A million tales of heartbreak in China's press
Posted: Thursday, May 22, 2008 9:01 AM
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Beijing, China
By Kari Huus, msnbc.com reporter
BEIJING – While most U.S. media have cut back coverage of China’s earthquake, and the mainland Chinese press is trying to remain upbeat about the disaster, the largest Chinese-language paper distributed worldwide is bringing its readers the epic tragedy in epic proportions.
The Hong Kong-based Sing Tao Daily is covering the disaster from every level, with a 14 pages devoted to it in the Tuesday edition alone. But it is the individual tales, recounted in devastating detail and emotion that really sets the paper apart from the rest of the press at this stage, more than a week after the earthquake struck.
Double-page color photo montages bring to life the faces of parents twisted in pain, and articles spell out the horrifying details of destruction – the death of 8-year old twin sisters who died holding hands, in one instance, and that of a man who perished clutching a note he wrote to clear his conscience of an unpaid 3000 yuan (about $375) debt to someone he calls "Old Wang." In that 800-word story, coming under a two-inch high headline, he is reported to have used the last of his strength to tell his daughter of the debt, and to urge her to live on and live well.
In a tribute to the grief of the children, the paper is running diary entries authored by a high school girl who was among the few who survived the collapse of her middle school in Beichuan. Liu Jian’s first installment describes what she saw and feels in lengthy essay called "A Day Filled with Blood and Tears."
"That day at lunch, we were all laughing, talking, eating. Being high school students, we were talking about our dreams and the future… Everything was so wonderful…." Then, she recalls, "there was the screaming, and wailing, and blood and tears running down faces all around me."
"Is it that God was jealous? Why would he suddenly crush us so ruthlessly?"
The tone taken by the Hong Kong press, which is not subject to direct control by the Chinese government, is in stark contrast to that taken by the official press in China. Although this coverage is far more complete and objective than in perhaps any other crisis the country has experienced since the Communist leadership came to power in 1949 — publishing daily updates of the dead and missing — the reports fall squarely into a tradition of highlighting the positive, which at this stage means focusing on progress in the recovery and rescue.
The front page of Thursday’s English language China Daily, for instance, focused on a new government decision to cut government spending by 5 percent to help funnel money toward a $10 billion fund for rebuilding in the quake zone. It was accompanied by a large photograph of children in the quake zone standing alongside the road holding signs expressing thanks to the People’s Liberation Army and other rescuers.
Hong Kong’s press has often been faulted for being unduly graphic and sensational, but in the case of a disaster of this enormity, it’s certainly more understandable. It has likely also been one reason that overseas Chinese have dug deep into their pockets, reportedly pledging more than $6 billion to aid and recovery. Until today, this was more than Beijing itself had planned to spend.
