Linus Yip buys fruits and vegetables for his family in a supermarket in Hong Kong. He also came to realize that simple things in life like shopping for groceries can be enriching. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Candy Tang, a successful entrepreneur and mother of two, has hunkered down at home for months since her projects came to a dead stop, but she has found new value in a deeper bond with those who she calls her two little angels.

"I bustled around all day, before the pandemic," says Tang. "The pandemic upends and quiets my life, but on the other hand, it has made me realize what I'd missed of my kids' growing up."

She asked her older son Kosmo, "Why do people have to stay at home?" She didn't expect an articulate answer from the 5-year-old. He said, "Because bats have a virus. Pigs eat bats' feces and get sick. Then, we eat pigs. We get sick."

"His answer wowed me," recalls Tang. "I never expected he learned so much from school, could remember it, and articulate it that way. He has grown so fast."

She took her family out to Repulse Bay weeks ago. Seeing rubbish floating on the water, Tang says, Kosmo waded into the water, gathering the refuse and "lecturing" about how garbage damaged sea life and the planet.

"I was amazed by my precious son's sensibility and decisiveness. I was touched and motivated to join him," says Tang. "As an adult, we may do nothing because we think that one person's effort won't make any difference to the environment. But the child's world is black and white. It's pure and simple."

The child's world is like a mirror, reflecting how simple life can be, says Tang, in retrospect. "The pandemic is unprecedented. At the same time, it's my first time to realize that life is about doing subtraction … subtracting the complexity, ambiguity and negativities."

The pandemic, if ever it ends, will leave indelible marks. In times of crisis, people turn to the simpler things in life. Many of the changes will be permanent, experts say. Gong abandoned her tastes for the latest fashions, reflecting possible changes in how the world will do business in the future.