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A News Story on School Collapses Tantalizes, then Disappears

China Media Project discovers and re-posts an important story that made a brief appearance on the websites of People’s Daily and its spin-off, China Economic Weekly:

…This is a story to keep your eyes on — we’ve pasted the full Chinese text at the end of this post — and one that amply illustrates the complexity of China’s media environment. Where did the story come from? Why was it allowed to appear at all?

The story’s jumping-off point is an academic study on construction quality in the quake zone launched last year by Tsinghua University, but it makes much more explicit the findings of the study as they are relevant to the problem of school collapses.

The story, by reporter Zhou Haibin (周海滨), uses the numbers in the Tsinghua study to make it clear that schools surveyed by a team of experts suffered far more crippling damage in the quake than did government buildings. For example, while 44 percent of government buildings studied were still deemed usable, having sustained little seismic damage, only 18 percent of school buildings studied were still deemed structurally sound.

Read more about the school collapses via CDT.
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- May 26, 2009 11:15 PM
Sichuan to Open Quake Relics to Tourists

Xinhua covers earthquake tourism after the May 2008 Sichuan quake:

Officials in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, where the massive Wenchuan earthquake left more than 87,000 people dead or missing and more than 374,640 injured last year, said Saturday they will open some quake relics to tourists.

“There is a huge tourism market in the ruins one year after the quake. Lots of people have been coming to visit the quake zone, especially during the Spring Festival, the Tomb-sweeping Festival and the May Day holiday,” said Wu Mian, deputy director of Sichuan Provincial Tourism Department, said in an interview with Xinhua Saturday.

“We cannot block the tourists out,” he said. “We also hope the tourists watch their behaviors and not hurt the quake survivors’ feelings.”

The first relics to open include the devastated tourist sites, schools, bridges, factories and streets in cities of Dujiangyan, Pengzhou, Mianzhu and Guangyuan as well as Yingxiu Township in Wenchuan County, the epicenter, he said.

Yao Minji of Shanghai Daily shares her thoughts on quake tourism:

All of Beichuan County in the epicenter is expected to become an “earthquake museum,” and there won’t be much renovation or building outside the town because the ground is so unstable.

Another large bricks-and-mortar museum, a private one, opened on May 11 at 2:28pm in Dayi County, an hour’s drive from Chengdu. It was built in Anren Town by Sichuan native Fan Jianchuan, whose specialty is museums of all kinds, from antique furniture to memorabilia of soldiers.

The earthquake museum is his 20th and latest. It’s the only one of his museums that is free. It can handle around 2,000 visitors a day, and by 9am on May 11 all 2,000 tickets had been claimed.

The idea of the museum is to present a visual diary of the earthquake covering one month from May 12 to June 12.

It’s effective and shocking.

Read Chang Ping’s view on earthquake tourism at the CDT post “Bloggers’ Reactions to the 5.12 Earthquake’s First Anniversary.”
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- May 23, 2009 9:32 PM
Video: Sala

The following video, produced by Sexy Beijing and posted on Danwei, is part of Abigail Washburn’s Afterquake project, in which she creates music with children from the earthquake-affected areas of Sichuan:

Afterquake: “Sala” Video from Sexy Beijing TV on Vimeo.

One year after the May 2008 Sichuan Earthquake in China, the Afterquake music project has created music with quake survivors to raise money and awareness for the ongoing reconstruction.

This song is a traditional Qiang minority song called “Sala”, but all the kids in Wenchuan seem to know it whether they are Han, Qiang or from another ethnic group. They also all seem to know the dance. The kids called it a guo zhuang (锅庄) song which means that you dance around a fire while singing it.

The vocals are by the girl in the video named Luo Shuang (罗霜), a 14 year old first year middle school student from Wenchuan County. She is Han ethnicity. Her mother appears at the end of the video, on the site where they are rebuilding their house, which was destroyed in the earthquake. The accompanying music was produced by Abigail Washburn and Dave Liang, of the Shanghai Restoration Project. The video was shot and edited by Luke Mines.
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- May 21, 2009 9:59 PM
Video: China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province

HBO’s documentary, China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province, about the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, is now available on YouTube:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

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- May 20, 2009 9:13 PM
China, a Year After the Deadly Sichuan Quake

Two American doctors spent time in the area affected by the Sichuan earthquake over the past year and wrote for ABC News about the rebuilding efforts they saw:

One quickly moves beyond the numbers and statistics while spending time with the affected families. A firsthand view of the recovery process a few months after the quake as well as six months later reveals the issues pressing on the minds of residents of the region: the long wait for permanent housing and the lack of viable long-term jobs, not to mention the psychological aftermath.

Housing is foremost on most residents’ minds. Initially, blue tents provided by aid organizations dotted the countryside. Since then, residents of the larger villages and cities have been moved into enclaves of temporary housing with shared kitchens, bathrooms and a small square room for each family of four.

“Living in the temporary housing is better than outside without a roof, but the air feels trapped and hot in the summer and it is freezing cold inside in the winter,” said Mr. Jun, a resident of a village in which every resident — hundreds in all — lost their homes.

After surviving one harsh Sichuan winter, residents are eagerly looking forward to the prospect of more permanent housing. Some locals are taking matters into their own hands and have cobbled together makeshift homes from construction debris, tarps and salvaged wood.
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- May 13, 2009 8:14 PM
Liao Yiwu: A Tribute to the Chinese Earthquake Victims

Author and poet Liao Yiwu writes a tribute to victims of the May 12, 2008 earthquake, translated on the University of Rochester site, found via Danwei:

I don’t know if the dead are resting in peace, but those who survived continue to be tormented by the memory of death. Recently, there have been a lot of stories circulating on the internet about an increase in suicide rates in the disaster area. A widely reported case involved a 33-year-old resident in Beichuan who had lost his wife and son in the earthquake. He used to be an outgoing optimist, but on New Year’s Eve he was found in a pool of blood with his wrist slit. Luckily, his relatives discovered early and got him to the hospital in Mianyang city where the doctor was able to rescue him.

A Chinese psychologist categorized this incident as an example of “impulsive suicide” triggered by Chinese holidays. The doctor said that every festival or anniversary has the potential to cause an insurmountable amount of stress for survivors. That reminds me of two lines from a well-known Chinese poem: “A stranger in a foreign land I cast, I miss my family on festival days.”

Each time a disaster hits China, we all become refugees and strangers in our own land. The famines of 1959 and 1962 left thirty million dead. The Cultural Revolution caused the deaths of between two and seven million people. The devastating earthquake in Tangshan claimed the lives of 240,000 . . . We survivors struggle on, living meaningless lives like pigs and dogs. In the Mao era, the Party used to call on people to “wipe clean the blood stains on your face, bury the bodies of your comrades and move on . . .” According to Western standards of mental health, almost every Chinese person is suffering from some mental illness—such as post-traumatic stress disorder. We are all the descendants or contemporaries of various man-made and natural catastrophes.
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- May 13, 2009 1:23 PM
Mei Fong: Loss, Mourning and Hope Amid the Rubble

From the Wall Street Journal:

When I set off to cover the Sichuan earthquake last May, I did not know my life and the lives of the families of quake victims would acquire a strange symmetry: of lost hopes, and the struggle to find a space to mourn.

Three days after the quake struck, I found a group of migrant workers in the Beijing West railway station. They carried all they had — bedrolls, thermos flasks, plastic basins, cooking oil — to travel a distance equivalent to that between California and Minnesota, on badly damaged roads and rails.

More of China’s migrant laborers come from Sichuan than any other province. Until the quake, Sichuan was best known for its spicy food and poverty. China’s migrants are a largely ignored army, building skyscrapers and raising other people’s children. In the aftermath of the quake, they were trying to rush home to their own.

I had come to the railway station hoping to join a group on their journey. What I didn’t know then, was I was in the early stages of a pregnancy.
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- May 13, 2009 12:43 AM
Bloggers’ Reactions to the 5.12 Earthquake’s First Anniversary

Today marks the 1st anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake. Netizens across the web have weighed in on this solemn day. The following is a brief selection from Chinese bloggers Chang Ping, Hecaitou, and Ai Weiwei. Excerpted and translated by CDT.

From Chang Ping, “How Should We Help the Disaster Areas?” (”我们应该怎样帮助灾区”). Chang Ping is a noted journalist and himself from Sichuan.

Officials have gone, journalists have gone, celebrities have gone, tourists have gone, volunteers have gone …… It will undoubtedly be bustling today in Sichuan’s earthquake disaster areas. In my mind, it should be quieter. After all, this is a memorial anniversary, not a celebratory one. However, I can’t speak and myself not ache. I know the hearts of those in the disaster zones: if it’s too loud, they’ll hate the noise, but if it’s too quiet, they’ll fear being left behind. Comparatively speaking, the latter is more dreadful, so they prefer the commotion.

Moreover, this commotion is being turned into a form of profiteering. To use the words of local officials, this is an important source of tourism. As a result, they’re eager to set up earthquake tourism spots and hope that visitors’ grief, inspection, and experience can become a source of sustained revenue. Some people are absolutely opposed to having 90,000 people’s tragedy be turned into destination sight-seeing spots. My attitude is not as resolute as theirs, but I think people should have at least waited for the dead’s bones to grow cold. Waiting until this time would make it seem more as if people were coming to more deeply understand and be alerted to people’s tragedy, rather than seem as if they were coming to take advantage and make profit of an unfortunate time.

[...] Then, how should we help those in disaster areas? As this year approached, my friends kept bringing up this question. To be frank, this is an incomplete question. If you want to think about how to go and help these areas, you must first know what kind of help these areas need, which is to say that you must first understand their current situation and existing problems. However, from media reports, we always see that their situation is great, that those in disaster zones have already received enough care, that they’re always smiling. If you just watch television, you might think that they’re happier than outsiders, or that they’re even happier than they were pre-earthquake. Now how can this be?

[...] In the media, the more important thing [than the initial outpouring of aid and later government-directed work] seems to be the newfound strength of civil society: the awakening of NGOs and the maturing of charity organizations makes up society’s “third division.” How have these strengths developed in this year? Actually, this is a situation that the media must summarize and review; information these organizations transmit about the current situation and needs of disaster areas is extremely important.

Society ought to grow in its response to helping disaster areas, and we ought to make progress, too. In this sense, by helping those in disaster zones, we are helping ourselves. They won’t always be disaster zones. When they cease to be, what else must we do?

官员去了，记者去了，明星去了，游客去了，志愿者去了……今天的四川地震灾区，一定非常热闹。在我的想象中，它应该更安静一点才好。毕竟，这是周年祭，而不是周年庆。但是，我不能站着说话不腰疼，我知道灾区人的心理，太热闹了嫌吵，但是太安静了又怕被遗忘。相对而言，后者更加可怕，所以他们宁愿忍受热闹。

何况热闹是可以转换成利益的。用地方官员的话来说，这是一个重要的旅游资源。所以他们急于建设地震旅游景点，希望外地人的哀悼、观察和体验能够成为一种可持续性的财政收入。有人坚决反对把九万人丧生的大悲剧当作景点供游览，我的态度倒没有这么决绝，但是认为至少要等到死者尸骨已寒，等到人们来到这里更多地感觉到人类的悲剧及警醒，而不是感觉到有人利用不幸牟利的时候。

[...] 那么我们应该怎样去帮助灾区呢？这一年来，一直有朋友提出这样的问题。事实上，这是一个残缺的问题。要想知道怎么去帮助灾区，首先应该知道灾区的需要什么样的帮助，也就是说要先了解灾区的现状如何，存在什么问题。但是从媒体的报道中，我们总是看见形势一片大好，灾区人民已经得到足够多的关怀，他们总是笑逐颜开。你光看电视的话，会以为他们比外地人还要高兴，甚至比地震前还要高兴。这怎么可能呢？

[...] 在媒体看来，更重要的是民间的新生力量：社会的“第三部门”也就是非政府组织的觉醒，以及民间慈善的成长。这些力量在这一年时间里发展得怎么样呢？其实这是媒体应该回顾和总结的事情。因为灾区的现状如何，需要什么样的帮助，这些机构传递的情况非常重要。

社会应该在帮助灾区的过程中成长，我们也应该在帮助灾区的过程中进步。从这个意义上说，帮助灾区就是帮助我们自己。而灾区并不是始终需要被当作灾区帮助的，当它不是灾区的时候，我们还应该做什么？

Hecaitou writes on the year’s new challenges for those in Chengdu. This week, a man flying to Chengdu was found to be infected with the H1N1 virus.

Last year at this time, we were people in the disaster zone.
This year at this time, we are people in the infected zone.
Last year, we went out to avoid the [dangers of the] earthquake.
This year, we stay inside to avoid the flu.
Last year, we did not want to stay at home.
This year, we do not want hang around outside.
— Chengdu, the city you can’t escape

去年这个时候，我们是灾区人民。
今年这个时候，我们是疫区人民。
去年在外面躲地震，
今年在家里躲流感；
去年没事不要呆在房里，
今年没事不要到外面晃
—成都，一个来了就走不脱的城市

Ai Weiwei has written a hypothetical Q&A session for government officials, asked by himself and answered by himself.

Q: Why is it that you only released a student casualty figure once the May 12th earthquake’s 1st anniversary approached? How many students really died? Do you have this name list? Does your figure have any relation to the “citizen investigation” name list [Ai Weiwei's list]?

A: I will take responsibility in saying that we only produced the casualty number after a year of cross-checking. We don’t know how many died, but we do know who took money. You must believe us on this part. We will not publish a name list for these students, or publish any similar information. They touch upon “state classified information.” As for the specifics of that classified information, I don’t think you want to know them. I can also say that our numbers have no connection to other people’s investigations.

问：为什么在512地震一周年快要到来时，你们才公布学生遇难数字，？到底有多少学生遇难？你们有这个名单吗？你们这个数字与“公民调查”的名单有什么关系？

答：我很负责任地说，遇难学生的数字是我们经过一年的反复核对的结果，有多少人遇难我们不知道，谁拿了钱我们是知道的，在这一点上，你们要相信我们。我们是不会公布学生死亡的名单或是相关信息的，它们涉及到“国家机密”，具体是什么机密，我想你们也不想知道。我可以很负责地说，我们的数字与任何其它人的调查无关。

Q: Why is it that the student casualty figure went from 6376 to 5335 today? That is a 1041 person difference. Was the first figure correct, and will today’s number change again?

A: Publishing data requires a long process. At the time, we were too fast, and under such circumstances, it is hard to avoid errors. For example, if the student was not at school at the time, we later decided to take that into account.

As for the student casualty figure, we have no need to fabricate figures, nor will we fabricate such figures. In regards to other data, we may have this need, but we may not act upon it. The costs of fabricating figures is steadily increasing; we must carefully consider this. As for if other people have this need, and if they would also fabricate figures, please inquire with other departments.

问：为什么关于学生遇难的数字从6376人变为今天的5335人，有1041人的变化，第一个数字是不是不准确的，今天的数字还会有变化吗？

答：公布数据需要一个很长的过程，我们当时是快了一点。一快就难免出错。比如有的学生遇难时没在学校，我们后来也注意到这样的情况。[...]

但对于地震遇难学生的人数，我们没有任何造假的必要，也不会造假。对于其他方面的数据，我们可能有这个必要，但可能也不会造假。造假的成本越来越大，我们必须慎重考虑。至于其他人有没有这个必要，会不会这样做，请向其他的部门咨询。

Q: Why not publish the student casualty name list? Are there apprehensions that the dead may come back to life?

A: We are materialist, and do not know what you are asking. We are not publishing the name list so as to avoid great emotional distress for the relatives. As you can see, after Vietnam War and 911 name lists were published, America’s economy underwent a severe crisis; it is not as if there isn’t a link, here. We are a government that is very close to the people. We hope that victims’ families will be able to face the future: tourism [see Chang Ping's post above]. This way, calamity can become a great source for disaster sightseeing. Forgetting the past and rebuilding our homes, this is the spirit of our time.

问：为什么不公布死难者的名单？是不是有死后复生的顾虑？

答：我们是唯物主义者，我不知道你在说什么。死难者名单难以公布是避免因亲人太伤心。你看越南战争的名单和911的名单公布以后，美国的经济发生了巨大的危机，这不是没有关系的。我们是亲民的政府，我们希望遇难家属面向未来，什么是未来，是我们的旅游资源。这次灾难为人类造就了伟大的灾难景观资源。忘记过去，重建家园，是我们的时代精神。

Q: What do you think about the “citizen investigation”?

A: Our country is rich and powerful, so there will be some people who have eaten their fill and have nothing better to do. It is quite possible that 99% of them are mentally ill, as mentioned by the Peking University professor.

问：你对“公民调查”有什么看法？

答：我们的国家富强了，就会有人吃饱饭没事干。不排除他们之中百分之九十九有精神病的北大教授专家意见。

Kai Pan of CNReviews has posted on the top 6 most popular Sichuan earthquake-related videos on Youku. Below is one video taken during Qingming, or Tomb Sweeping Day. See CNReviews for more.

Alice Xin Liu of Danwei and David Bandurski of the China Media Project have been tracking today’s front page stories.

Please also read CDT’s translation post last year: Li Chengpeng: The True Story of the Miracle Survival of the Students and Teachers of Longhan Elementary School in Beichuan.
» Read more
- May 12, 2009 2:05 PM
A Year After Sichuan Quake, Citizens Press for Answers

Time Magazine reports on Ai Weiwei’s quest to document the deaths of school children in the Sichuan earthquake:

May 12 marks the first anniversary of the devastating 7.9-magnitude earthquake in China’s southwest that killed an estimated 86,633 people. In the past year, Beijing has poured billions of dollars into the region’s reconstruction, and hundreds of thousands of people who were left homeless after the disaster have found shelter and begun rebuilding their lives. But many parents whose children were killed one year ago today remain incensed about the apparently shoddy construction that led to what some allege were a disproportionate number of schools collapsing. Despite what human-rights activists say has been a campaign of intimidation by the government, including beating and jailing parents to try and keep them silent, one group has continued to press Beijing for details on school construction and the exact number of students killed in the disaster as well as their identities and other details. It’s the kind of battle routinely fought all over rural China, pitting powerful local officials and businessmen against ordinary citizens who feel they have been wronged. It’s also a struggle that is almost always won by the powers that be. (See pictures of the aftermath of the Sichuan quake.)

But the cause of the earthquake parents has proven different. Not only do the parents continue to have a vast reservoir of sympathy from ordinary Chinese for their plight, they also have Ai Weiwei, an unusual champion whose determination not to let the issue be buried under bureaucratic obfuscations and strong-arming is — if anything — even greater than their own.

See also a report from the New York Times on how the anniversary is being marked in China:

One year after a 7.9-magnitude earthquake devastated parts of Sichuan Province, China paused Tuesday to remember the nearly 90,000 people left dead or missing by the disaster and to thank international donors for their help with the recovery effort.

But the anniversary was dogged by continuing questions about the deaths of thousands of Sichuan children crushed in the rubble of school buildings that the Chinese government says were solidly built, but many parents insist were substandard.

President Hu Jintao led a ceremony Tuesday at the quake’s epicenter, in the leveled town of Beichuan, shortly before 2:30 p.m., the time the quake occurred. Mr. Hu adjusted the flowers on a single, large memorial wreath adorned with a red sash. Nearby, a large clock stood with its hands stopped at 5:12, signifying May 12, the day of the tragedy.
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- May 12, 2009 12:43 PM
Ai Weiwei: The Numbers, Censored

In this last blog posting, artist Ai Weiwei has published dozens of messages generated by his blog hosting service informing him that various posts have been deleted by the blog administrator. All posts are regarding “The Numbers” project, the Ai Weiwei-led and volunteer-fueled endeavor to record and publish the name of every student killed during last year’s Sichuan Earthquake.

The messages appear to be automatically generated, and read as follows:

“Your article X was deleted by the administrator. Deepest regrets for the inconvenience.”

2009-05-08 17:48

您的文章《76.云西中学截止09.05.06》已被管理员删除。给您带来的不便，深表歉意。

See also previous posts on The Numbers project.
» Read more
- May 12, 2009 5:36 AM
Video: China Quake Scars Linger Amid Rebuilding

With tomorrow’s one-year anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake approaching, the media is busy covering and evaluating relief and reconstruction efforts. From CNN:

Thousands of schools collapsed in the earthquake, trapping students under the debris. Among the victims, 5,335 students died or are missing, said Tu Wentao, head of Sichuan’s education department, according to Xinhua. More than 500 were permanently disabled.

The disaster served as a rallying point for the Chinese government to reach out to the outside world and to instill patriotism and humanitarianism among the Chinese. In a newfound transparency and public awareness, local media ran 24-hour coverage of the quake rescue efforts, and foreign media were given open access to the quake-affected areas.

However, since then, the government has come under some criticism for its handling of the post-quake period — notably the quality of school construction in the affected area and the number of children who perished in the temblor.

From Al Jazeera:

Sexy Beijing posted a video of musician Abigail Washburn making music with children survivors of the quake, “using folk songs sung by the children as well as sounds of their parents rebuilding their houses with bricks and mortar.” For more on this project see the Afterquake website.

Afterquake: Music with Sichuan earthquake survivors from Sexy Beijing TV on Vimeo.
» Read more
- May 11, 2009 1:06 PM
China Quake: From Rubble, Civil Society Builds

The Christian Science Monitor reports on one positive outcome of last year’s devastating earthquake in Sichuan: a stronger Chinese civil society:

Last year’s earthquake, which provoked a tsunami of sudden sympathy and solidarity in China, has proved to be the catalyst for deeper social changes. “It has strengthened a sense of civil society,” says Han Junkui, who has studied activity by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Sichuan over the past year. “Society’s enthusiasm for earthquake-hit areas has changed from a passionate attitude to a rational one… The level of enthusiasm does not compare with a year ago, but it definitely still exists.”

Dr. Han points to “the unprecedented scale of donations, the fact that NGOs have become much more professional, and the way they are working with the government and with each other” as signs of how individuals and civic groups, independent of the ruling Communist Party, are expanding their influence.

Warnings for troublemakers

They would be well advised to do so cautiously, however. “You have to be strategic in highlighting sensitive issues without irritating government officials,” explains Wen Bo, a rising young environmental activist. “If you are seen as a troublemaker … they will shut your mouth and shut you down,” he warns. “NGOs working to improve Chinese society should not work as if they are in the United States.”
» Read more
- May 10, 2009 8:39 PM
Quake Readiness, Turning the Clock Back to 2005

In an article for Southern Weekend, Qian Gang asks if officials have fully carried out earthquake safety plans that date back to 2005. Translated by China Media Project:

If you make a careful reading of the speech delivered by Zhang Peizhen (张培震) of the China Earthquake Administration’s Institute of Geology to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on June 30, 2008, everything becomes clear instantly. Zhang, who is head of the Institute of Geology, said: “In 2004, the China Earthquake Administration organized earthquake experts from around the country to carry out research on earthquake rise from 2005 to 2020. They designed 22 areas around the country that were considered to be priority regions for earthquake monitoring and defense.”

The documents released by the State Council and by various provincial and city governments at that time were clearly part of an overall government push for earthquake disaster prevention.

But the burning question is: were these documents actually translated into action?

See another article by Qian Gang, also translated by CMP.
» Read more
- May 9, 2009 8:22 PM
China Reports Student Toll for Quake

From the New York Times:

After a year of obfuscation, the authorities on Thursday released the first official tally of student deaths from the earthquake last May, saying that 5,335 children either were dead or remained missing. An additional 546 were left disabled, they said.

Previous estimates placed the number of students who died in the collapse of school buildings during the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province as high as 10,000.

During a news conference in Chengdu, Tu Wentao, head of the Sichuan provincial education department, said that the student death figures were accurate.

“These numbers were reached through legal methods,” he said. “We have wide agreement on these numbers.”

The issue of student deaths remains a contentious one here. The parents of children who perished in the rubble of classrooms say the buildings were poorly constructed; the government has largely quashed the issue by harassing or detaining those who insist on pushing the matter.
» Read more
- May 8, 2009 9:16 PM
A Year Later, China’s Quake Survivors Struggle

Gordon Fairclough covers the continuing challenges of the May 2008 earthquake survivors. From the Wall Street Journal:

As Tuesday’s first anniversary nears of the 7.9-magnitude quake, which killed almost 70,000 people and left more than 17,000 others missing, people in the hardest-hit areas of Sichuan province are struggling to piece together their lives and rebuild devastated communities.

Many still live in temporary housing — often metal-clad dwellings originally designed for migrant workers on construction sites — as the government tries to speed the building of permanent homes and replace destroyed schools, hospitals and other infrastructure.

The government estimates the massive rebuilding effort will cost 1.7 trillion yuan, or about $250 billion. By the start of May, more than one million rural homes had been rebuilt in Sichuan.

On his blog, Evan Osnos introduces a multimedia project set to open next week to honor the victims of the earthquake:

The most powerful memorial to the children killed last year in collapsing schools in the Sichuan earthquake is the testament they, themselves, produced.

“Ruins—The Memory of Youth” is a chilling new multimedia project that showcases writing recovered from the rubble of the Beichuan Middle School. Scheduled to open, in Beijing, on Sunday, May 12th, the one-year anniversary of the quake, it includes over a thousand photo-booth headshots, class notebooks, and, most affecting, diary entries. The diaries are inscribed on wrinkled onion-skin paper, plastered with pop-star clippings and illuminated with scribbles. They speak, achingly, for themselves. The exhibit is in Chinese; I’ve translated a few excerpts of some diaries.
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- May 8, 2009 8:29 PM