Quake victims’ generosity of spirit
Posted: Monday, May 19, 2008 10:42 AM
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Beijing, China
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
XIANG’E, Sichuan Province – It's common to witness outpourings of generosity during a natural disaster. Moved by tragic and horrific images in the aftermath of last Monday's quake, ordinary Chinese have rushed to donate whatever they can – money, rescue equipment, food, and clothing.
But here, in Sichuan, we have seen generosity of a different order, coming from a most unexpected place – the quake's victims.
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| NBC News/Adrienne Mong |
| Millions of Chinese have rushed to volunteer to help quake survivors. |
Take Han Dai Gui, whom we met overlooking the valley in Chenjiaba. The migrant worker had finally arrived back in his home village from Shanxi province the same morning we interviewed him – only to find that the quake had swept his wife and his home into the valley below.
As we, humbled and overwhelmed by the magnitude of his loss, took our leave, Han brushed the tears away from his red-rimmed eyes and thanked us for taking the time to listen to his story.
It was the same with Wu Xiu Ping, 39, who we met in Xiang'e. Wu lost his only child, a 13-year-old daughter, when her four-story school crumbled into a giant pile of stone and dust when the quake hit. Three days passed before Wu was able to find his daughter's body.
Wu's sadness at his loss was only overmatched by his anger at local town authorities for having permitted the use of shoddy construction materials for his daughter's school. "It's important that this never happens again," he told us. "Thank you for reporting this story."
That's not all.
Standing before a tiny makeshift tent that's become their temporary home after their house was damaged by the quake, Wu and his wife pressed into our hands several precious bottles of water.
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| NBC News/Adrienne Mong |
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The central district of Xiang'e town six days after the quake. |
"Please take it," they insisted despite our loud protestations. And then to our embarrassed astonishment, they added, "You need it. You journalists work hard. Ni men hen xin ku."
The characters "ni men" translate to the plural form of "you," while the characters, "xin ku," mean literally "hard and bitter." As a common Chinese phrase, "xin ku" means to suffer hardship.
And we have heard it from every grieving family we have met here, "Your work is hard, you are suffering to come here to see us."
"How can you say that to us?" we say to them. "After what you have just suffered, what we are doing is nothing."
Arguably, the victims of Sichuan have lost everything
But not their dignity or their generous capacity for humanity.
Click here to see a list of agencies accepting China quake donations
