Sichuan Earthquake Update

Archive for the ‘Stories’ Category

Baby Love born to quake victim in China

By DAVID WIVELL – 12 hours ago

URUMQI, China (AP) — A little over a month ago, Zhang Xiaoyan lay in the rubble of her earthquake-shattered apartment building. Trapped for more than 50 hours, she prayed for the life of her unborn child.

“Even if I didn’t make it, I just wanted my baby to survive,” she said. “I was holding out hope during the earthquake that this day would come.”

That day was Wednesday, when Zhang’s daughter was born by Caesarean section in the Urumqi Maternal Care Hospital. Hours later, Zhang talked to The Associated Press as she reclined next to her newborn baby, a rosy-cheeked infant swaddled in a pink floral blanket.

Zhang’s dramatic rescue in the town of Dujiangyan — captured in photos and video footage that made their way around the globe — was a rare bright spot after the May 12 earthquake that ravaged mountainous Sichuan province and killed almost 70,000 people.

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source: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/world/20080523TDY05312.htm

The Yomiuri Shimbun
(May. 23, 2008)

MIANYANG, China–A Chinese kindergarten teacher has opened a school at a camp in Mianyang, China, for children displaced by the recent earthquake that struck Sichuan Province.

Zhu Xia, 32, visited an area hit by the quake in the Anxian district, about 40 kilometers from the center of Mianyang, on Saturday to donate goods to quake evacuees.

While at a camp for displaced people, she noticed that children looked depressed, and were wandering around with nothing to do. She concluded that they were traumatized by the physical injuries they suffered in the quake, or because they had lost family members.

As Zhu’s kindergarten in Chengdu is currently closed due to the risk of aftershocks, she decided to offer classes to the children at the camp.

On Sunday, she read a picture book to a class of eight. On Monday, 30 children gathered for her class. By Tuesday, the number jumped to about 150.

The school, which is held outside, has been named “Yang Guang” (Sunshine) school. As there are no chairs or desks, the children attending Yang Guang sit on the ground, surrounded by tents set up for the evacuees.

When a group of Yomiuri Shimbun reporters covering the earthquake visited the school, children, who were taking an English class, shouted, “Happy!”

“Though the children were fearful of aftershocks, it now appears they feel safer by being with others of a similar age,” Zhu said.

Zhu returned to Chengdu on Wednesday, and volunteers from Hong Kong have taken over.

At the school, children are taught how to prevent diseases while they are living in the tents and how to react toward children who lost their parents in the disaster.

The school has made children in the district far happier, and adults look relieved when they drop by the school and see their children in class, residents said.

Zhao Lin, 11, who lost his parents in the earthquake, still looked depressed, but said, “Now I know I’m not alone.”

This set of pictures are dedicated to the brave people in Sichuan Earthquake. Passed to us by Liu Hong.

Please click the text or picture below to open the power point file.
Heros - Dedicated to the brave people in Sichuan Earthquake, 2008

Source from http://googlechinablog.com/2008/05/blog-post_22.html. Thanks http://mobchina.blogspot.com for the english translation.

The chart was taken on the 19th June, one week after the WenChuan earthquake during the 3 minutes of silence to remember and mourn for the victims of the catastrophe. It is the data flow of the google searchin engin (in China). It is a clear sign of unity taken voluntarily by all the internet users in China showing a respect and regards for both that had lost the lives and also for all the affected victims. This is truly unprecedented.

TingTing sent one more drawing and her letter to children in Sichuan:

Keeping love alive for a very, very long haul
By Fu Jing
Updated: 2008-05-27 07:39

Like many kids, one-year-and-half old Zhong Minhan loves yo-yo. At 2:28 pm of May 12, she was awakened from her afternoon nap, promptly got up and sat down at bed enjoying the two-minute swing with smiles.

And even now, she does not know that the yo-yo has claimed thousands of lives in many cities, towns and villages of her home province Sichuan. But she does know that she could not see her father Zhong Ying easily during the past two weeks as he has always been at the frontline handing out food, medicines and even worked as a guide for journalists.

Zhong, aged 28, is part of the influx of volunteers extending their helping hands to those parents who lost their kids and students who lost their parents to the quake, the aftershocks, landslides and floods of quake lakes.

With him as a guide, our China Daily reporting team reached several devastated towns in high mountains, sometimes by foot, walking on broken railways and twisted bridges and finally had talks with survivors escaping from their homes in the dense forests.

Zhong is not only a guide for our photographer and me. He was so warm-hearted that every time we came back from Deyang, our car would be filled with water, food, clothes gathered by him from his relatives or friends.

And he told me: “In this hard time, you journalists should not only work for your paper but give help and aid at the same time.”

I could not agree with him more.

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(source: sina, translated by Candice)

The speed for the connection of the video might be slow. The mandarin voiceover can be briefly translated as follows.

It is about a little hero named Lin Hao who is only 9 years old. When the earthquake happened, he was in the school with other 30 students. Only about 10 students escaped from the building. The little boy, who had escaped, went back to pulled out two other pupils and carried them to safety.

Now he is in Dujiangyan with his sister and we see no panic in his eyes. But till now he hasn’t found his parents yet. Wish good luck with him and wish he would find his mom and dad in the end.

The thread of life amid debris of destruction
By Fu Jing
Updated: 2008-05-21 07:14
(source:China Daily)

Children from Beichuan county, one of the worst-hit areas in Sichuan province, play a game in Jiuzhou Stadium in Mianyang city yesterday. A lot of people who lost their homes in the quake have taken shelter in the stadium. [China Daily]

BEICHUAN, Sichuan: Yang Debiao refuses to eat. “How can I when I have lost 60 family members and relatives in the quake?” says the 38-year-old. “How can I live without my wife? What will I tell my daughter when she asks where her mother is?”

Yang has just returned from Shanxi province where he worked in a mine.

His wife died when the cyber caf she used to work in collapsed. His nine-year-old daughter escaped miraculously, though hundreds of her schoolmates died when their school building collapsed.

Yang and Deng Xingyou, a retiree, are sitting on the rubble of building with their surviving relatives. Two bundles of clothes and quilts and a bottle of edible oil lie near them. Both of them returned to Beichuan county from a shelter in Mianyang city on Monday in the hope of finding their loved ones.

Though many people have been found alive under the debris of buildings after five, six or even seven days, the chance of finding one now is too remote.

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Translations from Chinese by Candice Zhou

In the Wenchuan earthquake, Huanhuan kindergarten in Zundao town was collapsed at the moment more than 80 children were having their noon snap. Three teachers and more than 50 children are killed in the disaster. Now two teachers are injuried and under operation. One child is still missing.

After the earthquake, parents were gathered around the ruins, calling their children’s names from time to time. At the beginning, children could give faint response. But as time passed by, the response became weaker and weaker. Parents felt helpless, sitting near the ruins, anxiously waiting for the rescuers.

The head of the kindergarten bursted into tears when she recalled the time when one of her teachers, Miss Qu Wangrong was found by the rescue team. “At that time, Miss Qu flutter to the ground, with her back firmly blocked the collapse of the concrete sheet, arms still firmly holding a child. The child is rescued, but Miss Qu has left us forever.”

In the ruins, you can see small pillows, quilts and shoes everywhere. People don’t want to imagine the helplessness and panic at that time. However, it’s because an ordinary people just like Miss Qu, we have more children rescued.

original links: http://club.news.sohu.com/r-zz0081-107431-0-0-0.html

Second poem by Zhang Suning, inspired by the events during earthquake rescue operation. Zhang Suning recited the poem during the Edinburgh charity auction for the earthquake children.

My darling baby, if you’re alive, then mum is too

by Zhang Suning (Chinese version here)

Translated from Chinese to English, by Yuhua Hu

When the rescuers found her, she had died, killed by the house that collapsed. She died in a very unusual posture. She was kneeling on the floor, the whole upper body stretched forward with her arms supporting her whole body. The posture looked like the kneeling Koutou etiquette in ancient China, but her body was completely distorted by the pressure. When people cleared away the rubble around her, they found a baby was lying underneath her body, wrapped up in a small red blanket with golden patterns. The baby was about 3, 4 months old. Because of the protection from his mother’s body, he was still peacefully asleep when found. The rescuing doctor found a mobile phone inside the blanket, and on the screen of the phone, there was a message ‘My darling baby, if you survive, please remember I love you’.

My darling baby, if you’re alive, then Mum is too

My darling baby, you are still alive
It was Mum who had given you life

It was the second time Mum had given you life
The other time Mum was in great pain
This time Mum is in heaven above
–but now Mum can kiss you no more

My darling baby, you are still alive
It was Mum who had given you life

It was the second time Mum had given you life
Mum gave up her future for your future
Mum sacrificed her life for your life
–and now Mum will only appear in your dreams

Mum must have fed you for the last time
Mum must have changed your nappy for the last time
Mum must have kissed you again and again, till her last breath
Mum must have kept talking to you, till the last moment

My darling baby, you are alive, this was Mum’s hope
My darling baby, as long as you’re alive, Mum’s hope goes on
–a hope that was sheltered by a delicate body
–a hope that was raised up by an immortal life

My darling baby, if you are alive, then Mum is too
Mum’s blood is running in your vessels
Mum’s genes are thriving in every one of your cells
My darling baby, if you are alive, then Mum is too
You are Mum’s dreams in heaven
You are the resurrection of Mum’s life
My darling baby, if you are alive, then Mum is too
You are the extension of Mum’s life
You are the eternity of a mother’s love
My darling baby, if you are alive, then Mum is too
Forever alive, in your life