Results tagged “earthquake2008”

A 16 year old Sichuan schoolgirl has been invited to attend the upcoming inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama on January 20. The girl, Li Zizi (李紫子) was actually born and raised in Japan but returned to her family home in Sichuan to attend the Chengdu Experimental Foreign Language School, close to some of the areas hit hardest by the great Sichuan earthquake in May.

Tony Cheng of Al-Jazeera continues on his journey in Sichuan province, talking and spending time with quake victims who are still struggling with putting back the broken pieces of their lives. For some, getting back to work has proven easy enough, but the spiritual and emotional anguish they continue to experience on a daily basis remains deep six months on.

Tony Cheng of Al-Jazeera follows up on the Sichuan earthquake refugees and finds many of them running out of patience because the aid that was promised to them never arrived due to suspected corruption. Many of these refugees are still living in temporary shelters in massive camps (which to the credit of the Chinese government was an incredible feat), but with no job, no land to till, and no place to really call their own, they don't see any light at the end of the tunnel.

Sichuan has reopened 17 tourist destinations province-wide after the devastating May 12 earthquake — just in time for the National Day holiday season. Among the 17 destinations is Dujiangyan, one of the worst-hit cities in the province, and home to the collapsed Xinjian Primary School and Juyuan Middle School where many students and teachers were literally buried alive.

The Chinese internets are abuzz with the idea that China's final medal count of 51 golds, 22 silvers and 28 bronzes coincides with the date and time of May's devastating Sichuan earthquake — 5.12, 2:28pm.

WSJ: Olympic protestor VS Patriotic youth

The U.S. Geological Survey, via Reuters newswire, reported that a potentially destructive 6.0 magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan, China, at 0949 GMT (that would be 5:49 Shanghai time) on Tuesday. The temblor was centered 30 miles north-northwest of Guangyuan, China, at a depth of 6.2 miles. USGS said a shallow quake of that magnitude is capable of significant property damage. AFP reports no casualties have been reported as yet.

According to the NGO Human Rights in China, Liu Shaokun, a teacher from Sichuan Province has been sent to labor camp for having published photos of collapsed school bulidings in the quake hit area. After the earthquake, Liu photographed the damaged school buildings and posted his photos on line. He also expressed his anger over the low quality of these buildings in a newspaper interview.

Yesterday we heard that authorities in Sichuan were offering hush money to parents who lost children in the May earthquake. The story has been circulating widely, and more details about the government’s attempts to placate parents have come to the fore. Not only are officials apparently going door to door offering pay outs of around 60,000 RMB, they’re sweetening the deal by adding more incentives to keep up the harmonious front. The list includes pensions, free life insurance and relaxing the one child policy to allow parents of children disabled by collapsing schools to have another baby.

As the Chinese government goes about in its last minute preparations for the long-awaited Olympics, elsewhere in Sichuan Province, local officials are pressurizing parents whose children have died in the May 12 earthquake to accept hush money. Sign a contract to get a cash payment plus pension or risk further trouble from the authorities? Very, very disturbing. [Source]

President Hu Jintao recently hosted some very special guests at the Zhongnanhai compound, the Party and government headquarters. A group of young school children from Wenyuan, the epicenter of the earthquake in May, were flown to Beijing for a grand tour of the capital and to meet with none other than Grandpa Hu (胡爷爷).

For this week's edition of Opinionist, we present to you some of the thoughts of Ho Kwon Ping, founder and executive chairman of the Banyan Tree Group which owns and operates a chain of award-winning premium resorts, hotels and spas, surrounding the great Sichuan earthquake. Ho, who owns resorts in Lijiang, Shangri-La and Sanya, had a close shave with the earthquake as his flight from Chengdu to Hong Kong was almost taking off when the earthquake struck.

Cisco announces a three-year $45 million (RMB300 million) commitment to helping rebuild in the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake that left nearly 5 million people homeless. The memorandum of understanding signed by both Sichuan Governor Jiang Jufeng and Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers was the result of several weeks of meetings between the Cisco team and officials from all levels of the Chinese government to gain a better understanding of the current situation. Corporate Social Responsibility News (CSRWire ) brings us the detailed story here.

"Resolutely love and protect the entire student body. Respect the students’ selfhood and treat students fairly and equally. Help students by alternating discipline and kindness, and act as a mentor to students. Protect the safety of students. Defend the students’ lawful rights and interests, promote the students’ complete, active and healthy development. Do not mock, satirize or discriminate against students. Do not subject students to corporal punishment or disguised forms of corporal punishment." All inspired by the Running Teacher. [Source]

A pig who survived for 36 days after the Sichuan earthquake on May 12 has been heralded as a hero and symbol of the will to stay alive. The pig, who has since been named "Zhu Jianqiang" or "Strongwill Pig," managed to live on a diet of charcoal and water while buried under rubble. It was discovered last week in Pengzhou city, having lost two-thirds of its weight and now "thin as a goat," a witness told Xinhua. The pig has since been bought by the local Jianchuan Museum for 3,008 yuan and will be kept as a "living symbol of the earthquake disaster."

It has been just over a month since the earthquake hit Sichuan, and while much of the media coverage has moved on to other disasters, we can still catch musical tributes while waiting for the subway. From the very beginning, we were impressed by how quickly state-owned media mobilized to air reel after reel of footage to inspire citizens across China to action and in many cases rally hope. Popular musicians all over Asia have banded together to sing for the all those who have been effected by the event, and faithful Chinese web users have uploaded countless such MVs to video sharing networks like Youtube and Tudou. Here is a sampling of what we have found.

The Olympic athletes coming to Beijing in August might not be the only ones competing at the Games. Many Christian missionary groups are salivating at the opportunity to compete for all those heathen souls in the Orient. As FaithWorld blogs reports:

Doing covert missionary work in difficult areas — usually Muslim countries— is a challenge some Christian groups relish.

This great sporting event presents a unique opportunity to make the life-changing message of the Bible available to thousands of athletes and visitors from all over China-– and all over the world.

With the upcoming Olympics and the subsequent global attention, the government obviously wants the nation to look its best, which in China sometimes translates to quashing dissent. Two European-based human rights groups working together as the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders recently published a report declaring that the government has stepped up attempts to quiet dissidents, citing four people arrested for Olympic Games protests, including Hu Jia, who was sentenced to three and a half years in jail for criticizing the government’s human rights violations. More from the AFP article:

In a foreword to the report, writer Wei Jingsheng wrote: "In particular, last year the Chinese Government's repression has rapidly upgraded, in an effort to make sure there is no dissident voices from the people during the 2008 Olympics."

Continue reading "A pre-Olympic dissident clampdown?"

One week after last month's deadly Sichuan Earthquake, we brought to you the heartrending story of Chen Jian (陈坚), a young man who was pinned under the rubble for 73 hours, but unfortunately didn't make it after rescuers managed to extract him after working on him for six hours. Today, Zhang Qian (张倩), the reporter who was by Chen Jian's side in his last moments still breaks down whenever she thinks of him. In this interview with CCTV, she tearfully recounts of how she and her cameraman could not help but weep when they entered Beichuan that fateful day and saw how it was completely flattened by the quake, and of how she shuddered to think of how many people were under her each time she had to walk over the rubble. She also highlights the bravery of one Jiangsu rescuer by the name of Ouyang Honghong (欧阳宏宏) who risked his own life by taking off his helmet because that was the only way he could enter the rubble and help reposition Chen Jian's body.

"Until now, India has been the undisputed world leader in IT Outsourcing (ITO). Now the Indians are looking over their shoulders as China bids to overhaul their lead!"

ABC News: Athletes banned from Beijing opening ceremony

For those of you that have been complaining about the wet weather in Shanghai here over the weekend, our friends in southern China have been having it far worse. Heavy rain in Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces are causing water levels in rivers further downstream in in Jiangxi, Guangxi and Guangdong provinces to rise. Of course all this is doubly bad news for Sichuan which is still reeling from last month's earthquake. Over 1.27 million people have been evacuated across nine provinces, and economic losses already amount to over 10 billion yuan. Xinhua says vegetable prices in a few cities in Guangdong shot up between 30 percent and 70 percent on Saturday alone. Hong Kong has also been swamped by record rainfall (see video), and at least two people are now missing in landslides in the New Territories.

A month after the tragedy in Sichuan you’d be forgiven for feeling a little compassion fatigue. Whilst the focus of the recovery process has changed from the desperate speed of the first few days, there is still a lot of work to be done repairing damage both physical and emotional.

Nationalism has made its way into Olympic advertising as as this new television commercial by Chinese sports brand Anta shows. JWT Shanghai (part of the WPP Group) conceptualised the ad for Anta, saying it was "inspired by Chinese people’s response to the earthquake". Said the China chief executive of the agency, Tom Doctoroff:

“We decided to extend the brand message from individual glory to national glory, encouraging everyone in China to stand tall through these obstacles.”

The Press Association: China says quake lake alert is over

Fiery episode of 《针锋相对》on Phoenix TV hosted by Hu Yihu (胡一虎) discussing whether Fan Meizhong (范美忠), teacher at the Guangya School in Dujiangyan, was "morally corrupt" for being the first to run away when the earthquake struck (If you missed this story earlier, read this backgrounder by Danwei). Unfortunately, we won't be able to translate everything said in these four videos, but a few things are worth pointing out. First, Fan starts by saying that unlike most of his Chinese compatriots, he did not see the teacher's job as "sacred" (神圣) and that his vocation was just one among many, and that his responsibility was to impart knowledge and wisdom, not to sacrifice his life for his students. In the days following the earthquake, Fan was pilloried online by netizens for some of the things he said, but also many quotations (including those shown on a board in the studio) were wrongly attributed to him. Fan reiterates what he said on his blog by admitting his own weakness saying he too was made of flesh and blood, and when the earthquake struck the only thing he could think of was his own safety first. For that Fan maintains that he broke no law, and whether his actions made him "morally corrupt" was not for anyone to decide. Former military man and social commentator Guo Songmin (郭松民) lambasts Fan, saying, "Even animals know how to save their offspring. I have never met such a shameless man in my life," to which Fan cooly retorts, "I am happy such a morally upright man exists in China today. If everyone were like him, I'm sure all of China's corruption problems, tofu construction projects, etc would be solved very easily." Fan also adds that sacrificing one's life for his students was over and above what one should expect of a teacher, but not "minimum moral responsibility" (底线道德).

As many of you may remember, Shanghaiist held a benefit for Sichuan's earthquake victims at Sasha's Bar and Restaurant almost three weeks ago. Due to the munificence of many companies and individuals, attendees had close to a 20% chance of winning a raffle prize. Unfortunately, many awards have not yet been claimed! Therefore, we have set a deadline of SUNDAY for you to collect your prizes.

Photo from Mike Chen