Though apart, loved ones share moon

It's quite normal for merchant seamen to be unable to spend the holidays with their families because most of their time is spent on the water. For Zhang Jian, a second officer at China COSCO Shipping Corp, this Mid-Autumn Festival was yet another where he was unable to see his beloved family because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I was very much looking forward to the festival and our family reunion this year," said the 32-year-old from Shangqiu, Henan province. He had been attending training sessions in Hebei province when he was informed that if he returned home to Shangqiu he would have to quarantine for at least a week due to a COVID-19 outbreak. His plans were scuppered.

When he was a boy, Mid-Autumn Festival was all about farming. "I grew up in a rural village, so our family was very busy with the harvest during the festival," he said.

"But now, if I'm not working, I usually just take my wife and young daughter to visit my parents and have a great dinner together."

Merchant seamen spend seven to nine months on the ocean during each voyage. Afterward, when they return to China, they can go on vacation for three to five months. But due to the unpredictable nature of the pandemic, the situation is up in the air and staff are required to work as and when needed.

Zhang has spent only two Mid-Autumn Festivals with his family since 2014. He returned to China for a vacation in March after 10 months on a container ship sailing between China and South America. He expects to be back on a boat soon after the festival.

Every time he marks a festival on the ocean, the moon is his best companion. "When the moon is nice and round, I look at it through the telescope and think about what time it is at home and what my family is doing," he said.

"Despite the distance, it gives me comfort knowing that even when we are thousands of miles apart we are all looking at the same moon," the second officer said.

Every festival he is not at home, Zhang remembers a phrase from an ancient Chinese poem: "Alone, a lonely stranger in a foreign land, I doubly pine for kinsfolk on a holiday". That, he said, expresses his homesickness at such times.

While his job requires that he become somewhat accustomed to missing family reunions, Zhang said he can't help feeling guilty about not being there with his family, especially after the birth of his daughter in 2019.

His family have been more worried about his health since the pandemic as there are greater risks of infection traveling all over the globe.

"In recent years, each time my vacation time nears its end I've become increasingly reticent to return to work," he said. "There is so much that I really care about at home."

Zhang said that although he would be apart from his family for another Mid-Autumn Festival this year, he knows that as he stares at the moon from his room in Hebei, his family would be doing the same at home.