Lifestyle

Squatter lived in phone booth for a month during COVID-19 lockdown

There’s no place like phone.

After failing to find a job during Shanghai’s ongoing lockdown, a desperate migrant worker took up residence in a telephone booth, where she incredibly lived for a month with her dog before getting evicted. Photos of the woman’s impromptu abode are going viral as Chinese netizens empathize with her plight.

“How has surviving become so difficult?” a Shanghai citizen commented on Chinese social media platform WeChat regarding her dystopian living situation, which came to light via photos shot by a nearby high-rise tenant, Vice reported. The images were published Sunday in Esquire China and then shared across Chinese social media.

The 50-something unidentified woman was an orphan of Shanghai’s draconian quarantine, in which the majority of the metropolis’ 26 million residents were ordered to stay indoors to try to contain a COVID outbreak. The measure resulted in food shortages, protests and other harrowing scenarios straight out of an Orwellian nightmare.

The woman’s dystopian living situation came to light via photos shot by a nearby high-rise tenant. Chinese social media
The quarantine castaway was observed walking her pooch, drying laundry and toting groceries outside her makeshift accommodation. Chinese social media
The lockdown disproportionately affected migrant workers — who make up a third of China’s workforce — because of how dependent they are on their bosses. Chinese social media

The mandate proved apocalyptic for the phone box squatter, who, like many migrant workers, struggled to find work amid the city-wide house arrest. The renewed lockdowns reportedly plunged the nation’s manufacturing output to a two-year low, costing millions of migrant workers their jobs and leaving them financially bereft.

Left unable to make the rent, the resourceful woman colonized one of Shanghai’s iconic red telephone booths. Accompanying pics show the quarantine castaway walking her pooch, drying laundry and toting groceries outside her makeshift accommodation.

All appeared to be hunky-dory — relatively speaking — until last week when authorities arrived at midnight and gave phone woman the boot. Vice reported that the nest-wreckers threw her belongings on the curb and sealed the cubicle with duct tape. The barefoot gal then disappeared into the rain while clutching her pup.

The woman lived in the booth for a month before getting the boot. Chinese social media
The woman’s makeshift abode. Chinese social media
Temporary employees have little job security and meager labor protections. Chinese social media

The telephone booth tenant wasn’t the only migrant worker forced to improvise amid the circumstances. Others resorted to sleeping on cardboard in parking lots, in beds under bridges and in sidewalk tents.

In fact, the lockdown disproportionately affected migrant workers — who make up a third of China’s workforce — because of how dependent they are on their bosses.

“Many migrant workers live from hand to mouth and rely on their employers to provide shelter and food,” Pun Ngai, a Hong Kong professor who specializes in Chinese labor, told Vice. “With most factories and shops closed, they are left to fend for themselves.” 

She threw herself a lifeline. Chinese social media
The now-vacant call cubicle has been sealed off with duct tape. Yu Guang
Many Chinese social media users sympathized with the worker’s plight. Chinese social media

Not to mention that these temporary employees have little job security and meager labor protections.

Of course, migrant workers aren’t the only ones suffering under quarantine. Last month, The Post reported that dozens of staff and vendors at NYU’s Shanghai campus had been trapped on campus for weeks. Earlier this week, an alarming video captured the moment several of the city’s first responders realize a body bag they were taking to a morgue actually contained a live person.