![\"e5a4a9e6b4a5_crater\"](\"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2015\/08\/e5a4a9e6b4a5_crater.jpg\")
<\/a>\nFor the last two nights, seeing candles across my computer screen, I\u2019ve wanted to burst out with curses: So you\u2019ve got candles, but is that all you\u2019ve got? Or are candles the only thing you deserve to have? Facing the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, and all the other disasters which have cost thousands of lives of ordinary people, do you have anything other than candles? After you burn your digital candles, you\u2019ll just go back to what you were doing, and you have never thought, and will never think, about for whom the bell tolls.<\/p>\n
On February 14, 2005 in Fuxin, Liaoning Province (\u8fbd\u5b81\u961c\u65b0), a gas explosion in a mine snatched away the lives of 214 workers. At that time, there was no such thing as \u201cpraying for blessings\u201d for them online, because most people didn\u2019t even know about the tragedy. I rushed to the scene overnight. When I arrived, I saw piles of bodies in the snow, frozen stiff, piled up like so many matchsticks. No words can describe the rage I felt: this was a man-made tragedy, not a natural disaster. The report I wrote was killed, and media were only allowed to carry Xinhua wire copy. The families of miners with local residential registration (hukou) received 200,000 yuan (about $25,000 at the time) in compensation, while those without local hukou received 70,000 yuan (about $8,500). The penniless family of one of the dead miners wept to me in their unlit home: we\u2019re all humans, so why are our lives so cheap?<\/p>\n
It was the first time I felt surrounded and suffocated by endless helplessness. Why? That\u2019s the key word. If we don\u2019t ask why, these incidents will keep happening, one after another. Actually, each day is the last day for some people. We don\u2019t know their names, we just know the day they died. February 14, May 12, July 23, August 13 [respectively: the Liaoning mine disaster of 2005, the Wenchuan earthquake of 2008, the high-speed train derailment in Wenzhou of 2011, and the Tianjin explosions of 2015]. But slowly we forget. We are the walking dead who take each day as new, and nothing changes.<\/p>\n
Who remembers the school buildings that collapsed during the Wenchuan earthquake? Seven years have passed\u2014where are those children? Are their classrooms safe now? How many people know who Tan Zuoren (\u8c2d\u4f5c\u4eba) and Liu Xianbin (\u5218\u8d24\u658c) are? [1] How many people read, from beginning to end, the names of the 4,851 dead children? Lighting a digital candle is merely to seek your own peace of mind, and it\u2019s like saying: \u201cThis is all I can do, I can do no more than that.\u201d I agree with the words of my friend Tang Yinghong (\u5510\u6620\u7ea2): \u201cBeing moved without seeking the truth is just hypocrisy.\u201d<\/p>\n
But probing for the truth and revealing the truth are dangerous acts; so it\u2019s not just hypocritical, but gutless. Twenty hours after the Tianjin explosions, when we still didn\u2019t know just what had caused it, local authorities came out and said that spreading rumors would be severely punished. Hah, doesn\u2019t this sound a little familiar? Isn\u2019t this how the authorities react following each and every disaster? This is the bunch of people we sing the praises of every day! They are never competent in saving lives, but they\u2019re real good at locking people up. You squirrel yourself away and quietly make a post to Weibo, and a few minutes later they know it was you who did it. But days after the explosions, they still don\u2019t know just what on earth Ruihai International Logistics (\u745e\u6d77\u56fd\u9645\u7269\u6d41) had in their warehouse. Does that sound plausible to you?<\/p>\n
Many people who lived near the Tianjin explosions were injured by the flying glass from their shattered windows. But if builders had used secure glass that conformed to safety regulations, these injuries could have been entirely avoided. Another example: if they didn\u2019t have the first group of firefighters use water on the fire, many more casualties could have been avoided, according to Southern Weekend\u2019s report that has since been censored. But what a shame it is that every time there is a disaster of this kind, at every point in the process someone has dropped the ball, and we always get the worst outcome.<\/p>\n
I remember at the beginning of 2008 when there was a big snow, and later during CCTV\u2019s Spring Festival Gala, a group of performers, earnest faces flushed with red, were singing: \u201cFebruary 8 is our second birthday, it\u2019s when the Party gave us a second life!\u201d OK then, so can you get your Great Savior to bring back to lives the charred corpses in Tianjin, or the bodies that can\u2019t even be found because they were vaporized? Can it give them a second life? To tell you the truth, your Big Savior is more like a Rinpoche in Chaoyang District.[2]<\/p>\n
Today, Tianjin Daily (\u300a\u5929\u6d25\u65e5\u62a5\u300b) used ten full pages to show that \u201cTianjin isn\u2019t a city with no news.\u201d But what were the ten pages? It was all emotionalism, about \u201cbeing touched,\u201d and nothing else. Thanking the government for directing the relief effort, thanking the firefighters, thanking the doctors and nurses. Indeed, their sacrifice should be appreciated. But they didn\u2019t need to make these exertions in the first place. They didn\u2019t need to do all that. Screw your \u201cbeing touched\u201d! Why is it that tragedies are always turned into occasions to praise the government? A friend said that he\u2019d really like to smack Tianjin Daily in the face on behalf of Zhang Jiluan (\u5f20\u5b63\u9e3e), [a famous, Tianjin-based newspaper man in the late Qing and Republican eras for independent and socially responsible journalism]. But forget it, Zhang Jiluan wouldn\u2019t have survived in the communist era.<\/p>\n
Both Song Zhibiao (\u5b8b\u5fd7\u6807) and Wu Qiang (\u5434\u5f3a) [whom China Change has translated frequently] believed there has been a shift in linguistic paradigm between the 2008 earthquake and the current disaster, where the discourse of \u201cbeing touched\u201d replaced the discourse of seeking accountability. After so many years of attempting to hold officials to account, to the point of being thrown in jail, all that\u2019s left to do is to \u201cbe touched,\u201d where there is room only for cynicism or affected self-righteousness to ease the anxiety and shame that comes naturally to the heart. Lighting candles is easy. Or, put another way, all that is allowed us is to light candles. Apart from the right to \u201cbe touched\u201d (or being forced to be touched), we have no other right. When the Great Savior needs you to act as an idiot, then you must be an idiot, and you don\u2019t have a choice.<\/p>\n
I thought of the sinking of the Bohai No. 2 drilling rig on November 25, 1979, when 72 people died. The vice-premier of the State Council, Kang Shien (\u5eb7\u4e16\u6069), resigned because of it. But in 2005, with the mining disaster in Fuxin and the deaths of 214 people, even the local mayor was as safe as Mount Tai. Has human life gotten cheaper? No. But your Great Savior cares less and less about your lives. Don\u2019t tell me that \u201cmany hardships contribute to reviving a nation\u201d (\u201c\u591a\u96be\u5174\u90a6\u201d); all I know is that many hardships have only helped enriching the ministers. Beginning with Zhao Ziyang (\u8d75\u7d2b\u9633), the pet phrase of every Prime Minister has been: \u201c[I\u2019m so sorry that] I\u2019ve arrived too late.\u201d[3] Oh come on, whether you come or not doesn\u2019t make any difference.<\/p>\n
Nor am I nostalgic for the so-called \u201cold reformists\u201d like Wan Li (\u4e07\u91cc). I still remember the morning when the ceremony to bid farewell to Zhao Ziyang\u2019s remains was held. I left the funeral parlor at Babaoshan Cemetery, and outside saw an aged rural Sichuanese, surrounded by police, clutching to his chest a banner with the words: \u201cIf you want to eat grain, look for Ziyang\u201d (\u201c\u8981\u5403\u7cae\uff0c\u627e\u7d2b\u9633\u201d). They shoved him down and confiscated the banner. Though I sympathized with him, I still asked him: Why do you need to rely on Zhao Ziyang? The state\u2019s forced grain levy was wrong in the first place.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s there for you to get so \u201ctouched\u201d over? Stop lighting your candles. Pick up a leather lash, and flog hard those derelict in their duty, who treat human lives like dirt. If you don\u2019t use the whip, then you\u2019re simply waiting until others light a candle for you. This morning a friend shared an essay with me on WeChat with a catching headline: \u201cIf I die in this disaster, don\u2019t pray for me, avenge me instead.\u201d But why do we have to wait until the moment of revenge?<\/p>\n
[1] Tan Zuoren and Liu Xianbin are civil society and democracy activists who were jailed for their work, in particular the attempt to find and publicize the truth about deaths in the Wenchuan quake.<\/p>\n
[2] The reference is to an ersatz religious persona discussed in the press and blogosphere earlier this year.<\/p>\n
[3] Famously said by Zhao to the hunger-striking students on Tiananmen Square the day before martial law was declared.<\/p>\n
\u8d3e\u846dJia Jia (\u8d3e\u846d) is a Beijing-based journalist and columnist who has worked for Oriental Outlook (\u300a\u77ad\u671b\u4e1c\u65b9\u5468\u520a\u300b), iFeng Weekly (\u300a\u51e4\u51f0\u5468\u520a\u300b) and GQ Chinese. For years he has been writing columns for the Southern Metropolis Daily (\u300a\u5357\u65b9\u90fd\u5e02\u62a5\u300b), Beijing News (\u300a\u65b0\u4eac\u62a5\u300b) and Vista (\u300a\u770b\u5929\u4e0b\u300b). You can read his blog at Tencent Dajia blog.<\/p>\n
You’ve Got Candles, I\u2019ve Got a Whip<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n