdown in April 2020. He did, posted the content on TikTok, and got an overwhelming response. “I got messages telling me to keep making these fun and light videos as they cheered people up during the lockdown. Some said it even helped them cope with the grim situation. It was very encouraging,” says Shubham who had 100 followers then. He gave himself a target of 10,000 followers within a month. At the end of the month, he had 100,000.

“I was motivated by the following I was getting and I made all kinds of videos—dance numbers, comedy skits, and other personal acts,” he says. He started by posting at least two videos a day (he still does) but during the lockdown, with so much time on his hands, he would post 10 to 15 videos in a day. With things returning to normal, it’s becoming difficult for Shubham to make regular content as he has other businesses to manage. Besides the dance studio, he also runs an advertising agency. But TikTok is his claim to fame and he’s not giving up easily. His strategy now is to film 14 videos on Saturdays and then ration them throughout the week.

But all’s not hunky-dory for TikTokers as they receive a fair amount of hate too. Asmi Bhandari, 19, from Parbat district, who got 50,000 views in 24 hours when she posted her first video on TikTok and currently has 2.5m followers, recalls the time India first banned the video sharing app in June 2020 and her relatives and friends rejoiced. They said it was over for her, that all she could do now was reminisce her short-lived glory. “It was heartbreaking to see people be so mean. They would write ‘RIP’ below my posts and photos,” she says. For a while, she was even afraid of stepping out of her home. The hate was palpable.

Manjil Basnet from Udayapur says it’s normal for people to judge and diss you on social media. Everyone will have an opinion, especially if you are doing well. The 24-year-old with 236,000 followers on TikTok says he saw his friend being bullied and trolled on Musical.ly and fear of negative comments made him put off posting content himself. But, over time, he has realized that people will judge you, no matter what. “What’s important is not to let it affect you. Brush it off as just another experience,” he says. 

Dmon Chhetri, 27, from Pokhara, with over 300,000 followers on TikTok, says Nepal has a lot of talent and TikTok has made it possible for them to showcase it with ease. Public acceptance and approval aren’t easy to get and those who want to make a name for themselves have to work hard, he says. “People are quick to pull you down. You have to ignore the negativity. There’s no way you’ll survive otherwise,” says Dmon. Also, if you don’t like something, don’t watch it. Selective content consumption is your right and you can train the AI on TikTok to only show you the kind of videos you like, adds Manjil. But to blame social media for the “ills it is perpetuating” by “making celebrities of millennials” is simply inane. 

With communities on fitness, fashion, literature (think BookTok where creators review and discuss books they have read), TikTok is also becoming a dominant source of news and networking. During the pandemic, US President Joe Biden’s administration recruited TikTok influencers to encourage people to get vaccinated. The same strategy was replicated in the White House’s attempt to help Ukraine fight the Russian invasion: 30 influential TikTok stars were asked to help the government ‘oppose misinformation’, thus preventing the possibility of a deadlier war. In December 2020, then Prime Minister of Nepal KP Sharma Oli created an official TikTok account and posted a video talking about government work. 

But content creators agree that TikTok has gotten a bad rap because of the kind of trends it seems to promote. There’s also a repetitiveness that can be frustrating. Monasteries in Lumbini and many other places now have signs prohibiting people from making TikTok content there. Manjil, who was once consumed by TikTok and used to stay up till three in the morning making videos, says TikTokers must work on making their own content too. Else, the charm will soon be lost. “You can only do the same thing for so long and expect people to still love you,” he says.

But TikTok definitely gives a leg up to good content. Manjil, whose music video ‘Chunumunu’ has over two million views on YouTube, credits TikTok for promoting the song. Many people have discovered new artists and music because they were on TikTok. The same is true for books and authors and various other businesses. “I love music but I only listened to the likes of Nabin K Bhattarai and Sugam Pokharel. Snippets of songs on TikTok made me discover more Nepali music and there’s a lot of good stuff out there,” he says. 

Yet there is also no denying that TikTok thrives on trends and whether it will survive as the current audience outgrows the content depends on how it is used in the future. But, for now, it’s proving to be a boon for many. For Shubham, it just might be his ticket to Bollywood. Manjil makes TikTok for his own pleasure and it fuels his creative side. Dmon considers it a job of sorts with offers of paid promotions and opportunities for music videos coming his way. 

As for Asmi, being able to help some people in her village with their medical bills with her own money at a young age feels like the biggest blessing. And for many others like my parents, it’s bite-sized entertainment when they have a lot to do as well as something they can binge watch when they have absolutely nothing going on.

The UN Chinese Language Day was marked in the Nepali capital of Kathmandu on Wednesday by displaying the beauty of the language mostly spoken in the world, Xinhua reported.

On the occasion, the Nepali version of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong's poems was released, Chinese songs were sung by Nepali students, and a China tea art show was performed with a vivid narrative by Chinese teachers, while seven Nepali teachers recited a classic Chinese prose passage.

Addressing the event held at Kathmandu University, Devendra Paudel, Nepal's minister for education, science and technology, said language learning and exchanges between countries will help enhance diplomatic relations. He acknowledged China's tea culture and support for Nepal's education.

"From ancient civilizations to the modern era, the relationship between Nepal and China is old and closely linked," he said, adding that "so the exchanges of literature and language will nurture the relationship between Nepal and China."

According to incomplete statistics, there are now more than 100 million learners and users of the Chinese language outside China, said the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi.

Hou attributed the growing popularity of the Chinese language to the promotion by the United Nations and other international organizations, the efforts to spread the language by the Chinese government, cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, and China's cooperation in education with Nepal and other developing countries, according to Xinhua.

Since 2010, the United Nations has marked Chinese Language Day on April 20 over the language's contribution to the world while encouraging more people to learn it.

Dr. Harish Chandra Shah, president of Nepal China Cultural and Educational Council, said that his command of traditional Chinese medicine through Chinese learning has made it the foundation of his life and enabled him to serve the Nepali people.

In their speeches, the presidents of Hebei University of Economics and Business, Qinghai Nationalities University and East China University of Technology, which are cooperating with Kathmandu University and Tribhuvan University on the operation of two Confucius Institutes in Nepal, voiced readiness to deepen bilateral educational and cultural exchanges, Xinhua reported.

Prof. Dharma Kanta Baskota, vice chancellor of Tribhuvan University, said "everyone wants to engage with China" as the country is a rising economic powerhouse.

"The Chinese language is creating its value, so both governments need to promote the languages and cultures between the countries," he added, according to Xinhua.

Nepal's economy is not in crisis as feared by many amid dwindling foreign exchange reserves and ballooning current account deficit caused by surging imports and declining inflows of remittance, a senior economist from the World Bank said Thursday, Xinhua reported.

"We don't see any economic crisis in Nepal based on current economic indicators of the country," Alice Joan Brooks, senior country economist of the World Bank for Nepal, told the press. "There is no alarming situation," she said.

The assessment came when there is growing fear about Nepal heading in the direction of crisis-hit Sri Lanka since a number of economic indicators have been negative in recent months.

According to the data released by Nepal's central bank on April 12, the current account had registered a deficit of 3.88 billion U.S. dollars and the balance of payment had remained at a deficit of 2.17 billion dollars as of mid-March in the current fiscal year that began in mid-July 2021.

Likewise, the gross foreign exchange reserves had decreased 18.5 percent to 9.58 billion dollars in mid-March, from 11.75 billion dollars at the beginning of the current fiscal year, according to Xinhua.

The forex reserves are adequate to sustain the import of goods and services for 6.7 months only, below the central bank's target of at least seven months.

The depletion of forex reserves began with surging imports from the beginning of the current fiscal year, as merchandise imports had dropped 38.6 percent during the first eight months of the current 2021-22 fiscal year. Falling inflows of remittance, the largest source of foreign exchanges for Nepal, have made things worse.

Brooks sees Nepal's surging imports in a positive light, describing it as part of the country's recovery from the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, Xinhua reported.

"The imports are the first to recover from the impact of the pandemic and the import items are dominated by capital goods such as machinery and intermediary goods, including raw materials which contribute to economic growth," she said.

"We see the revival of many other sectors including tourism," she added. "Once tourism recovers, it will help to ensure a balanced current account."

In its Nepal Development Update released last week, the World Bank noted that high frequency indicators suggest Nepal's economy had continued to recover in the first half of the current fiscal year after rebounding in 2020-21 from a contraction in 2019-20, with the service sector estimated to have been a primary driver of growth.

In response to depleting forex reserves, Nepal's central bank had instructed the commercial banks to stop issuing letters of credit for the import of vehicles, alcohols and many other goods considered as luxuries.

Brooks said she would suggest targeted restrictions only for the Nepali government. "Nepal needs to create an environment to attract foreign investments which will help finance imports," she said, according to Xinhua.