Stories from the Sichuan earthquake

[benlehman]

A lot of the coverage of the Sichuan earthquake in the English press has been negative: not terribly surprising, given the general state of China in the English language press.

A group of Chinese-speaking internetters have taken it upon themselves to translate a bunch of Chinese stories about the earthquake, culling them from blogs and newspapers. These are not stories about the government. These are mostly stories about individual people and their struggles to help others.

I'm not saying that these are necessarily all there is to the story. I'm just saying: reading couldn't hurt.

Comments

[dj-clawson.livejournal.com]

Soon, he heard his son's voice from between the cracks of four higgledy-piggledy cement prefabricated panels

Soul-crushing and guiltily amusing at the same time. And more interesting than the Chinese English news agency, which since I regularly started reading, I've learned not to trust.

[redcrosse.livejournal.com]

The BBC coverage of the Sichuan earthquake has actually been pretty positive, lauding the Chinese government for a rapid response and for broad and gracious acceptance of international aid. I haven't checked into the American news, but it might just be us, and not "The (Monolithic, Cyclopaean, and Possibly Amorphous) English Press".

Naturally, the coverage of the earthquake itself is very, very negative, as it hurt a lot of people, but, you know, it's an earthquake. Hard to put a really positive spin on most of those.

[gbsteve.livejournal.com]

I was just watching the BBC news and I'd agree with this. It was mostly about the terrible extent to which Sichuan has been devastated but also showed the rescue effor in a good light.

The BBC website page (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/asia_pacific/2008/china_quake/default.stm) on the earthquake seems generally OK too.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Okay, okay, clearly I eat crow on this.

Crow eaten.

[dumnbunny.livejournal.com]

I largely avoid watching US news, especially the 24 hour networks. But the Canadian coverage has been largely positive. My wife and I have been following the CBC and CTV coverage and frequently comment on how well the Chinese official seem to have their shit together. The orderly rows of cots at a temporary shelter stand out in my mind, especially in stark contrast with the Katrina coverage.