Are you back to normal in Shanghai?

What does your new normal look like?

Such questions have popped up every day from friends and readers abroad for the past month or so, curious about how life looks like after weeks of abnormality.

I didn’t know how to answer … until last week when I spotted the fried pancake uncle and his long queue of customers in the street downstairs.

It is a scene I had missed for more than three months, and it is a little different from what I remembered.

He always had the longest queue, and still has. He isn’t back in his normal spot, but has rented a small eatery nearby for the morning. The owner wanted to cover his losses over the past three months and the pancake uncle needed an approved venue so he could reopen.

He wears a mask and a pair of gloves to make pancakes now. His customers wear masks and try to stay apart from each other. The pancakes taste deliciously familiar and the uncle was excited to see me.

“At first, I was worried about safety, then not having enough customers to cover the costs, and then whether it would require a lot of paperwork to reopen, and now it’s great to see many waiting in line looking so familiar despite the masks covering half their faces,” he said as he piled on the green onions I always order.

“It’s all back. But sometimes I forget my mask at home and have to run back to get it.”

I have done that too, many times, suddenly remembering that I need the mask halfway to the office when I see everyone else wearing one in the street.

My dad, who used to complain that a mask makes it difficult to breathe, now complains when he sees crowds in the parks without masks. He even insists that our ayi (domestic helper), who has been back for three weeks, divides the food into individual portions at every meal. Hard to imagine, as he is someone who always wanted to share dishes, even at Western restaurants.

“We are back, but we need to be cautious to make it last,” he warns me all the time. “Live your life, but not exactly as before.”

I have been back in the office since late February, though temperature checks and wearing masks are still required to enter the building.

My delivery guy can finally enter the neighborhood again, though still can’t get into our building.

The shops in the neighborhood started to reopen in early March. The small corner marts at first, then eateries and restaurants, then the barber’s, and now the massage and spa salon that I didn’t dare to go for weeks.

They are not as crowded as pre-virus, but I see more customers in the shops day by day.

Children are returning to school. Dancing aunties are back in the parks. Bars and clubs have opened and Shanghai Disneyland will reopen on May 11.

Even the sellers and gym promoters who always stop me in the street are back, strangely more comforting than annoying now.

On the surface, masks are the only thing that changed in the street, and increasingly more people are not wearing masks outdoors.

Some friends still work from home, others have moved their business online. My neighbor, who ordered food three times a day, now cooks so well and often shares with me. Even city officials are hitting streaming sites for the first time to help business at department stores.