Social aftershocks

Show me the money.

I was not in China at the time of the recent earthquake in Sichuan, but once I heard that tremors were felt in Beijing, there was no doubt that this was a pretty friggin' big earthquake. Beijing is nearly 1,000 miles away from the epicenter.

The past 2 weeks have been quite a blur. I participated in the national 3 minutes of silence for the victims last Monday, and it was very moving. Truth be told, the government and public response to the disaster has been very moving....particularly when compared with the truly sad response of the Myanmar government to the cyclone disaster in that country. Some of the stories coming out of Sichuan are still hard to listen to without swallowing the urge to cry. This one still makes me tear up. :(

Everyone (East and West) is reading a lot into how the Chinese government's and common people's response to the earthquake reflects upon its continued development, role as a new "superpower", etc. These topics are too much to handle in a simple blog post, but I've observed that some of these social "aftershocks" are quite interesting!

The first is the donations for the disaster victims. They have been overwhelmingly generous, and it is very heartening to see that most of the donations come from the Chinese people themselves. Most people are encouraged to donate money (捐款) at their workplace. This is not uncommon in the West, either. But what's really interesting is that many companies are posting personal donations (with donor names and amounts!!!). Those who who do not donate enough are thus publicly pressured into donating more. You can see many of the red posters above on store fronts and office reception areas. The poster above was posted at the front gate of the Urumqi City Health Department....for all passersby to see!

One of my co-workers has noted that a new word has come into vogue lately on the Chinese internet bulletin boards:　"逼捐". This means to force someone into donating. Many Chinese celebrities (NBA Rockets' star Yao Ming) and large corporations (McDonalds, most prominently) have been publicly chastised into giving more and more money, because their original donations were not deemed to be generous enough.

This is so interesting from a Western point of view, because I think people value privacy and the right to give (or not give) to the cause of their choice. I'm currently neutral on the practice. One on hand, with upwards of US$20 billion dollars of damage and countless lives lost, money is definitely needed. And if using competition (or shame) to induce giving is the most effective way to raise money, that isn't altogether different than what we do in the west. I guess the one thing that makes me wary is if people give money for the wrong reason (they are forced to rather than really wanting to), the long-term effects on the development of philanthropy and civil society organizations in China could be more harmful than good.

The second big aftershock is how all this plays into Chinese nationalism...and how all of it is eerily similar to American nationalism. On the news channels (and still-constant coverage of relief efforts), there's even a little icon in the corner of the TV screen that says　“众志成城”, which is basically the equivalent of "United We Stand." All this really made me think more about the comparisons between the US and China, and how both sides deal with a lot of their social and political issues. I was especially reminded of criticisms that the US often has toward China (I am not excluded to holding some of those criticisms myself, particularly with regards to Tibet and Xinjiang), and I can't help but feel that so many people - and even "China scholars" - in the US don't really understand how similar China is to our own country.

Lastly, the third big social aftershock is the this:



If you haven't heard about her already, this is a girl from Liaoning venting and saying some awful stuff about the 'quake victims. If anything, it shows that there is at least one spoiled brat out there who is pissed that they couldn't play video games or watch TV during the mourning period. Sure, I understand she's fed up, but her reaction to the quake is shudder-inducing. The video above is Part I of a 5 minute-plus rant with English subtitles, but you can easily find the video in its entirety if you understand Chinese...

I don't know if she was stupid or what, but the video was posted, and, unsurprisingly, Chinese netizens were ready to lynch her. Her personal details (including address, birth year, job, etc.) were posted on Chinese websites. Her parents were forced to make press releases along the lines of of "We failed to raise her well and she is a horrible person...but please don't kill her" and the girl was apparently arrested (or at least taken into custody for her own protection). Yikes.

I wonder what would've happened in the US if someone would have posted a video like that after 9/11. :\