China's Earthquake: Unleashing A New Civil Spirit?
2008, China's "glory year," has not been kind. The news has been chockablock with train wrecks, bus explosions and mining disasters. Freak snowstorms paralyzed half the country, stranding millions in dingy, dank train stations. And, last week's earthquake in Sichuan province, the largest natural disaster to strike the mainland in more than 30 years, killed more than 50,000 people. Has China gone off the rails?
Many Western pundits question whether this string of misfortune will break the spirit of the Chinese, particularly as the entire nation gears up for the Olympics, a once-in-a-millenium extravaganza that should have unleashed epic pride. And there's no question that that the anti-Chinese, pro-Tibet protests, staged from Paris to San Francisco, have put a "black mark" over the Games. Regardless of how many golds China wins or how impressed foreigners are with Beijing's genuinely stunning new airport, the Olympics cannot be an unmitigated success.
That said, recent adversity has brought out the best in the Chinese -- i.e., a fierce resilience and unity of spirit. It has also triggered expression of genuine empathy, not China's hallmark, for the earthquake victims.
National determination, particularly when the chips are down, has always the country's greatest resource. Ming emperors called on millions to rebuild the Great Wall when the dyanasty was threatened by nomadic incursion from the North. During the 1930s, the Communist and Nationalist parties, enemies even today, put aside their differences to resist Japanese invasion. When SARS threatened the PRC's economic miracle, everyone, from neighborhood aunties to bosses of state-owned enterprises, mobilized to squash the disease.
China believes that unity -- ningju li or cohesion -- is tantamount to survival. And, make no mistake, the central government's (patriarchical) legitimacy hinges on maintaining order and stability. After the quake, authorities are firmly in the driver's seat. Relief efforts, despite gargantuan logistical hurdles, have been impressive by any standard. An outpouring of national grief has been meticulously choreographed. China has officially declared three days of national mourning, concurrently banning any entertainment program. Today, at 2:28 pm, the Middle Kingdom observed three minutes of silence; our office's hyper-kinetic pulse suddenly stopped...and then, with metronomic precision, restarted. Media coverage has been a blend of "managed transparency" -- every day, the death toll climbs by a few thousand -- and propagandistic tales of inspiring heroism. The powers-that-be even mandated the Torch Run slogan be changed. The celebratory "Light the passion, spread the dream" has been toned down to a subdued-yet-resolute "Spread the holy flame, contribute caring love."
Is the government sincere? From the famine unleashed by the Great Leap Forward to the persecution of millions during the Cutural Revolution, not to mention what is still euphemistically referred to as the 1989 Tiananmen "incident," the Communist Party has been responsible for some of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century. In its bid to maintain exclusive power, is a hypocritical, self-aggrandizing government playing the emotions of its citizenry?
Perhaps a bit, yes.
But, as someone who has lived on the mainland for more than a decade, I have been surprised and moved by genuine, bottom-up concern for the well-being of victims and their families, strangers they may be. While watching a memorial television program with a few local friends, quiet tears were shed, not the manufactured strum and dirge one usually encounters during most official mourning. At JWT, employees spontaneously organized a charity drive to rebuild a school in one of the shattered villages. A group of digital media technology researchers from Jiao Tong University, working together with a Sichuan technician, have succeeded in sending out a TV signal so refugees in tents can watch state television and local TV programs. The Shanghai Hope Project Office is prepared to accept 500 orphans from the quake-stricken areas. And, in the first two days after the quake, China's Red Cross collected about 180 million yuan ($26 million), mostly from individuals, impressive for a country not prone to providing charity to strangers.
How has this happened? Has China discovered a new spirit of generosity, one presaging the emergence of a truly civil society? Not yet. A ruthlessly competitive, money-hungry mindset still characterizes many middle class Chinese. However, the country and its people are making progress. In this case, bottom-up empathy has been heightened by two "new" influences. First, the internet has been harnessed to fuel both emotions and cash drives. Tales of agony and trimuph, told be real people rather than proganda mouthpieces, are spreading through cyberspace, inspiring millions of new generation netizens to give to a far-away cause. Second, the flow of information from the government has been, relatively speaking, factual and fast. (The openness is in marked contrast to how officials handled the Tibetan riots.) Prime Minister Wen Jiabao's immediate, ubiquitously-broadcast trek through quake wreckage convinced the nation that the disaster was tian zai (i.e., an act of "heaven"), not ren huo (i.e., caused by official malfeasance or inefficiency) and, therefore, a "worthy" national rallying cry. A fresh, non-Orwellian style has been embraced by millions, a lesson the government will, hopefully, not forget.
Facilitated by modern technology and a less defensive government, China's tradition of surmounting adversity has been turbocharged on an epic scale. In the process, the country may emerge stronger, more confident, less prickly. Even the Olympic Torch Run may morph from an off-putting nationalistic victory lap to a noble declaration of perseverence. Ironically, Olympic glory, always threatened by braggadocio, may be delivered by disaster. Can anyone not be touched by a nation resolved to overcome woe and stand up again?
Opportunity and inspiration really are borne of crisis.
Read more HuffPost coverage of China and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games
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The outpouring of sentiment has indeed been phenomenal. Especially amazing are those stories of regular folks who boarded buses or jumped in their cars and simply drove to Sichuan, to do whatever they could.
Let's hope that whatever deep spring this catastrophe touched on continues to flow!
"Zhongguo jia you!"
Indeed, the havocs wrecked by the Wenchuan Big Earthequake is mindboggling - 30,000 some dead, 250,000 some inijured and half million displaced. The response and nationwide mobilization has been herculean. and is continuing. Now after 7 days when saving of those buried has turned hopeless, the immediate attention has turned to care of the injured, feeding and sheltering the displaced, and preventing the spread of epidemic - let alone the massive reconstruction and resettlement that await. Aids, recue help and doantions are pouring in from many countries - with compassion displacing hatred and suspicion.
At 2:28 pm on May 19th yesterday, the entire nation stood in silence commenrating the victims of the quake. A crowd of hundreds gathered at Tiananmen. This time in expressing their grief and showing
appreciation of the countyr's leaders - contrasting the protests of the last TAM Incident.
Yes, the quake disaster may have brought a new defining moment of the dynamics of changes of the
"New China" serving t o unite her people and rendering a kinder perspetive for China from the outside world.
P.S. For those who continue to criticize China on the pretext of human right on Tibet and Darfu, know your facts if you bother to find out.
I have lived in China for 6 years and the one thing I have to say is please stop insulting these people. What have the Chinese done to you? Why do you hate the Chinese so much? The Chinese 15% of the earth. They have an ancient civilization dating back 5000 years of recorded history. Why do you think all of a suden just because your paying attention that there lives have just started. The Chinese have been going about there business long before we decided it was a competitor. The Chinese were growing and changing because thats what they wanted to do. You might think they are oppressed and waiting for democracy because your deluded into thinking every goverment sucks as much as ours does in America. But let me assure you, some goverments do work. The Chinese goverment works, not always but they certainly get it right most of the time. I am tired of western journalist trashing China in any sly way they can find. What we need to do is learn how they get things done so damn well instead of what we think they need to do like us.
10 years in China.....
I can't imagine people can be so mean like this!
I don’t quite see how you can go from the xenophobic national chauvinism exhibited by the Beijing government’s reaction to the protests in Tibet and the protests surrounding the Olympic flame, over to the relief efforts surrounding the earthquake victims, and come to any conclusion at all. The CCP has not been ‘less defensive’ with regard to Tibet, nor has their lack of ‘less defensiveness’ been, “facilitated by modern technology”, as you allege. If anything, the reverse is true. Modern technology has facilitated the government being more oppressive.
However, I agree with you that the government reaction to the earthquake was different than the government reaction to the great leap forward famine (See Becker, Hungry Ghosts). But I would view the Hungry Ghosts famine as having been organized by the government for the purpose of insuring loyalty to the new dynasty. That the recent earthquake in Sichuan was classified as not having been organized by the government is instructive, and speculation about what changes this may indicate do not need to stray much further.
You are well informed when you point out that, “ningju li or cohesion -- is tantamount to survival.” The Tibetans, as well as the Burmese, the Koreans, the residents of Hong Kong not of Chinese ethnic decent, etc., have all had to sacrifice their human rights for this cohesion. I pray that the response to the earthquake is not the result of this, but of simple humanitarian values.
"Choreographed grief" ... !
Geez, what are you ... Republican?!? How cynical.
China has just suffered a natural disaster of immense proportion. Tens of thousands of people have died and the body count rises daily. Hundreds of thousand shave been injured, displaced, or otherwise affected. Of course they would rise to the occasion and come together.
And their government, for whatever criticisms may be levied against it, sure seems to have responded better than ours did when faced with a natural disaster that was merely a fraction of what they have endured.
These are people. They deserve our empathy and help, not our raised eyebrows and speculation on whether or not they are *really* hurting.
When I first landed at the old Beijing Airport twenty years ago my first thought was "My god what a mess."
Returning to San Francisco seemed like coming back to all the comforts of home.
The whole deal has now been turned upside down.
The unchanging land of the Dragon now changes by the minute, as the formerly dynamic West becomes more of a stagnant nightmare by the day, beginning with "security" at SFO.
Exactly. Now when I land at the new DRAGON Terminal 3 in Beijing it makes me embarrassed to see LAX and JFK.
Shanghai's new Terminal 2 is amazing as well.
Been to both in the last 30 days and the transformation is awe inspiring.
Geez, what are you? A Chinaphile? China ia responsible for more dead in Darfur, but I don't hear any apology for them.
.......and America's responsibility around the world for all the death, destruction and injury?
Please. Don't change the subject. Every major country has it's faults. This is about inside of China.
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