Young Taiwanese in Shanghai greet their families.

Young Taiwanese in Shanghai enjoyed a reunion with their families via the Internet over the weekend.

They gathered at the Renaissance Shanghai Yangtze Hotel, watched performances, had dinner and talked with their families across the Taiwan Strait via the Internet. The hotel was decorated with elements of the traditional Chinese New Year. It also set up areas for games popular in Taiwan.

The event was organized by the Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises in Shanghai to help those who chose not to return to Taiwan due to the COVID-19 pandemic to celebrate the New Year with their families.

Shih Chia-yi, deputy director of the association and chief of its youth department, said that there are more than 20,000 young Taiwanese working and living in Shanghai. Sixty to 70 percent of them have decided to stay in the city rather than returning to Taiwan during the Spring Festival, the Chinese New Year, a traditional festival for family reunion in China.

“The Spring Festival is an important occasion for Chinese, and usually most of us would return to Taiwan to celebrate it with our families,” she said.

“But this year, we would have to serve 21 days of quarantine after arriving in Taiwan and another 14 days after returning to Shanghai due to pandemic prevention and control measures in the two places. It costs a lot of money and time. Therefore, many of us chose to stay here. We organized the event to let everybody know that we are a big family here and express our best wishes for our families, relatives and friends in Taiwan via the Internet.”

Chang Chien-chen, director of the association, told families of the young people via the Internet to feel at ease as Shanghai has very strict pandemic control measures, and life and work have returned to normal in the city.

Lee Cheng-hung, president of the Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises on the Mainland, said Taiwanese, including entrepreneurs and others, have made great contributions to the fight against the pandemic as well as the social and economic development of Shanghai in the past year.

He said there are a lot of career and business opportunities in Shanghai and on the whole mainland. He encouraged young Taiwanese to work hard in the new year to harvest greater achievements.