A moment of silence, Chinese style

Since last week’s earthquake, there’s been an almost-unfathomable outpouring of popular support for Sichuan province.

The government declared Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week National Days of Mourning. Publications dropped colour from their front pages, numerous benefit concerts were planned or held, and even the TVs in front of my office’s elevators were turned off.

I was at work on Monday, when the entire country was encouraged to be silent for three minutes in solidarity with those affected by the earthquake. Most of my colleagues headed up to the roof of our building in the Central Business District, but somehow I was left behind. On the 12th floor, there was still a pretty impressive view. As cars stopped dead in the streets, I could see office workers from neighbouring buildings lined up in nearby squares, some of them facing southwest – the direction of Sichuan. Even restaurant cooks and waitstaff were in formation, heads down. Nobody budged.

At the same time, it seemed as though every car in Beijing was blasting its horn, and the construction sites nearby all turned on their emergency alarms. It was deafening.

The combination of this constant drone of sirens with the somber, motionless crowds below was actually incredibly moving. To my knowledge, nothing like this has ever happened in China before.

The three mintues’ noise is all over Youtube now. This first clip is taken from CCTV. Granted, China is a Communist state, and this is state media, but it gives a pretty astonishing picture of the extent to which the country has been moved by this disaster, and how they’ve rallied to the cause. (Of course, every province in China is conveniently on Beijing time, making for a smooth-running video montage)

This next clip was taken gives a good sense of the general atmosphere on the street – this was ordinary people showing solidarity, too.

On Tuesday, while testing a walk near the Forbidden City (north of Tian’anmen Square) for a new Beijing by Foot guide, I ran into a enormous mass of people marching through the street, blocking it entirely. Within a minute or two, about a thousand people passed by me on the two-lane road, all of them screaming “Jiayou Zhongguo! Jiayou Sichuan!” (Lit. “Add oil China! Add oil Sichuan!” but more like “Keep on!” or “Go!”) After some deliberation, I decided to follow the crowds, which were composed of everyone from the elderly to working class types, students, and even uniformed private guards who must have left their posts.

It was hard not to feel emotional watching this hoard of chanting people. Still, there was a police presence (2 cop cars, some motorbikes, and clearly something like SWAT vans). Eventually someone in uniform encouraged the receptive masses to disperse, and they cooperated.

Yes, China is a single-party state, and carries the legacy of that, but as the government has shown, for better or for worse, when they need to mobilize, they do it, fast.

Now Premier Wen Jiabao has gotten a lot of international press for calling out to a trapped child, “It’s okay, Grandpa Wen is going to save you.” He’s also been seen crying at the site of the wreckage. Sure, it’s easy to be skeptical of things like this, and to a certain skepticism is justified.

Compare China’s response to this natural disaster with Burma’s though, and hard not to gush about what an impressive job they’ve done – they’ve acted quickly, accepted foreign aid, and even (perhaps reluctantly, but still) allowed all kinds of press in the affected area. Rescue teams have succeeded in saving people more than a week after the disaster. Now think about that in comparison to Hurricane Katrina.