But this kind of thing has a background that everyone understands—pandemic control.

Pandemic control is also a national-scale empowerment campaign for security guards, volunteers, and other grassroots workers, giving them the power to check, intercept, and even "detain" overnight.

Standardized service awareness is out of the question; attitude quality depends entirely on luck.

From my personal experience, I’ve encountered security guards at high-end malls waving their hands as if shooing away dogs, while in rundown neighborhoods, I’ve met smiling guards, all cordial, checking temperatures.

The previously idle "gatekeeper grandpas" suddenly took on a fierce look, wearing red armbands, blocking the entrance, and starting to interrogate everyone. This is essentially a presumption of guilt, assuming everyone is dangerous, suspicious, and therefore must show proof or take measures (wear a mask) to prove their innocence.

This is also a widespread, sometimes overt, sometimes covert erosion of dignity; people have to lower their heads upon entering—to prove their safety to security and other groups.

Originally an extraordinary measure, due to the pandemic lasting two years, extraordinary measures have instead become a norm in some places, also turning into formalism.

For example, according to this influencer’s revelation, security checked him strictly, while bank staff weren’t wearing masks. This double standard is irritating and highlights the absurdity of security’s "seriousness."

In similar scenes, expecting people to stay calm can be quite difficult sometimes.

Of course, security and other groups are also fulfilling their duties. One must admit that checking codes and wearing masks is a necessity for pandemic control to some extent.

But it’s also important to see the countless conflicts this has triggered. Subways, buses, cities, villages—wherever checkpoints are set up, these events abound. Stories like subway guards yelling angrily at an elderly man, volunteers tying uncooperative villagers to trees—bizarre news is all over.

These news stories sometimes don’t have a clear right or wrong. Those "uncooperative" citizens also bear some responsibility at times. But the control measures themselves inherently carry tension, and in most cases, they are hard to feel friendly.

At least from my own experience, I now avoid going out when possible, avoid visiting several malls when possible, scanning codes back and forth and looking for masks only makes me feel immensely troubled. Though avoiding it completely is difficult, like on the subway where inspectors are present, a security guard with a red armband scans passengers from one side to the other with sharp eyes, reminding those without masks.

▲ On August 30, 2021, in a community in Yangzhou, citizens receive entry permits to go in and out (Photo/Visual China)

Of course, one must acknowledge that such scenes are necessary, but I wonder if anyone inherently prefers living in this environment. There’s a saying, "dog fierce, wine sour," where the store’s dog is too aggressive, and wine remains unsold. Since the pandemic began, I’ve blacklisted several malls because security acted too stiffly, questioning customers entering as if they were suspects.

Currently, almost everyone lives in a universally pressurized environment, and it’s hard to say when people will explode.

Just the other day during the National Day holiday, I visited some places in the city, enduring red-faced or white-faced treatment at various famous spots through "checks and releases." Unexpectedly, when returning to my neighborhood, the security, who normally doesn’t bother, stopped me again.

At that moment, I was furious, maddened by this double standard, formality, and unpredictability—which was stopping people because the street was conducting checks, requiring entry permits unused for months.

This is the societal environment altered by the pandemic, where people live in an environment requiring constant self-verification of safety, everywhere encountering checkpoints. This check points directly to the core of personal privacy; even just entering a mall, people have to prove at a fundamental level that they’re safe.

Of course, it must be emphasized again that such measures are necessary under the pandemic control requirements, just like this influencer’s attitude, "I thoroughly cooperate and respect pandemic control regulations."

However, I really hope people don’t forget that these measures are extraordinary, belonging to the extra requirements of normal social order, an additional demand on ordinary people.

Due to pandemic control, many grassroots workers have acquired some kind of authority. It’s an abrupt power, untrained, and not everyone understands the boundaries or rationale of this power, like the arrogant nodding of the security encountered by the influencer, commonly seen in life.

This is, of course, a duty, and security guards aren’t having it easy. I think they probably don’t want to increase this workload either. But reality shows that some groups who rarely experience the taste of power begin to have an inflated desire to "give people attitude."

▲ On January 30, 2020, at Xujiahui Mall in Shanghai, staff measure the temperature of a woman pushing a stroller.

In the context where these measures are expected to continue for a period of time, I can only naïvely hope that security guards and various units can enhance service awareness a bit and understand the trouble brought by extraordinary measures. After all, people come to consume, to handle affairs, not to prove they’re disease-free.

Security or various staff, at the very least, shouldn’t cause more friction, shouldn’t use enforcing pandemic requirements as a reason to crush dignity. Of course, this appeal is probably futile, as people’s "unpleasant experiences" won’t likely be reduced much.