Chris In China

China and its people are reacting to the tragedy in tremendous ways. Both the private and state-run media stations have provided 24-hour television, radio and Internet coverage, filling the screens and airwaves with heroic soldiers, helpless victims, stories of triumph and hopelessness, and scores of people helping. Those who could not physically help did not lack opportunities to give aid in any way they could. Millions across China gave money, food, supplies and blood that was sent to charities like the Red Cross of China involved in the recovery efforts.
Students in my English writing classes wrote sympathy letters, an assignment I gave them to teach vocabulary of self-expression and expression of sympathy. What struck me was the sincerity of their expressions of sadness and solidarity. The outpouring of support that they, along with the rest of the public have shown, is awesome and inspiring. Even the poorest have given money to help the victims; so far, more than $5 billion has be raised. And emotional support, in the form of prayers, candlelight vigils and public mourning campaigns, has brought China together like nothing ever before.
When the government declared a three-day period of national mourning, I was not expecting the dramatic public display of grief on a scale that is unimaginable elsewhere in the world. On Monday, May 19, at 2:28 p.m., the entire country stopped for three minutes. Cars stopped on the freeways, buses and subways stopped in the middle of their routes, and every television station broadcast the national ceremony taking place at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Outside my apartment, a small group of people gathered in the parking lot to mark the moment together and air raid sirens, car horns and bells rang throughout the country. That was truly a remarkable moment, a powerful manifestation of Chinese support and unity.
I wonder how people outside of China are reacting to this tragedy.
News reports and opinion pieces on the Web sites of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and Le Monde, in France, do not reveal the conversation that is, I hope, taking place at the water cooler in the office or the coffee shop in town. The (paid) commentators have used the earthquake as an opportunity to opine on the Chinese government. Some have outright condemned the government for the poor-quality schools that fell quickly, and for (false) reports that the government has denied aid from the West. Other writers have offered flimsy praise, calling the response and much of the press coverage “remarkable” but also a “show” meant to impress the world in light of the recent protests in Tibet and the upcoming Olympic Games.
Why are many pundits so cynical? How do they expect a government to react to a natural disaster like this? Surely not the way the U.S. government handled Hurricane Katrina in 2005, right?
And what are people (not columnists — you) saying? How are they (you) being informed?
Western news seems to be obsessed with numbers. Even within a human-interest story, there is always a mention of the latest death toll, like it is a quantitative measure of the level of tragedy. But how can anybody conceptualize 65,000? Especially if the number is just a figure of “dead.” Dead what? Plants? Phone lines?
When figures are used with such prominence, the result is an unintentional disconnect and an abstraction rather than a relation with the flesh and bone of actual people. Maybe that makes it easier to accept a disaster like this into one’s view of the world, but I believe the separation is dangerous. When death is less human, it makes things less emotional, less messy, leaving a tough coldness that chips away at the humanity in a person.This disconnection between numbers of casualties and the people who are actually suffering is despicable.
It is the same with reports on the dead in war. Walt Whitman taught us that.
I admit, it is hard for me to visualize the numbers and to get a grip on the reality of this whole story. I am trying, however, and because I am in China, the emotions come quickly. I am seeing the story unfold directly before me, and I don’t know how to impress upon you how serious and desperate the whole thing really is.
But how are people supposed to put it into perspective?
For foreign journalists working in China, that has been a major challenge. Facing demands for facts and figures pieces that satisfy the one-minute news summary, they must sometimes forgo attempts to reveal the humanity of this event. The reasons for this are many, but what compounds this problem is the situation on the ground. Reporters are seeing thousands of bodies, a large many of them children, pass by them on a daily basis. How can a reporter not break down and cry?
There are some that have been able to tell the necessary stories. Journalists like Tania Branigan of the Guardian (UK), Edward Wong of the New York Times and Tini Tran of the Associated Press found and told stories that were compelling and reminded readers that the world is much bigger than themselves. The stories are heartbreaking but necessary to understand the human scope of the tragedy. China, for its part, should be praised for allowing more press freedom than it ever has. The Burmese government, who has not allowed reporters or aid workers into the country until recently, three weeks after a devastating disaster of its own, should be condemned for its lack of openness.
Putting it all into perspective is not easy, especially for people who live very far away. Where the Chinese succeed in this is through a pragmatic approach to dealing with all its ramifications. The cost to the infrastructure and economy will be in the billions of dollars, but China has cleared a way to pay for this. At this time, the country is not focused on this, and in fact is still fulfilling its obligations to provide aid in other places as well as its own. China’s primary concern is its people.
There is no higher concern.

Chris Gauthier is a recent Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts graduate spending a year in China teaching English at Hebei University. He writes regular columns for The Advocate during his stay in China. To read all of his Advocate columns, visit blogtheberkshires.com. Readers can also read more about his experiences on his own blog at chrisinchina.wordpress.com.