Time's Cover Story: China's Times, Are They A Changing?
Posted by Dan on May 28, 2008 at 12:24 AM
Heart of Beijing has a good post up, discussing the changes the Sichuan earthquake has brought to China and, in particular, to how China views itself and how China views how outsiders view China. The post is entitled "Time's Cover Story," and it uses Time Magazine's article, entitled, "Helping Hands," as its springboard. Both the post and the article itself are well worth a read.
Comments
I don't think that much has really changed. The same impulse that gets people to help out with earthquakes is exactly the same one that gets people to turn out at demonstrations against this or that.
Also, enjoy the idealism and sense of unity, since it won't last for very long. Right now people are in the same mood that they were in 9/12. In about two months, people will be back to their grouchy and cynical selves.
Posted by: Twofish | May 28, 2008 7:26 AM
Twofish - counldn't disagree with you more.
As someone who has managed a volunteer based NGO for 4 years in Shanghai now I am seeing only stronger and stronger interest in volunteering. sure, there was a spike two weeks ago, and some of that will come off.. but real progress is being made, and where I find it most interesting is that it is within all the age groups (30-45 is probably most active).
R
Posted by: Crossroads | May 28, 2008 10:00 PM
This is a news audio clip from NPR:
"China Taps Citizen Volunteers to Dole Quake Aid"
(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90880176)
The Sichuan Provincial government is enlisting volunteers to distribute or monitor the distribution of the donations and aids.
Given the amount of donations received for the earthquake (the total is likely to exceed $5 billion eventually) and the size of the population affected, it's really a good and smart move.
As far as I know, the Chinese government has never done this kind of thing before. I'm impressed.
Posted by: greg | May 29, 2008 12:06 PM