China's anti-zero COVID protest anthem is Bappi Lahiri's 'Jimmy Jimmy' song; here's why

The Chinese nationals are playing late Indian legend Bappi Lahiri's hit soundtrack Jimmy Jimmy Aaja Aaja from the 1982 movie Disco Dancer starring Mithun Chakraborty in a hilarious trend as they expressed their defiant views against the country's stringent 'Zero COVID-19' policy that has left many Chinese nationals now isolating at home. The song's lyrics 'Jimmy Jimmy' translates to “give me rice” [Jie mi] in China's Mandarin language.

Those confined at home have now been posting videos on TikTok and the Twitter-like Chinese app Weibo with the Bappi Lahiri song playing in the background to register grievances on the issue of shortage of food amid one of the biggest-ever COVID-19 outbreak clampdowns imposed across several cities. The song in Mandarin says, “Give me some rice? Who can give me? I ran out of it. No need to give much rice, my family has only a few members.”

800,000 people in one district in Wuhan under lockdown, elsewhere too, Chinese frustrated

Chinese nationals who have been asked to restrict their non-essential movements and regions where people are under the strict lockdown have complained of running out of flour, rice, eggs, milk, and other basic commodities. Authorities have been scrambling to contain local outbreaks of the coronavirus and have imposed several localised lockdowns including in the city of Wuhan, which once became the epicentre of coronavirus. 

An estimated 800,000 people in one district in Wuhan were under the lockdown that is expected to ease on October 30. Chinese Health Commission authorities have ordered rigorous testing and contact tracing to detect symptomatic and asymptomatic cases. Zhengzhou, the city that hosts the world's largest iPhone manufacturing plants, was also under lockdown after more than 1,000 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus were reported. 

As people remained confined to their homes, they recorded videos dancing to the Bappi Lahiri's tune with empty plates, bowls, and other vessels. Some Chinese nationals wore sarees and grooved, demanding that the lockdown must end as a way of deriding the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) stringent Zero-COVID policy. As many as 2,898 new coronavirus cases were reported in mainland China as of Sunday, breaking the previous record of 2,000 for a second consecutive day, according to data projected by China's national health commission (NHC).