Relief and Beliefs

Here is a great story from the blog ‘bezdomny ex patria’, which translates a newspaper account of Shandong peasants’ contribution to earthquake relief efforts:

“On the map it’s only 25 centimetres as the crow flies, not far, let’s go!” At around 1 am on the 14th, after an “Urgent Meeting to Analyse the Feasibility of Going to Sichuan for Disaster Relief”, 10 residents of Dongzaohu Village, Luohe Township, Ying County, Shandong, carrying 50 kg of Shandong pancakes, driving an agricultural tricycle, jolted their way for four days and three nights over 3000 km, finally reaching Sichuan to take part in the earthquake relief.”

Although this is a lovely story, it is news items like this that make it difficult for me to watch the tv news here. Everything, whether it is an uplifting story of rescue or a crushing one of loss, makes me cry. Even waiting in the bank I can’t look at the big screen tv tuned into the news channel without feeling myself tear up. Almost every story has an emotional pull.

Here is my adaptation of a translated poem that is circulating on the internet and may be made into an earthquake memorial song. It is unashamedly syrupy, but even this I can’t read without choking up.

"Hurry child, take Mummy's hand": for the children who died in the earthquake

Hurry child, take Mummy's hand.
The way to heaven is too dark
and Mummy is afraid you'll hit your head.
Hurry, hold Mummy's hand tight -
Let me go with you.

Mummy, I'm scared.
The road to heaven is too dark.
I can't see your hand
Since the falling walls stole the sunshine away.
I will never see your loving gaze again.

Go child, the road ahead
Will have no more sadness,
No endless homework, or your father's scolding.
You must remember Daddy's face and mine,
In the next life we will walk together again

Mummy don't worry.
The road to heaven is crowded.
There are many classmates and friends.
We say do not weep, do not weep,
Anyone's mother is our mother now,
Any child is your child.
In the days ahead without me,
Please give your love to the children who are still alive.

Mummy don't cry,
Tears won't light our road.
Let us go slowly on our way.
Mummy I'll remember Daddy and your faces
I'll remember our promise,
In the next life to walk together again.


You can read the stories behind this poem in the New York Times, which has several revealing articles about schools that collapsed, killing up to 10,000 children.

It is incredible to witness the national outpouring of emotion that the earthquake has released. I ♥ China t-shirts are everywhere. National pride was running very high anyway, as a result of the protests in Tibetan areas and then the Olympic Torch Rally controversy, but the earthquake has taken it to another level. It has also, generally speaking, given the nationalistic feelings a more positive turn. The focus has moved from anger against perceived injustices by the international community, to an outpouring of brotherly love and support for those affected by the disaster. It appears to be true in the world at large also, that detailed media coverage of events, and especially the human stories of bereavement, have given people new insight into and sympathy for China.

Within China, many people have translated their feelings into action. They are turning out in large numbers to help with the relief effort, many travelling across the country to try and contribute. Whether it’s a group of Shandong peasants with a tricycle-load of pancakes or a psychiatrist from Guangzhou on a mountain bike, everyone has a genuine desire to do what they can. Even the generally self-absorbed, BMW-driving middle classes of Chengdu are getting involved, if the piles of donated blankets and supplies at the gate of our compound last week are anything to go by.

The centre of the ex-pat relief effort in Chengdu is the Bookworm cafe, where a group of people have set up Sichuan Quake Relief to assist the relief operation. Please visit this site to see what they are doing and how you can help. Our friend Jonny Dallas joined a convoy of trucks from the Bookworm that went up to Longmenshan on Saturday. He said they visited about 20 villages to distribute supplies and collect information. Depending on the ability and connections of the village leaders, some were well set-up with orderly camps and enough bottled water to last a month, while others had nothing. I’ll be working with the Chengdu International Women’s Club over the next months to raise money for a specific charity, and I’ll post more about that as it develops. Ethan is also thinking about the longer term scenario and how Winrock may be able to assist in the reconstruction effort.

The first half of 2008 has been difficult for China, and many people are finding symmetry in the string of disasters. I heard from several sources this week that the number 8 provides a connection between all the things that have happened. The winter snowstorms that caused such havoc started on the 25th of January: 1-25 (1+2+5=8), the Lhasa riots began on the 14th of March (3-14) and the earthquake occurred on the 12th of May (5-12). Not only that, they are saying that the death toll could rise as high as 80,000 people. The author of the blog Barking at the Sun takes this further, pointing out that between 12th May and 8th August there are 88 days, and that some people claim 2008 is a cursed year, just as 1998 and 1988 (not sure why) and 1978 (the year of Mao’s death) were before it.

I haven’t heard any coherent explanation for the unlucky 8, which is usually a lucky number in China, much as 7 is in the west, but people are saying we should all be careful on the 2nd of June, not to mention the 11th of June, oh and the 1st of July and the 10th of July….then that’s it for the rest of the year, thank goodness. Unless of course the 8th of August 2008 comes into play, and let’s hope not because the Olympic Games are scheduled to open on that date, at 8:08 precisely.

The other superstition doing the rounds connects the various disasters to the Olympic mascots. Jingjing, the panda mascot, relates to Sichuan Province, home of pandas and the site of the earthquake. The Tibetan antelope mascot, Yingying, represents the unrest that occurred in Tibetan areas earlier in the year. The flame-haired mascot Huanhuan is the Olympic torch and so is obviously connected to the protests that dogged its progress around the world. The swallow mascot, Nini, is somewhat tenuously linked to the city of Weifang in Shandong, the home of kite-flying, where a fatal train crash occurred last month. I have heard that Beibei the sturgeon fish mascot has been linked to the snowstorm disaster, but others say it is connected to the Yangtse river or to the Olympic games themselves, and to a 5th disaster yet to come.

AFP quotes a geomancer from Hong Kong claiming that, according to Chinese astrological charts, 2008, the Year of the Rat on the Chinese lunar calendar, was destined to be one of tumult and disaster."This is a year of earth and water, it means the earth is unstable and water is very powerful," he said. Hence the snowstorms and the earthquakes, though no explanation for everything else.

I first heard about the 5 mascots from my friend Ingrid and, the way she told it, Beibei represents the snowstorms and therefore the disasters are all over and done with. In fact she maintains that 5 good things will happen in China in the second half of the year! We had some fun speculating about what they might be, depending on your point of view. Let’s hope things take a turn for the better, anyway, because people could really use a break around here.