Automatic Blogs Updates

[blog] Abraham's life!!!: PRC Founders Depicted in Chinese Paintings

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The People and the Premier captures a scene shortly after an earthquake hit Xingtai, Hebei Province in 1966, when Premier Zhou Enlai visited the disaster-stricken area to encourage people to rebuild their homeland. ...

[blog] Lenovo reverses course, buys back mobile handset division for $200 ...

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Uighur Dilemma - China... August 2009 Ever since the violence between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese, a fear of fanaticism has taken hold. Is the government's decision to demolish the Uighur area Kashgar really due to an earthquake ...

[blog] RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service

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Location, Airport, ICAO, Type, Distance. USA, Meadows Fld Airport, KBFL, 93.21 km. USA, China Lake Naws Airport, KNID, 48.88 km ... The potential impact of the earthquake. A few people might notice movement if they are at rest and/or on the upper floors of tall buildings. Map. Loading maps... Radius: Red Circle = 10 km, Orange Circle = 50 km, Yellow Circle = 100 km ...

[blog] Prestidigitation: The Literary Map of San Francisco

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... Maxine Hong Kingston (China Men – 1980); Jack Kerouac (On the Road – 1957); Gus Lee (China Boy – 1991); Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City – 1978); Czeslaw Milosz (Visions From San Francisco Bay – 1975); Alejandro Murguia (The Medicine of Memory – 2002); Frank Norris (McTeague – 1899); Thomas Pynchon (The Crying of Lot 49 – 1968); Ishmael Reed (Earthquake Blues – 1988); William Saroyan (The Living and the Dead – 1936); John Steinbeck (Travels with Charley – 1961) ...

[blog] Wheat Straw Panel Board Houses for China's Earthquake Zone ...

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New homes in China's earthquake zone will now be made from wheat straw instead of bricks and cement. A Dutch company has licenced technology developed by the Alberta Research Council to make wheat straw panel board—OSSB or oriented ...

[blog] 2012.XviD.Supr.Quality.2009 - Rapidshare Megaupload Forums

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Jackson hurries to Kate's house and picks up her, the kids, and Gordon as the house collapses and a massive earthquake begins. They drive through L.A while it is being destroyed and arrive just in time at the airport. ... While in the air, the group learns that the plane does not have enough fuel to reach China: they've passed Honolulu, Hawaii, which has been inundated in lava. As they're about to ditch the plane they discover that they are no longer above the ocean: the ...

[blog] The Great Commandments « Prayer in the Grove

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We pray for loved ones and friends, strangers and world situations that arouse our compassion like the recent earthquake in China, and the other disasters we've been plagued with recently. So, here's my question for you and for myself: ...

[blog] Earthquakes and Finals « Dan's Trip to China

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We had two earthquakes this week. The first one was on Monday and it wasn't too bad, and the last one just happened an hour ago. I'm on the twelfth floor and felt it very strongly. It was the first quake here that I felt physical motion ...

[blog] JadoreMilk.com

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Another earthquake struck near the Samoan islands, an area already devastated by earthquake and tsunami damage. The largest growing economic force in the world isn't the China or India — it's women. The earning power of women globally ...

[blog] Around Shanghai: A more sustainable Expo, Shanghai Sharks drama, and books about chefs

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• Speak2Me, an online English language learning community, has made an agreement to create a language training program for the 80,000 plus Expo volunteers and guides that will be working this May. It would be scary interesting to have loads of volunteers running around speaking like the Speak2Me virtual teacher. [CNNMoney]
• All Roads Lead to China has some ideas about making the People's Square Station less of a hell for commuters. For instance: more maps. [All Roads Lead to China]
• Shanghai's Disneyland has been downsized from 400 hectares to 116 hectares, the smallest Disney park in the world. We've all been a bit schizophrenic reporting Shanghai's Disneyland: plans seem to change faster than you can say mǐ lǎo shǔ (yup, that's Mickey Mouse in Chinese). [ChinaDaily]
• Need something to read? Next time before you plough down to Garden Books check out Urbanatomy's web exclusives featuring authors. The feature is a great insight into the minds of contemporary writers writing about Chinese culture. Their latest is features Nicole Mones, author of The Last Chinese Chef. [Urbanatomy]
• The floundering Shanghai Sharks almost lost their team captain (again). Liu Wei, a good friend and former teammate of Yao Ming's, was about to leave due to salary disputes for the next season. We wonder, did Yao swoop in to the rescue? [ChinaDaily]
• A structural component designed by Tongji University students to protect structures from earthquakes is being used in the construction of the Hongqiao Integrated Transport Hub at the Expo site. The component makes Expo construction more sustainable; similar devices were previously being imported. [ShanghaiDaily]

[blog] Public tendering goes clean - Paul French

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China-hand Paul French sounds a bit amazed as his discovers that efforts to cut back China's tradition of corruption in public tenders actually seems to work out. In the Ethical Corporation:

More than one foreign company has found themselves (let’s be charitable here) unwittingly involved in a dodgy deal. But perhaps no more.

China’s ministry of supervision has introduced a new system of tendering for government procurement contracts that some are calling state of the art and far in advance of anything in Europe or the US, and it looks like they may be right.

French is genuinely amazed:

I sometimes have a bit of trouble with this column. I hear about something interesting in China that sounds like a good story. I go after it hoping that it will be a positive story and not negative, but, of course, what initially appears positive in China often goes sour. Take the recent stories we’ve covered on the rise of charitable donations in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake last year and then the government siphoning of the cash – a positive became a negative with a bit of digging.

Paul French by Fantake via Flickr

Not in this case, it seems.

Commercial
Paul French is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do give us a call.

[blog] Earthquake and Tsunami in Samoa

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Via the BBC

At least 65 people were reported dead in Samoa, more than 20 in American Samoa and at least six in Tonga.

Tags: Pacific / Samoa / American Samoa
Earthquake, Tsunami, Disaster, Emergency, Humanitarian, Relief, Rescue,

[blog] Surgery for Ai Weiwei in Germany

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Chinese artist Ai Weiwei underwent cranial surgery this week in Munich to treat lingering pain he's suffered since being punched by a Chengdu police officer last month. (He's posted pre- and post-surgery photos on his Twitter page.) Ai, who organized a campaign to tally student deaths in last year's Sichuan earthquake, was detained with other [...]

[blog] Five-year retrospective -- Imagethief on hiatus until 2010

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Imagethief arrived in China on June 6th, 2004, a naive and wide-eyed whelp of just 36. The last five years have been quite an education, and it's an older and (incrementally) wiser Imagethief who corresponds with you today. China years are like dog years. It's not so much the frequency of events as the amplitude. China seems a nation always on the threshold of crisis, with about one reliable trip per year over that threshold.

Let's be honest: I'm addicted to the rush. To be a foreigner in China is to live in a state of perpetual voyeurism, like being a guest in the household of a proud but slightly dysfunctional family. For someone who enjoys writing, this is solid gold, and for five years this blog has been the collecting point for various scribblings on current events in China. There are more talented writers out there, and certainly more talented voyeurs, but I've been thrilled at how many people have taken the time to read and comment. The blog has been the starting point for many of my best friendships in China. It is also, as I've discovered, read by a good share of the foreign-correspondent community. For a PR man, that's gratifying.

So I'd like to thank everyone who has taken the time to read, comment and e-mail. And to let you all know that I'm going take a little time off from the blog. Anyone who's been reading for a while will know that I write a lot less than I used to (and anyone who hasn't been reading for long can track the trajectory here). Partially this is a result of changes in my life, including expanding professional responsibilities and, more importantly, the birth of my son in early 2008. But it's also the result of a bit of creative weariness. Since June 12, 2004, I've written just a shade under 1,300 posts. At the risk of stating the obvious, that's a lot.

So I'm going to put the blog on the shelf for a few months to give myself a chance to restore a little creative vigor. To anyone out there who is devastated by that news and is now reaching for a fistful of sleeping pills, it's just a freakin' blog for chrissake. Get over it. But also, this is not retirement. Imagethief will return in early 2010, so keep that entry in your RSS reader alive. In fact, it's entirely possible that the occasional post will go up in the meantime, but it will be strictly an as-and-when thing.

Yes, I realize a hiatus is blog readership suicide. But, really, what's it going to do? Bottom out my ad rates?

Meanwhile, if you want to stay in touch, you can follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Friendfeed or just send me an e-mail at dwmoss at gmail dot com. Facebook and Friendfeed largely echo my Twitter feed, but they also catch my occasional photo and video uploads. If you "friend" me on Facebook, please identify yourself as an Imagethief reader or I'm liable to ignore you.

I don't want to leave you empty-handed. I did miss the actual fifth anniversary of Imagethief, but it's not too late to celebrate. In commemoration of a half-decade of snarky, juvenile ranting, here is the chronology of my stay in China as documented in selected Imagethief posts. Even if you don't read the actual posts, the topics are a nice recounting of five years of life in China, at least via the things that catch the eye of a PR man. It's also a wonderful reminder of how cyclical China news topics are. Or, perhaps simply how cyclical my own interests are.

See everyone in 2010.

Five years of life in China as seen through Imagethief

2004
Just one, as many 2004 posts were banal expat observations, like the one below.

Nothing here is in English: Imagethief fresh off the boat and stating the obvious in his first post. June 12, 2004.

2005
The most prolific year, following a six month hiatus that started when I began working in Beijing.

Singapore Straits Times journalist detained in China: Ching Cheong is arrested in China. May 30, 2005.

Why American Internet firms betrayed me, not China: MSN censors controversial words. American Internet firms in Chinese trouble, part 1. July 4, 2005.

Cheap Chinese coffins in the US -- Another fiendish plot?: America agonizes about cheap Chinese coffins. July 12, 2005.

Remain calm -- The killer pig flu is under control! Pig flu! Aaaaarrrrggghhh! August 2, 2005.

No "Half Life" for China's half-pints: China cracks down on violent video games. August 6, 2005.

Keep your filthy orgy off our wall: A foreigner is photographed taking a leak on the Great Wall. Scandal! August 10, 2005.

Run silent, run cheap: America agonizes about Chinese submarines. August 12, 2005.

Only 79,000 attempted intrusions? Chinese cyber-spies are slacking! America agonizes about Chinese hackers. August 22, 2005.

Do you, uh, Yahoo? You're busted! Yahoo gets in trouble for complicity in the arrest of a Chinese journalist. American Internet firms in Chinese trouble, part 2. September 8, 2005.

Shanghai narrowly averts dastardly Japanese architectural plot: The Shanghai World Financial Center changes its round cut-out to the now infamous "bottle-opener" shape. October 18, 2005.

American Internet firms in Chinese peril: American Internet firms in Chinese trouble, part 3. November 2, 2005.

Qianmen and Xianyukou alley get the chai: The "redevelopment" of one of my favorite areas of beijing begins. November 6, 2005.

How to write a generic China bird flu story: Bird flu! Aaaaarrrrgghh! November 8, 2005.

Hello Kitty meets the Power Rangers: 5 Olympic mascots: Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, Nini. November 11, 2005.

The Harbin water crisis: Tons of benzene spill into the Songhua river. Chinese press reports blow a local cover-up. November 26, 2005.

China cracks down on anonymous mobile phones: The regulator tries to enforce real-name registration for phone numbers. Still trying. December 5, 2005. 

2006
The golden age.

The martyrdom of Michael Anti -- Analyzing Microsoft's motivations: American Internet firms in Chinese trouble, part 4. January 5, 2006.

Congress to grill US net firms on China: American Internet firms in Chinese trouble, part 5. January 14, 2006.

Quick thoughts on Chinese media Google-trashing: Chinese media question Google's right to operate. American Internet firms in Chinese trouble, part 6. February 23, 2006.

China broadcast shocker -- SARFT to limit period dramas: Because they might give kids the wrong impression. Not to be confused with a July, 2009 order with similar content. March 3, 2006.

Socialist concepts of honor and disgrace -- Now translated: Remember this? Since superseded by the more compact and flexible "Harmonious Society".  March 15, 2006.

Protest banners fly near new CCTV headquarters: And they're still working on the goddamned thing. April 16, 2006.

Bill Gates and Hu Jintao in the gaze of the Mighty Thought-o-Tronic: Hu Jintao visits Microsoft. One of my favorite deployments of the Thought-o-Tronic. April 19, 2006.

Q: What do my Chinese colleagues think of Bush and Hu? George W. Bush and Hu Jintao meet in Washington. It goes less than smoothly. April 21, 2009.

Shanghai commits ironic PR suicide: Shanghai gets pissed at how it is depicted in a silly, American action movie. May 17, 2006.

The strange case of the disappearing blockbuster: The Da Vinci Code is yanked during its run in China, for murky reasons. June 13, 2006.

Foxconn shoots themselves, Apple in the foot: Foxconn causes PR trouble for Apple. Not to be confused with recent developments involving the unfortunate suicide of a young Foxconn employee. August 29, 2006.

The elephant in the newsroom: Imagethief dismisses China's ambitions to become an International news power. October 22, 2006.

Olympics mean a softer touch for foreign correspondents, maybe: Sorely tested in the breach. December 2, 2006.

E-Bay E-jects from China: American Internet firms in Chinese trouble, part 7. December 20, 2006.

2007
The year I lived in Shanghai.

Once again, Starbucks ain't the problem with the Forbidden City: I leap to the defense of the ill-fated Starbucks. January 17, 2007.

Principles are good -- What happens when they are tested? American tech firms announce a set of "principles" for operating in democratically challenged regimes. January 21, 2007.

And for the fake ant-breeder, death! The great Shenyang medicinal ant pyramid scheme of '07. (I wrote about it in more detail here.) February 15, 2007.

How to turn one terrible scandal into two: The China Railway 12th Bureau Group Company is caught trying to cover up a subway construction collapse in Beijing. April 2, 2007.

American IPR hawks, remember the little people: America threatens China with WTO action over piracy. I plead for mercy. April 10, 2007.

Melamine hogs: America agonizes over lethal Chinese pet food. Early harbinger of the melamine scandals of 2008. April 26, 2007.

Did the "Genocide Olympics" influence China? Mia Farrow fires a broadside against China's human rights record in the run-up to the Olympics. May 16, 2007.

I say "tomato", you say "massacre", let's call the whole thing off. Debating the nomenclature of whatever it was that happened in Tian'anmen Square twenty years ago. May 20, 2007.

Technology at work in Xiamen chemical plant protest: The Xiamen PX plant protests. June 1, 2007.

China's food crisis PR strategy: Blame everyone else: The monster Chinese food quality crisis scandal of 2007. June 4, 2007.

China launches successful anti-piracy campaign against movie pirate: Pirates of the Caribbean is yanked from planned distribution in China, for murky reasons. June 17, 2007.

Nobody said media whoring would be easy: The rise of Zuola, China's first celebrity "citizen journalist". June 23, 2007.

Lessons from the great cardboard bun hoax of '07: CCTV is caught airing a hoax story on bad steamed buns, reminding everyone why it is so widely loved and respected. July 19, 2007. 

...and sometimes they blow up in the faces of PR risk-takers: The product quality scandals, continued. Mattel comes a cropper. August 2, 2007.

Bang! China shoots its own Olympic PR in the foot: Foreign correspondents covering a protest outside Olympic headquarters are arrested along with protesters. August 7, 2007.

Imagethief discusses "Incorruptible Warrior" on BBC radio: A videogame designed to teach proper, Chinese values to spotty youth. August 7, 2007.

China's new labor law won't just make work for lawyers: The new labor law comes into force. November 12, 2007.

China moon photos -- That's all the conspiracy theory you can manage? China orbits the moon. The Chinese don't quite believe it. December 6, 2007.

What to make of Edwin Maher? Foreign CCTV9 news anchor Edwin Maher runs headlong into the teeth of the Chinese expat blogosphere. December 10, 2007.

Gumby's love-child named Shanghai World Expo mascot. Introducing Haibao. Who here wants to see him impaled on a stick and roasted in a campfire? December 20, 2007.

Hijacking the Olympic agenda, big time and small time: TV personality Hu Ziwei accuses her husband of having an affair, in a live press conference. His press conference. His Olympic press conference. December 29, 2007

2008
Back to Beijing for the Olympic year. I actually wrote very little about the actual Olympics, despite attending. It was, to say the least, well covered elsewhere.

Let me tell ya about Edison Chen's dirty photos: The Edison Chen scandal. To this day, the most viewed post ever, thanks to people looking for the photos. I find that funny since, having seen the photos, I can report that the only way to get less erotic photos of naked people would be to sneak a camera into a nudist colony for octogenarians. February 13, 2008.

Steven Spielberg pulls out of the Olympics: Oh, man. This won't look good in the brochures. February 13, 2008.

Scandalous death of a propaganda image: A faked photo of Tibetan antelopes near the Qinghai-Tibet train is caught out. Not to be confused with a similar episode involving a tiger. February 24, 2008.

Tibet and the trouble with unassailable national myths: Analyzing the role of communication in the Tibet unrest. March 19, 2008.

Imagethief does Beijing's new Terminal 3: The Olympic airport opens. It's really, really big. Which is pretty much the most that can be said for it. April 8, 2008.

Jack Cafferty brews more trouble for CNN in China: It's official: CNN is the most hated foreign news organization in China. April 16, 2008.

Inside Carrefour's crisis management in China: Anti-French protests after trouble in Paris during the Olympic torch relay. April 30, 2008.

5/12, 9/11 and three minutes on Monday afternoon: The devastating Sichuan earthquake of 2008. I attend the memorial in Tian'anmen Square. May 21, 2008.

The mysterious outage of video sharing site 56.com: They never fully recovered. June 14, 2008.

An unfortunate glimpse into my Olympic stream of consciousness: Tweeting the opening ceremony. August 8, 2008.

Why I don't care about the opening ceremony's fraudulent footsteps: Olympic scandals, part 1: August 12, 2008.

Gymnasts, now and then: Olympic scandals, part 2: August 14, 2008.

iPhone girl: Brilliant Apple PR or lucky accident? Foxconn gives Apple good PR. For once. September 6, 2008.

Coke and Huaiyuan: Let the PR slanging begin: Coke's failed attempt to purchase Huiyan. September 11, 2008.

Melamine in Sanlu milk powder? Now that's a crisis! The great melamine food scandals of 2008. September 15, 2008.

Illegal baby part 2: I fought the law and the law won: Incidental to everything else in 2008, my son was born. And was almost immediately in trouble with the Chinese authorities. October 5th, 2008.

Pardon me, but who gives a damn about Gong Li anyway? Gong Li takes Singaporean citizenship. Chinese netizens have the entirely predictable reaction. November 16, 2008.

2009
Bring it on home.

It's official, China has eleventy-billion Internet users: China becomes the number-one Internet using nation on earth. A highly over-rated fact in Imagethief's opinion. January 14, 2009.

China to spend RMB 45 billion beefing up its international media: Imagethief dismisses China's ambitions to become an International news power. Again. And in more detail here. January 14, 2009.

So what are you getting mom for "Serf Liberation Day"? A really strange holiday. January 21, 2008.

Mandarin Oriental Beijing goes Irwin Allen: Part of the new CCTV compound burns down, unleashing a vast outpouring of sympathy for CCTV online. Oh, wait, that's not sympathy... February 9, 2009.

What the "grass mud horse" means and doesn't mean: Rise of a Chinese Internet meme. March 13, 2009.

Chinese cyberspies? Sheer lies and heinous fabrications: America agonizes about Chinese hackers. Again. April 9, 2009.

Oh, Jackie: Superstar Jackie Chan opens mouth and inserts his flying feet at the Boao Forum for Asia. April 21, 2009.

Hubei cigarette purchasing plan extinguished: Hubei officials had been ordered to smoke more cigarettes... May 7, 2009.

Consultants say hardened Chinese death-nerds are coming for your daughters: America agonizes about the Chinese linux. May 13, 2009.

Down the quarantine rabbit-hole in Shanghai: Swine-flu! Aaaaarrrrrgggh! May 19, 2009.

Why I'm not in a tizzy over China's new Internet filtering software: The Green Dam Youth Escort fiasco. June 8, 2009.

Rough for Expo with all those robot fights breaking out in that nameless city: Shanghai gets pissed at how it is depicted in a silly, American action movie. Again. June 29, 2009.

Riots in Xinjiang and the price of omission: Xinjiang explodes. July 7, 2009.

Annual best-of and most-popular collections

Best of Imagethief 2008

Best of Imagethief 2007

Best of Imagethief 2006

Best of Imagethief 2004/5

My other project.

 

[blog] Riots in Xinjiang and the price of omission

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To have one ethnic minority erupt in angry rioting looks like misfortune. To have two erupt in angry rioting suggests that a rethink of the overall approach might be a good idea. Urumqi has been in chaos for the last 72 hours, and reports suggest that at least for the moment things are not improving. Considering all the obsessive attention paid to ensuring that the 20th anniversary of TAM in Beijing went smoothly, it is perhaps not surprising that the latest terrible incident in China should once again flare up at the country's faraway margins.

Two divergent narratives now seem to be unfolding. The best place to see an evolving digest of Chinese and Western coverage in one place is at EastSouthWestNorth. However, to summarize, in the broad Western media narrative, Uighurs ground down by decades of colonial oppression and incited by racism have erupted in rebellion. In the one told by Chinese media, "splittists" let by the Uighur exile Rebiyah Kadeer have engineered an outbreak of groundless violence (中) directed largely at innocent ethnic Han.

Condensing as they must a long and complicated history from different political points of view, both narratives are hobbled. The Western narrative is hobbled by a reflexive sympathy for any group arrayed in opposition to a Chinese state that is well established in the role of bogeyman (although it's worth reading Adam Minter's post contrasting the New York Times' Tibetan "protestors" of 2008 with the Uighur "rioters" of 2009). The Chinese narrative is hobbled by a national myth-making apparatus that allows no room whatsoever for the acnowledgment of Uighur grievances.

In the Tibetan riots of 2008 and many of the other controversial events surrounding the Olympics, the gulf between the Chinese and Western narratives lead to a great deal of tension between Chinese people and the western media (largely represented by CNN, which received death threats at its bureau in Beijing). Perhaps in attempt to substantiate its own narrative on this occasion, the Chinese authorities were surprisingly quick to release casualty figures and to bring foreign media to the site of the unrest. However, with the presence of foreign media possibly having encouraged at least one mob, and with Han Chinese "revenge mobs" reportedly taking up arms, it remains to be seen whether Urumqi remains open for long. Chengdu was quite open following the earthquake of May, 2008, but bad habits were in evidence again during recent foreign media attempts to report on the first anniversary, so the trend is mixed at best. The Foreign Correspondents Club of China is already receiving reports of detention of foreign journalists in Urumqi.

The Chinese government's approach to communication in this case draws from a playbook that will be familiar to anyone who followed the Tibetan rioting last year. Evil external forces are directly indicted. Graphic images of rampaging minorities and bloody Han predominate. Horror is expressed by a mix of victimized Han and the ethnic group involved. There are elements of truth in this narrative that should be respected. Innocent Han who committed no crime other than living in Urumqi are being attacked. There are no doubt Uighurs who are completely horrified by the rioting, and who were injured in the riots. It's possible that Ms. Kadeer's World Uighur Congress encouraged at least a demonstration even if not actual rioting, especially considering the recent unfortunate attack on Uighur laborers in south China. There are almost certainly "terrorists" in Xinjiang.

But the  missing from this official story, as it was missing from official reports on the Tibetan riots, is any acknowledgment that Uighurs in general might have legitimate grievances. Grievances about the influx of ethnic Han, the relative lack of economic opportunity, demolition of their traditional cities, limitations on their right to freely practice their religion, or whatever.

That's a serious omission because, while it is made with an eye on propagating an official story of the spread of development and prosperity, it comes with a long-term price: it inflames the very tensions it attempts to paper over. And it, with marvelous efficiency, it inflames them on both sides. Uighurs are given the impression that their concerns are considered unworthy of acknowledgment by the State, a situation that is a classic recipe for convincing people to take extreme measures. Other Chinese, meanwhile, are deprived of any context for the riots, which feeds into a colonial attitude toward Uighurs that I have experienced firsthand. If you believe that you have given a people nothing but development and progress and economic opportunity, and they rise up against you, then you will come to see them as at best treacherous and untrustworthy and at worst as less than human, with predictable consequences. Legitimate grievances or not, the riots are almost certainly doing terrible damage to the Uighur cause in China.

Obviously, acknowledging Uighur grievances, especially during the rioting itself, isn't a recipe for immediate peace. It's only part of a long-term solution. But the omission, especially as part of a pattern of such omissions, is telling. And there will be a price to be paid for it, because if you can't acknowledge that there are problems and therefore take visible steps to address them, the only viable alternative is to clamp down ever tighter. And that, as history has shown, is a virtual guarantee of future troubles to come.

Previously on Imagethief:

Tibet and the trouble with unassailable national myths (March, 2008)

Further reading:

• New York Times: Toll rises to 156 in ethnic clashes in Western China
• Guardian: Riots in Urumqi, China (photographs)
• Danwei: Reporting in Xinjiang
• CNN: Ethnic unrest in China leads to mass arrests
• Reuters: Chinese go online to vent ire at Xinjiang unrest
• BBC: Chinese rampage against Uighurs
  
• Al Jazeera: Uighur unrest continues in Xinjiang (YouTube)
• Xinhua: Violence in Urumqi not a peaceful protest 
• Anti-CNN: In coverage of Xinjiang CNN and other Western media show their shameless face again (中)
• Chinageeks: The Urumqi riots and media strategy
  

Urumqi, May 2006. Photograph by the author.

 

[blog] In Closing

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By Andrea Hsu It's my last night in Chengdu. Tomorrow, I head to Beijing, and then back home to Washington. As I was thinking about what to write in this final blog post, and what to say about the earthquake anniversary today, I realized how the day has captured almost all of the emotions I've felt over the past month that I've been here. The day began with fear and unease, as we drove back up to Juyuan Middle School outside Dujiangyan, and found scores of uniformed police and military personnel surrounding its perimeter. There were people - presumably family members - buying paper money, candles and firecrackers at a stall just a block or so away from where the school once stood, but it did not appear that the guards were letting anyone cross the police tape. Then there was the almost reassuring sense of normalcy, as we joined crowds of mostly tourists headed up the mountainside north of Dujiangyan. Many people had the day off, and the government had waived admission fees at all the tourist sites, so it felt like a holiday weekend. The road up the mountain was so clogged, not even motorcycles could weave their way through traffic. So we found ourselves hoofing it alongside hundreds of others who seemed to be having a pretty good time. Then, after we left the crowds behind, there was profound sorrow as we reached the public cemetery where many of the children who died in Dujiangyan schools are buried. A couple we'd met earlier on this trip had told us about the cemetery, and had told us where to look for their 8-year old son's grave. The stone markers are laid out in tidy rows, sadly reminiscent of desks in a classroom. Each has a photo of a child next to the child's name and birthdate. All of the graves were adorned with colorful paper ornaments, fresh flowers, and remnants of red candles. Small groups of family members mourned quietly over the graves, burning paper money and lighting the occasional firecracker. It was an intensely private moment, and I did not want to linger. We placed a bouquet of yellow flowers next to the grave we'd come to see, and turned and left. And then, at 2:28 pm, there was hope. A year to the moment that the earthquake struck, we were standing on the second floor of the new wood-framed Xiang'e Elementary School, listening to the uninterrupted sounds of construction all around. We'd been invited to visit the site by Jerry Lee Dickison, a 63-year old general contractor and wood expert from Kentucky who's been living in Xiang'e for the past seven months as the site supervisor for this Canadian-government backed project (all the wood is from Canada). As Dickison walked us around, I realized that I'd visited this very spot last year. The new school is going up right next to where the old Xiang'e Middle School once was. It collapsed in the quake, killing more than 300 students and teachers. I don't know what the middle school used to look like; it was just a terrible mass of debris when I saw it. But the new elementary school looks to be gorgeous. Not something that's easily replicable elsewhere, given the materials and expertise and money that's gone into it. But something that just may lift this community's spirits and make people feel safe again.

[blog] Placing Wishes on the Tree of Hope

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By Andrea Hsu Though the date on this entry will read May 11th, it is in fact the morning of May 12th here in Chengdu, the one-year anniversary of the Wenchuan earthquake. As the anniversary has neared, I've been wondering a lot about how people will mark it. My friend Lily friend told me that at her daughter's nursery school in Chengdu, children will wear white flowers on their sleeves and hang paper hearts from trees. Our friend Wang Dan told me she'll visit the graves of her parents and her nephew, on the far side of Qingcheng mountain. I've heard that a lot of others are also heading out to Qingcheng mountain for the day, though likely to the part that's set up for tourism. The government has waived admission fees to almost all the tourist attractions today, so big crowds are expected. And Premier Wen Jiabao is expected to visit the region today, one year to the day that he first touched down, hours after the quake.* The Hope Tree at one of the Half the Sky tents in Gaogeng Temporary Camp, Dujiangyan. Andrea Hsu/NPR   Yesterday, I had the chance to see a small commemorative event, held at one of the Big Top tents set up by the group Half the Sky. Half the Sky was originally founded to help orphans in China, but after the quake, they set up recreation centers for children in six temporary camps in Dujiangyan. That later evolved into all-day preschool for several hundred kids, and a weekend rec center for older kids. Children and parents place wishes on the hope tree. Andrea Hsu/NPR   At the Gaogeng camp yesterday, nursery school teachers invited parents and grandparents to join their two and three year olds for a special anniversary activity: placing wishes on the hope tree. Everyone huddled around tables - the adults in tiny wooden chairs with the toddlers in their laps. Teachers handed out markers and colorful paper flowers. The moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas were asked to write their child's name in the center of the flower, and a wish for the child. Then one by one, they approached a large poster drawing of a tree and picked up the little ones so they could stick their own flowers on the tree. Afterwards, when everyone was eating cake, I went to get a close up look at the flowers. Overwhelmingly, the parents and grandparents had one wish: May you grow up to be healthy and happy. A simple wish for not so simple times. Most everyone's flower included this wish: May you grow up to be healthy and happy. Andrea Hsu/NPR   *It turned out to be President Hu Jintao, not Premier Wen, who came to the region today. Hu attended a memorial ceremony in Yingxiu, the quake's epicenter.

[blog] Brief Meihua Update

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By Andrea Hsu I realized as I opened the computer just now that it's been almost a week since my last post! I'd wanted to write a little something every day, but there were too few hours in the days last week. Melissa is in Beijing now, taking a couple days to explore the sights there for the first time, before she heads home. I'm still here in Chengdu for a couple more days, wrapping things up and seeing friends. Huang Meihua   I've also been responding to a number of emails we received last week. A number of NPR listeners wrote in after hearing Huang Meihua's story, anxious to find ways to help. Larry Guo, one of the volunteers with the group 512 Children, has copied me on his follow-up correspondence with these listeners. The group has been trying to find ways to get better prosthetics for Meihua and better care and is grateful for the outpouring of support from listeners. One piece of good news is that it looks like Meihua now has a school to go to in the fall. The private Guangya International School in Dujiangyan has agreed to give her a full scholarship and a place for her and her family to stay. While this does not solve the problem of her medical care, her family is relieved to know that she'll be able to continue her education. Larry emailed the other day to say he'd spoken to Meihua. She just had a science exam the day before, and she was the second in the class. She was nagging about her little mistake that made her the second. I told them about the broadcast, the response. She was very happy and asked me to thank everybody. On a related note, Melissa on Friday reminded me of the adult amputees we'd met a couple weeks ago at a rehabilitation center in Chengdu. Two men, both in their 40s, who'd lost both legs after being buried in rubble, much like Meihua. These men separately told us that the most difficult thing now is handling their children's grief over dad's injuries. Liu Rui told us he no longer attends his 7-year old daughter's school meetings and other activities - he wants to relieve some of the pressure she's feeling. When she cries, he comforts her by reminding her of all the people who died and telling her that he's the lucky one. Liu Rui practices walking with his wife close behind. Andrea Hsu/NPR   Zhang Xin's 9-year old son also cried when he saw that dad's legs were gone. He told us his son wanted his dad to go swimming with him - something they used to do a lot - but Zhang had to break it to him that he could no longer swim. Dad also said he thought it'd be upsetting for the other swimmers to see someone without legs. At the same time, he told his son that whenever other kids ask, he should explain that his dad's injuries were caused by the earthquake, and that he's not some kind of a monster. Unlike Meihua, these men are getting physiotherapy and were practicing walking under the supervision of therapists in Chengdu when we met them. We asked if we could take photos of them for our website. They said it was fine as long as we did not show their faces. Liu Rui told us he didn't want his daughter to go online and find anything that might upset her.

[blog] Death Tolls and Press Controls on Quake's Anniversary

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China's attitude toward the press since the earthquake has been fascinating, as long as you're not a reporter getting punched in the mug.

[blog] Stone Chair Village Revisited

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By Anthony Kuhn NPR's Beijing Correspondent Anthony Kuhn joined Melissa and Andrea in Sichuan this week to offer his analysis one year after the earthquake. This week, I came back to the old country town of Beichuan, revisiting some of the sites where I had witnessed death and devastation last year, just three days after the earthquake. It was calming to see life go on -- albeit with great difficulty -- for some of the survivors. I wouldn't think of returning to Beichuan without a trip to Stone Chair Village, an enclave of the ethnic Qiang minority, halfway up the side of a mountain on the approach to Beichuan. The Qiang are an ancient people culturally and ethnically close to both Tibetans and Han, China's majority. Most of the Qiang live in Beichuan. I was curious to hear what impact the earthquake had had on the Qiang's efforts to preserve their culture, and their efforts to generate income from tourism. Many of the families run country inns, which struck me as a great getaway for weary urbanites. My host last year and this time was Chen Yan, whose father and grandfather were both Duangong, the Shamans that serve as the Qiang's priests, healers and historians. Ms. Chen told me that some of the remaining Duangong, now in their 70s and 80s, were indeed killed in the quake, but many survived. Luckily, many chose not to move out of the mountains and into nearby towns, where they would likely be cut off from their cultural roots and assimilated among the local population. Everywhere in Stone Chair Village, the sound of saws and hammers reverberated, as residents rebuilt their architecturally distinct buildings, with stone exteriors and sheep's head decorative motifs. Mrs. Chen told me that her country inn had gone empty last year, as visitors were too afraid of aftershocks to venture up the narrow road that winds up the steep mountain. This year, she reckons she's had about 100 guests -- better than last year, but still far from normal. Luckily, they still have income from their fruit orchards, where the first plums of the year were emerging -- still green and tiny -- on the trees. This slideshow requires version 8 or higher of the Adobe Flash Player. Get the latest Flash Player.TEXT. For full screen, click on the four-cornered arrow icon in the viewer's bottom right. This time, Mrs. Chen put on a delicious feast of down-home Qiang cooking for Melissa Block, our assistant Xiaoyu Xie, our driver and myself. It included al dente ribbons of potato flour pasta, home-made bean curd stewed with pork, mountain greens in soy sauce, vinegar and spices, pork sausage cured for a year and -- my favorite - three kinds of "la rou," or smoke-cured pork, some of which was left over from the half-ton batch (that's about three big pigs) she made in 2007. We also tasted the family's excellent home-made wine and liquor. Mrs. Chen then showed us her smokehouse out back next to the kitchen, proudly noting that this yielded tastier meat than her neighbors down the hill, who just air-dry their pork. After my lunch at Mrs. Chen's inn last year, a powerful aftershock hit the area. We all bolted into the village square, where the villagers huddled around me in a circle, as the mountain shook and rumbled. I'll always be thankful to the residents of Stone Chair Village, whose hospitality included protecting a visitor from far away.

[blog] A Welcome Reunion, One Year Later

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Melissa Block and Wang Dan talked over glass pots of aloe and pomelo tea, a year after their first encounter. Philip He   by Melissa Block Our time here is winding down, and as I think over the many people I've met and places I've been on this trip, I'm especially grateful for one encounter in particular. I'm very thankful I was able to reconnect with a woman I met last year, two days after the earthquake. Her name is Wang Dan; she's chosen Diane as her English name. When I saw her again, we talked about what's happened with her family over the year since we met. (That conversation ran on All Things Considered on Tuesday.) As I explain in the radio story, I first met Diane on the worst day of her family's life. She and her brother and sister-in-law were desperately hoping that three of their family members would be found alive in their crushed apartment building: Diane's nephew, not quite two years old, and her parents. I spent a long day with the family as crews searched through the debris and they waited for news. I watched as hour after hour, hope drained from them. By late afternoon, I witnessed their excruciating grief as they got word that all three of their family members had been found dead. We aired their story on All Things Considered that night. In e-mails she's sent me over this past year, Diane has told me a bit more about her nephew who died, Wang Zilu. She told me her nephew would greet her at the door and bring her slippers to put on; that one of his favorite playthings was a little toy turtle he would pull around by a rope. He loved playing hide and seek, but would make little noises to give his hiding place away, then laugh in excited delight when he was found. In those e-mails, Diane also told me about her great respect for her parents, who spent all of their savings on the best possible education for Diane and her brother, Wang Wei. She described her mother, a college graduate who was hard-working and liked things to be clean and orderly, and her father, an avid reader of everything from Chinese philosophers Confucius and Mencius to books on investing. Diane's English is quite good, and in one of her emails she said this about the day we met last May: "I think you must be a very kind person, I saw tears in your eyes in that sad day." It's true about the tears, anyway. There were many times during that day that my emotions overwhelmed me. Wang Dan, who's chosen Diane as her English name. Melissa Block/NPR   When I saw Diane again last week, we chatted before dinner over glass pots of aloe and pomelo tea, with flowers floating inside. The family's sadness is still profound, and it pained me greatly to hear that her brother has deleted the photos of his son from his computer and cell phone, because he can't bear to be confronted by what he's lost. Her brother and sister-in-law are expecting a baby next month. Diane hopes the new child brings the family consolation. I do, too. After I left, I sent Diane an e-mail, thanking her for agreeing to talk to me and to share her family's experience with our listeners. I think it's a brave thing to do, to reveal such painful, honest truths. Diane wrote me back that she hoped the story would have a positive effect: "Even if people live in different countries," she wrote, "all of them have the same feelings. If our cooperation can help to bring out those same feelings in many people, we will also feel happy."

[blog] Join Us For A Live Chat

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Today at 11 AM ET, Melissa Block and Andrea Hsu will be on hand to answer your questions. If you can't join us live, you can always leave your questions in the comments section, but we hope to see you then. Live Chat: China Earthquake, One Year Later

[blog] The Billboard Has Risen

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by Melissa Block An update to my earlier post about the super-sized billboards outside what will become the new city of Beichuan. When I was there last Tuesday, I saw gigantic poles set into the ground, one batch on each side of the road leading to the work site. Today when we drove by - one week later - lo and behold, the billboards were up, promising a bright, shining new city. A vision of the future. Melissa Block/NPR   This one shows an artists's rendition of the new Beichuan, with a stone tower typical of ethnic Qiang villages, wide boulevards and people gathered on a plaza. It bears this message: "We must firmly remember the mission that the General Secretary has entrusted to us: We must definitely do a good job of rebuilding Beichuan." The General Secretary refers to President Hu Jintao, and the second part of that message is a quote from him, which unfortunately was rather pallid and bland. The second (equally gigantic) billboard across the way shows clusters of new apartment buildings that wouldn't look out of place in any planned community in the U.S., with a stream running by. Will the new city bear any resemblance to the artists' drawings? I'll have to come back at the end of 2010 to find out. That's how quickly city planners say the new Beichuan will be built, with homes for 30,000 people.

[blog] Stiffen Your Unbowed Backs!

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By Andrea Hsu 31-year old He Wang in front of words of inspiration spoken by China's leaders after the earthquake. Andrea Hsu/NPR   In our story today about Beichuan, you hear two quotes read aloud magnificently by Beichuan's new deputy chief He Wang: I firmly believe that no hardship can conquer the heroic Chinese people! (Hu Jintao) Raise your strong heads, stiffen your unbowed backs, ignite your ardent hearts and march forward with full confidence! (Wen Jiabao) As you can see from the photo, the exclamation points were not our addition. He Wang is a Tsinghua-educated architect and urban planner, who was sent by Beijing to oversee the planning of the new Beichuan. He wasn't at all what I expected when the local propaganda department sent us to meet him. First of all, he's young - just 31 years old. Second, he agreed to the interview with no prior notice and did not ask for a prepared question list. Third, I thought he was pretty frank with us, both about the pressures the local government is facing, and about the moral complexities of developing disaster tourism in Beichuan. You'll hear more about this in a story we're working on for Wednesday. Clearly, he's well liked in these parts. As we were standing in the lobby in front of the quotes, a young woman from the government-run Sichuan News Network ran up to him giggling, and asked if she could have a photo with him. Then, as we were having lunch, a local official stopped by to tell us what a good man he is. "He's young! Smart! Came all the way from Beijing! And so handsome! All the girls love him! But he doesn't even have a girlfriend!" Embarrased, He Wang muttered in English, "He is kidding. Just kidding."

[blog] Scenes From Beichuan, Old And New

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by Melissa Block A few thoughts on our report that runs on All Things Considered today about the city of Beichuan, old and new: some things you didn't hear in the radio story. I posted earlier about the uncomfortable tension I sometimes feel here: knowing that I have to ask painful questions for these stories, and hating that I'm asking them. This was the case when I talked to the vendor you hear in today's ATC story, Mu Zhenxian. Local vendor Mu Zhenxian lost 16 relatives in the quake. She now sells photos and DVDs of earthquake destruction on a hill overlooking the city of Beichuan. Andrea Hsu/NPR   Sixteen members of her extended family were killed in the earthquake, their bodies never recovered. Now, she sells earthquake memorabilia to tourists who come to stare out over the shattered city where the bodies of her family members are entombed. As we talked about what had happened to her family in the earthquake, Mu was quite stoic, pointing out on an aerial photograph where her daughter and her niece were killed. But when I asked her if it bothers her that noisy tourists with snacks and cameras come by to pose for pictures in front of the wreckage, tears began to glisten in the corner of her eye. She continued to talk quietly for some time, wiping away the tears as they slid down her cheek. When she told me she felt responsible for the death of her young grandson who was in her care when the earthquake struck, her voice broke. "I should have been the one to die, " she told me. "The little boy shouldn't have to die." "It's not your fault," I offered feebly. Small consolation indeed. Fifteen miles south, away from the mountains, they'll soon be building the new city of Beichuan on a flat river plain. Right now there's no construction underway; they're still leveling the ground. But Beichuan officials promise that by the end of 2010, a city will have risen with homes for 30,000 earthquake survivors. I went to the worksite with a friendly 22-year-old staffer from the county propaganda department, Wang Shoulei. A few weeks ago, one of his colleagues from that department, 33 year old Feng Xiang, committed suicide. Feng's seven-year-old son had been killed in the earthquake. As I mentioned in my earlier post, Feng wrote a blog message on the day he hanged himself. It included these exhausted words: "I really find it too painful to be living. Please let me rest." You hear a lot about the pressures these local officials are under to speed up the pace of rebuilding. Wang Shoulei nodded when I asked him about the stresses. "Yes, some people are experiencing a great deal of pressure, " he said. But Wang and many other officials were brought in to Beichuan from elsewhere, to replace the hundreds of Beichuan leaders who were killed in the earthquake. Wang is from Shandong province - 1,000 miles away - so he's surely not experiencing stress in the same way as someone who saw his city crushed and his colleagues die. Just before we left, a man in a suit and tie with trendy glasses walked up. I was a little worried we were about to get kicked off the site. Instead, he greeted us with a big smile: "Welcome!," he said. Bai Hua is a builder from Shandong province in the east, sent here to rebuild Beichuan. Bai Hua, of the Shandong Good Guy Construction Company, on the site of what will become the new city of Beichuan. Melissa Block/NPR   The name of Mr. Bai's company translates as the Shandong Good Guy Construction Company, and he seemed like a genuinely good guy. A year from now Bai told me he can envision the muddy, open field we were standing near transformed into a new city, with walkways and beautiful trees and flowers, and, he says, "people leading a happy life." But first things first. As we left, I asked about the two sets of gigantic poles that have been erected - each maybe four stories high - facing the road. Those are for the billboards, Bai explained to us: supersized testimonials to the new Beichuan. They'll include an inspirational message from Chinese premier Wen Jiabao. Soon, those billboards will greet passers-by, trumpeting the new city that will rise to replace the ruined one. Gigantic pillars form the structure for a super-sized billboard that will promote the new city of Beichuan. Melissa Block/NPR  

[blog] Mom and Dad's Story

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By Andrea Hsu On today's All Things Considered, you'll hear the story of 12-year old Huang Meihua, who lost both her legs in the earthquake after her school collapsed on her. She's an incredibly spirited girl who had us all laughing, even while she was describing the earthquake. You'll have to listen to the story to know why. Huang Meihua and her parents, father Huang Sheqing and mother Yan Xiaorong. Andrea Hsu/NPR   But there were also moments during our visit that made me want to cry. Those moments came when Meihua's parents, Huang Sheqing and Yan Xiaorong, talked about their long journey back home and their struggle to get Meihua to safety. Yan and Huang had left their village, and their life as farmers, and were living in Heishui, some distance from Meihua - at least a day of travel under normal circumstances. They had a small shop selling mantou - steamed bread - and other snacks. With the money they earned, they rented a room for Meihua and her grandmother outside her school in the nearest town. They'd hoped a good education would lead to a brighter future for their daughter and for the family. After the earthquake, it took Meihua's parents four days to walk home. Meihua's dad, Huang Sheqing, who seemed very quiet at first, described the entire journey with barely a pause. It was as if he'd been waiting for the right moment to let everything out. He talked of the terrifying walk over mountain roads that had been wiped out, of the aftershocks, and the huge boulders that tumbled down from above. He described passing dead bodies along the way, one of someone who'd been just ten minutes in front of them. They had news that their village had been flattened, but had no news of their daughter. Meihua's mother Yan Xiaorong told us she believed Meihua was alive. She said if she thought for a moment that her daughter wasn't alive, she couldn't have kept going. Huang Meihua's mother shows me a photo of Meihua in the hospital, receiving a visit from Wu Bangguo, one of China's top leaders. Andrea Hsu/NPR   When they reached home they were led to a tent in the town square where Meihua had been taken after being rescued from the rubble of her school. Her father cried at the sight of her horrible injuries. Her mother cried. Meihua - according to her parents - did not cry. And she told them not to cry. There was no transportation out of the mountains, so Meihua's parents made a makeshift stretcher out of bamboo poles. They were determined to walk her out to safety. But to do that, they'd have to climb over five mountains. People told them it'd be impossible even if they weren't carrying anything. They eventually gave up and turned back. Finally, on May 18, six days after the quake, Meihua was flown to Chengdu by helicopter, along with others who'd been severely injured. There was no room on the helicopter for family. So Meihua's mother hiked the five mountains and slowly made her way to Chengdu. She arrived many days later, and today wonders whether she could have saved Meihua's legs had she gotten there faster. Huang Meihua and two classmates, who were skipping an athletic competition outside to hang out with her in her room. Andrea Hsu/NPR   So much has changed for this family since the earthquake, and at the same time, so much remains the same. While Meihua's mother stays with her at her new school, her father is back in Heishui most of the time, running the shop. He just happened to be back for a visit. They still talk about her education as being their number one priority. Her sunny personality has gained her many friends at the temporary new school. Classmates come by to wheel her to class. In fact, Meihua's mother told us, it wasn't long after her legs were amputated that Meihua began cracking jokes again. She even had the hospital director laughing.

[blog] Stories Behind the Stories

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By Andrea Hsu This coming week, I thought I'd use the blog to tell some of the stories behind the stories you'll be hearing on the radio. So often there are details or little moments that we just can't work into the six or eight minutes of radio that we put on the air. So far on this trip, I've gathered close to 15GB of audio, so you can imagine how much I have to write about. But today, I'll start with a few photos from a ceremony we attended in Xiaoyudong Township, quite close to the fault. The group Heifer International was donating thousands of chickens to farmers of Dawan Village, whose livelihoods were affected by the quake. Farmers from Dawan Village listen, some more attentively than others, to speeches by local officials and representatives from Heifer International. Andrea Hsu/NPR   There was something about this scene that I found really touching. The ceremony was held on the grounds of the local Communist Party office. The farmers had walked down from their homes in the mountains, and were sitting in the courtyard on stools and chairs. Right behind them was a new brick structure going up. To the other side stood the old dormitories belonging to the cement factory across the street, windowless and abandoned. Behind all of this loomed mountains, lush with foliage, except for the wide swaths that had suffered landslides. The view from the spot where the ceremony took place. Andrea Hsu/NPR   At the end of the ceremony, there was some craziness as local TV and photographers moved in for the photo-op. The chicks that had been brought in for the ceremony were moved here and there, and the farmers positioned just-so. Then everyone was herded to another spot, in front of the banner. More photos. Normally such moments make me cringe. But that day, there was something genuine about the excitement. The perfect photo, chicks and all. Andrea Hsu/NPR  

[blog] Preparing Stories for Broadcast

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By Andrea Hsu We've spent the past few days in Chengdu, putting together the stories that you're going to hear this coming week. I have to get back to the tape momentarily (actually, it's not tape anymore but wav files!), but I wanted to give you a short preview of the stories we'll be airing Monday. Visitors leave flowers at a spot on a hillside overlooking the ruined Beichuan County seat. Andrea Hsu/NPR   First off, we head to Beichuan County - one of the places worst hit by the earthquake. Anthony Kuhn went there a few days after the quake, traveling by motorcycle and foot to reach the county seat. It's since been fenced off and we could only view it from a spot on a hillside. The aerial view of the destruction is pretty unsettling. Our story this year talks about plans for the new Beichuan county seat, which is being built 15 miles south. A county official tells us of the pressures he's under, saying Beichuan is no longer just Sichuan's Beichuan, it's China's Beichuan, and even the world's Beichuan. 12 year old Huang Meihua Andrea Hsu/NPR   Our second story on Monday is a profile of a remarkable 12 year old from a mountain village in Beichuan, and the challenges she's facing post-earthquake. I'll leave it at that for now. Do tune in if you can, or listen online.

[blog] May Day, May Day!

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by Melissa Block OK, I promise this will be my last post about the floral display in Tianfu Square here in Chengdu. I admit I've become a bit obsessed about this technicolor May 1st blooming extravaganza. But it is finally May Day, the start of a three-day weekend in China. And this morning, the bright floral 5/1 was a tempting backdrop for lots of people to take some holiday shots. This young girl took a picture of her mom, then her mom took a picture of her. Melissa Block/NPR   I was looking forward to some grandiose, florid - if not floral - official Chinese speechmaking to mark the day in Tianfu Square. Turns out, there was none. May first was simply an occasion for folks from the city to go out to the country, and for country folks to come into the city for some r&r and photo ops. This work unit posed for a group photo in front of the iconic statue of Chairman Mao in Tianfu Square. Melissa Block/NPR   The language barrier kept me from finding out where this happy family was visiting from, but their smiles are universal. Melissa Block/NPR   Also today, I caught up with these three cute schoolgirls walking down the street, each holding a cage with two tiny bunnies inside. May Day presents? These girls were happy to show off their bunny rabbits. Melissa Block/NPR   When I spotted a long string of schoolchildren in red vests and caps walking toward Tianfu Square, I followed along in great anticipation. "Terrific!", I thought. "Must be a May Day parade!" But then all the kids piled on to tour buses. Using some pantomime and one of the very few Chinese words I know - dizhen, or earthquake - I was able to figure out that they were going on a field trip to the earthquake zone. They were heading up to Hanwang and Beichuan, some of the most devastated areas, to witness the destruction. The earthquake of last May 12th has become a May 1st adventure. One of a large group of schoolkids heading out on an earthquake field trip from Chengdu. Melissa Block/NPR  

[blog] Collecting History One Record at a Time

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By Andrea Hsu The other day we walked into a warehouse and into the mind of a fanatic collector. We were visiting the Jianchuan Museum Cluster built by government official-turned-real estate mogul Fan Jianchuan. Construction workers buzz about, finishing up a new earthquake museum that will open on May 12, 2009 at 2:28 pm, the moment the quake struck. We'll have more on that next week. By May 12, 2009, the anniversary of the earthquake, these halls will be filled with artifacts collected in the month after the quake. Andrea Hsu/NPR   The earthquake museum is one of 25 museums planned for a sprawling campus an hour's drive from Chengdu. Sadly, we had no time to walk through the galleries that already exist, but we did get a drive-by tour with a woman from Fan's office. There's the museum on the War of Resistance Against Japan, with photos of Chinese POWs collected from Japanese archives. There's the museum on Communist Party history, the Long March and all. There's the museum on the Flying Tigers, the only museum in China dedicated to the US military. Staff dressed in Sichuan military uniforms stand guard outside each. Two weeks before its opening, the earthquake museum was still just a shell, so we asked to see the warehouse where artifacts are stored. As we stood outside waiting for someone to open the oversized metal doors, we had no idea what we were in for. Fan Jianchuan has collected more than 50,000 records from the Cultural Revolution era. Andrea Hsu/NPR   In several cavernous rooms are tables and tables of newspapers, shelf after shelf of housewares - teapots and mugs, wash basins and bowls, stacks of mirrors, some with images of Mao, and more than 50,000 record albums, all from the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Except for the newspapers, these are things that I remember seeing in people's homes in the 1980s and 90s and for sale in Beijing's dirt market in the late 90s. But seeing these things by the thousands was a whole different experience. One of the major campaigns of the Cultural Revolution was the Destruction of the Four Olds: Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas. Just about anything pre-1949 was subject to destruction. Fan tells us he collects so that people will remember.

[blog] Ready For May Day

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by Melissa Block A brief floral update from Chengdu: the huge May 1st flower display in Tianfu Square that I described earlier is fully enflowered and ready for Friday's holiday. The giant 5/1 in the heart of Chengdu is now fully festooned with flowers, ready to greet the crowds on Friday's May Day celebration. Melissa Block/NPR   (In case you're wondering, the numbers 5 and 1 are made up of red poinsettias by the thousands - all poked through a wicker frame. The orange and yellow flowers are marigolds; the pink ones are begonias.) The last big public gathering I saw in Tianfu Square was on May 19th of last year: a moment of silence rally to mark the one week anniversary of the earthquake . People had flocked to the center of Chengdu by the thousands. They brought huge floral tissue-paper wreaths and wore white carnations in honor of the dead. The moment of silence segued into an outpouring of raucous and emotional patriotic chanting, as the people gathered in the square wept and raised their fists in the air and shouted, "Stand up! Be strong! Go China go!" I'll be curious to go back to Tianfu Square this Friday to see what the May Day celebration is all about.

[blog] Italian Red Cross Sends Immediate Response to Area Affected by Quake in Italy

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Italian Civil Protection is leading the overall response to the Earthquake in Italy, and the Italian Red Cross has activated its national operations center in Legnano, which is coordinating all regional branches for the emergency response. The Italian Red Cross has sent a mobile kitchen which can provide 10,000 meals per day as well as two soup kitchens to respond to the needs of the L'Aquila Hospital. In addition, 36 ambulances, 2 emergency units, 10,000 blankets and 16 dog rescue teams. The orphanage in San Gregorio is being evacuated by the Red Cross who will care for the children.

The Italian Red Cross is seeking donations, which can be made by credit card on its website.

[blog] Continuing Coverage on Earthquake in Italy

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Continuing coverage of the Earthquake in Italy is available in English at the Rome Post. Coverage in Italian continues at RAI News 24, Corriere Della Serra and at Virgilio Notizie.

[blog] Early Video Coverage of the Earthquke in Italy

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A number of videos about this morning's Italian Earthquake centered in the medieval fortess hill town of L'Aquila have been uploaded to Daily Motion and can be seen on their website on a page dedicated to coverage of the Equarthquake.

[blog] 6.3 Magnitude Quake Rocks Central Italy

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Ninety people are reported dead and 50,000 homeless following a 6.3 magnitude earthquake which occurred in central Italy in the early morning hours of April 6, 2009. It is believed that entire towns have been destroyed as a result of the quake which hit at 3:32 am local time. The quake struck 95 km NE of Rome, Italy and 115 miles SE of Perugia, Italy in the Abruzzo region. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has declared a state of emergency for the region, where the worst damage is reported in the picturesque medieval town of L'Aquila which suffered severe damage in earlier earthquakes occurring in 1461 and 1703.

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