Happy Chinese New Year and…Final Thoughts
New Year Painting in the Refugee Camp
It’s Chinese New Year, and I’ve returned to Cambridge. Quite the downer to have a sudden decline in festive spirit after three weeks of building up to the biggest holiday of the year for 1.4 billion people. I felt like I had to do something, so I had a small celebration of my own. I made three dishes: spring rolls, soy sauce pork, and bok choy, turned on the Christmas lights still hanging outside my apartment window, and celebrated with a close friend.
For me, this trip was also an opportunity to learn about my culture; to learn about the social systems, attitudes, and activities that keep Chinese society functioning on a daily basis. My first observation, and one that continues to amaze me every single time I go to China, is the incredibly resiliency of its people. Living with the pollution, noise, crowded spaces, lack of privacy, and the fight for limited resources, Chinese people still manage to scratch out a decent living from what they have. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the refugee camps, where, within a small amount of allocated space, families of 3 to 4 live together with the few belongings they’ve recovered, and continue living the best they can. From working at jobs, taking care of household chores, playing mah jong, and going to school, life eventually returns to normal, even though their walls are made of particle board.
Another key feature of the earthquake refugee community is how incredibly humble and grateful to the core they truly are. Immediately following the earthquake, when there were not enough relief supplies to go around, members of the community would rather not take any relief than see the supplies get distributed unevenly amongst the community. Now, they express high amounts of gratitude for any social services provided for them. Many feel they are lucky to have a government that helped in the rescue and recovery effort, supports them with permanent temporary housing, and gives small subsidies to help feed their families. Volunteers working in the camps get a lot of popularity points amongst community members, and are welcomed graciously in almost any household. One my last day in Mianzhu, we stopped at a wonton shop for breakfast, and I was discussing possibly returning in the summer to do a one-week English workshop at the camp. The restaurant owner was so grateful that I even mentioned the idea, even though I didn’t commit, that she refused to accept our payment for the meal.
One worry trend is how dependent most of the refugees are on the government as their savior. Apparently, this isn’t just a post-earthquake problem, it’s been a problem throughout Chinese history. Even in ancient China, the population heavily relied on the emperor and his government to provide direct relief during hard times. Failure to do so often resulted in rebellions that ended dynasties. This problem has manifested itself again, with residents waiting for the government to rebuild housing and re-allocate jobs so that they can move out of temporary housing. The problem is, the government neither has the financial resources, or the capacity, to do this sort of thing under China’s new market economy. When one party controls the country and limits civil society, they cap the potential of individual citizens to solve problems on their own.
But people may indeed need to solve their recovery woes on their own. With the financial crisis firmly gripping China’s economy, there’s a “cold wind blowing in China,” as one of our interviewees said to us. Earlier this month, half of China’s toy factories closed because of a slow Christmas season. Many economists are predicting China’s economy will only grow 5 to 6% in 2009, far short of the 8 to 9% required to create enough jobs for its burgeoning workforce. Many migrant workers are now returning from coastal cities to Sichuan and competing for the same jobs that disaster refugees need in order to support their families.
But there is hope yet. My final thought is something that I did not expect to find, and that most people in the West still do not know. The progressive thinkers within China have an incredibly open mind, and are willing attack, not ignore, their problems. And there are a lot of them, both in the field and within the highest offices of the government. From working closely with our client, to finding NGO leaders, roughing it in Mianzhu with refugee camp social workers, and interviewing government officials, I’ve found that most of the people we’ve met are eager to learn from the international community, to show the nuances of their country to foreign experts and visitors, and to collectively find solutions to make their society better. And when I returned to the U.S., I’ve found completely the opposite. Not only are many Americans not eager to learn from the international community, but are extremely self-confident in their own society, and quick to criticize how totalitarian and uncivilized other countries are, even as the U.S. slips deeper into the global recession it started. Personally, I’m inclined to believe that societies that are more resilient, humble, and gracious will win the day.
Minghua and I are hoping to go to Greensburg, Kansas, in March to write our comparative case about their recovery. But for now, thanks for reading, and Happy New Year.
Clinton’s Replacement
by Forrest Dunbar on January 23, 2009 in Features
Well, it didn’t end up being any of the people predicted here. But it also isn’t a member of a dynasty like the Cuomo’s or the Kennedy’s.
Paterson has chosen Kirsten Gillibrand, a Blue Dog Democrat from upstate New York. Her biography and voting records can be found here and here.
Some points of interest:
-she is staunchly pro-gun
-she opposed the financial bailout
-she is connected (though thankfully not related) to Andrew Cuomo through her work during the Clinton Administration
-Final thought: doesn’t she look a bit like a younger Hillary Clinton? And if she defeats Guiliani (or another challenger) in 2010, couldn’t a bright, moderate woman like Gillibrand have a serious nation future?
A Tale of Two Perspectives
At a Chengdu Teahouse
Before we left for Sichuan two weeks ago, we spoke at length with a director-general at the Ministry of Civil Affairs who was in charge of disaster management when the earthquake hit. He mentioned that after the earthquake, one of his biggest concerns was the impact of pyschological trauma upon the earthquake survivors, especially in seeing their loved ones crushed, or their homes and hometowns utterly destroyed. A few weeks later, when he saw that some residents began playing mah jong, he asked his relief workers to let them play, rather than ask them to clean up some trash in the camp, because their behavior was a sign that things have started to return to normal.
To put some context into this narrative, Sichuan locals are keen to live the good life. The province and its cities are famous for its teahouses, mah jong playing, deliciously spicy food, productive agriculture, opera, and tourism. As an outsider, I can definitely attest to the relatively slower pace of life compared with Beijing. I’ve heard from some commentators that most locals would rather take half a day off than earn half a day’s worth of wages if they could afford to do so.
But the mah jong reflects a key division in which people throughout China perceive how well the recovery effort is going. For some, it might resemble a return to normalcy, but others wonder why Sichuan locals are playing mah jong while accepting economic relief from other provinces. A Beijing taxi driver who drove us back from the airport gave us his two cents on the issue. He angrily replied that in those moments of zealous national mobilization, his family donated 500 yuan to the government. He protested that he didn’t give money to watch his beneficiaries play mah jong on TV. There lies a deep-seated resentment that the rest of the country is supporting Sichuan’s good life, and might do so for years to come, as the region slowly rebuilds at its own, leisurely pace. In addition, by some estimates, so far only 30% of the money donated for the recovery effort has actually been spent. Some wonder where the rest of the money has gone. The lack of transparency in how their money is being spent will further add to the rumors and suspicions.
From these two perspectives, one trend emerges. China has entered the phase where the magnitude, devastation, suffering of the 5/12 earthquake has become a more distant memory, and people are back to thinking how might Sichuan’s recovery affect their wallets.
Last Night in Chengdu
Give me a little HKS love
Community Organizing with Chinese Characteristics
Social Workers in Jianan Refugee Camp
When the earthquake struck on May 12, 2008, the massive need for volunteers, supplies, and resources forced the government to open the doors for NGOs to aid the relief effort. Now with temporary housing built for milllions of homeless earthquake refugees, the government is again officially in charge, and NGOs must now coordinate and partner with the government on projects in order to get access, or risk being shut down completely. But NGOs can still play a huge role in the recovery effort, since they bring needed resources and have deeper access to communities, and as local governments are suffering from financial difficulties and a lack of adequate capacity.
For most refugees, living in the camps is unfortunately the only long-term option. Many lost their apartments in cities like Han Wang, Beichuan, and Mianzhu, and did not have any private insurance to compensate them for lost property. Real estate prices are too high in China today for anyone to invest in a second, replacement home. Many still have debts from their first homes. Their old factories and workplaces have not officially closed, but have ceased operations indefinitely due to infrastructural damage. Now, families of two to five are squeezed into a 13 by 15 foot room, with about 50 households sharing one bathroom. The one camp we were working in had 40,000 refugees, and there were three of them located near Mianzhu alone. Almost all the residents are waiting…for the day in which government will provide them with a new apartment to live in. Some are more anxiously waiting for compensation for lost property, or social welfare support, that both the Central and local governments have promised them. For many, the horrors of the earthquake still run fresh in their minds.
So how do you promote economic development, provide social services, and organize the community in this context? One organization is trying to find out. Composed of 10 college seniors from across China, the Jianan Social Services Center runs like a community organizing venture. Currently, the group is partnering with the government on community-building projects, expanding their network, and gaining trust and recognition amongst the camp’s residents. They have four initiatives going on:
- Sports and Recreation - Organizing basketball, ping pong, and Chinese Chess competitions in neighborhoods within the refugee camp.
- Community Volunteer Corps - Building a group of youth volunteers to help with with the provision of social services, such as visits for elderly residents.
- Temporary Housing Beautification Through Art - Running art workshops with children, and then posting artwork in homes across the refugee camp.
- Chinese New Year Talent and Variety Showcase - Planning and managing the performances at the premiere New Year’s celebration.
Their road has not been easy. On some days, these young organizers work from 8:30am to 11:00pm, planning and running events, writing reports for their funders, conducting research, finding volunteers, and holding meetings to discuss strategy. They continuously run into barriers, including mis-communication with partners, pressures from the higher ups to expand their scope, and troubles getting enough participants in some of their initiatives. But what’s amazing about this team is its commitment to continuous reflect upon its work, learn from its mistakes, and think of creative ways to solve problems; qualities that many here believe is lacking in the way China educates its young people to think.
Their activities are targeted to build morale and social capital within the community. But after you build a better sense of togetherness in the camp, then what? A huge question lies in what the next step should be for this group. How should it start working to address the financial difficulties, psychosocial problems, and skills deficiencies that many of their constituents have? What is their role, especially in relation to the government, in building a better recovery community? In the new field of community organizing and social work here in China, the Jianan Social Services Center is experiencing its growing pains and defining its place under the rule of a one-party state.
But one common analogy I’ve heard throughout this trip might provide some sense of stability for NGOs. The Communist Party built its support based on working within rural communities throughout the 1920s-40s, helping farmers grow food, carry water, and raise livestock. It might very well need groups like Jianan to outreach to local communities again, in order to stay in power.
China’s Environmental Consciousness
The Ditch in the Temporary Housing Camp
Each day, I lament at the fact that everywhere I turn, I see trash. Litter fills rain gutters in the Refugee Camp. The people throw wrappers and other consumer packaging on the ground as they walk around. And my biggest pet peeve, the incredible amount of spitting that goes on, both inside and outside buildings. Today, I even saw a 6-year old kid pooping in a field. If you speak with most Chinese, they’ll respond that this is how their society works, and these habits are very hard to change. So today, I really started to question whether this perspective is true. Surely, if given the a fully-informed choice of living in a sustainable way, versus living in environmental degradation, they would choose sustainability, right?
I spent the day speaking with one of the most effective community organizers that I’ve met in China so far. Her name is Wang Lin, and she’s the local representative of Beijing Green Gross, an NGO dedicated to developing a “new countryside” in China, one that systematically changes the way it interacts with its environment. Currently, Beijing Green Cross is helping design earthquake-resistant housing in three communities in Sichuan, using all local materials, and with some of these houses, they’re building with cement bricks, which are bricks that do not require coal-fired baking, and therefore uses less energy to produce. Green Cross handles most of the architectural design and training of builders, while these houses are primarily financed by local farmers themselves. Through our conversations, what became apparent was the difficulty in changing behavior. For example, on the outside, rural farmers really seem to appreciate any kind of resources Green Cross can provide, but problems arose when Green Cross’s designs did not match with local preferences. Farmers hated the gray-colored bricks, and wanted red bricks, which are coal-fired.
I asked Wang Ling how she went about convincing villagers to change their preferences. First, she had to demonstrate that she was in the community for the long-haul. She never took any food from community members, came to the villages several times a week, and never promised things that she could not deliver. She also contacted local village leaders and worked with them closely on how to redesign their community. As for convincing local residents, it took a lot of town hall meetings. At first, town hall meetings were loud, disorganized, and argumentative, but after months of meetings and discussions, the residents began accepting the designs that Green Cross produced and conducting meetings in a more courteous fashion.
A walk through the village with Wang Ling demonstrated how well-known she is in the community. She knew the names of nearly every village and neighborhood leader in all the sites, and was close enough to the community where she could just walk into any home and be welcomed by its residents. She continues to refuse dinner invitations, citing that villagers have enough to worry about and that she should not add the burden of another mouth to feed for any of them. In Sichuan, Green Cross’s first and foremost concern is to help residents build sustainable buildings to live in. Then, the real work of educating residents on reducing littering, using organic farming methods, storing methane gas for energy use, and recycling water, will begin. She predicts that each of these behavioral changes will require the same time and effort to overcome as the cement brick hurdle. But I think she has developed a very solid base of social capital within the community to push forward. This leads me to think that any kind of true behavioral change on the environment will require good organizers on the ground, rather than blowhorn methods from the government, which have not worked here for decades.
Humbled
Got a first hand look at earthquake damage from the director of Deyang’s Earthquake Bureau today. A couple of observations. The scale of this disaster cannot be described with words, but I hope the following photos give you an idea. From the photos, you’ll see the scars in the terrain. The 8.0 earthquake caused massive mudslides and rock avalanches throughout the Dragon’s Gate Mountains (龙门山). The mountain road we took was extremely makeshift, with rough gravel, large cracks and ditches, giant slabs of road that have collapsed into the river, a lot of dust, and one-lane for most of the way.
The rebuilding process hasn’t even started in some of the places we’ve seen. In others, it’s been scattered at best. Deep inside the mountains, debris lay everywhere, with people slowly picking up the rubble. There are signs of life. We saw some some newer houses that have been fixed, and locals selling vegetables on the side of the road. Some of the larger community buildings were coming up. We also saw the ghost town of Han Wang, where nearly 100% of the buildings were damaged or destroyed, and thousands of people died in the quake, including nearly 17 out of 40 government officials. Nothing has really been rebuilt here, and a clock in the middle of the town still records the exact time the earthquake struck; the exact time in which it stopped ticking.
What’s interesting about Han Wang is that Dongqi, the electronics equipment factory that employed 40% of the town, is moving to Deyang, citing the damage it suffered to its facilities. Most of Han Wang’s residents have either moved, or now live in temporary housing provided by the government. The town is completely empty. The master plan from the local government is to rebuild a new town about 2 km away, and preserve the old town in its current state. The tourism bureau wants to use the old town as a memorial park.
We ended the day in a gigantic temporary housing camp in Mianzhu, where we’ll be staying for the next couple of days. This camp has 30,000 refugees, and we’ll be volunteering with our client on some social work, interviewing some locals, and assessing the social capital of the community here. I hear they’re doing a Spring Festival Variety Show in a couple of days, complete with Sichuan Opera and Choreographed Taichi performances by refugees, organized by neighborhoods.
Landslide Scars on Mountain from Afar
Landslide Scar and Rock Pile Closeup
One of 19 Quake Lakes near Qingping
Shoes in the Rubble
Our Wonderful Guides for the Day
Signs of the New Year
Breaktaking Scenery, Treacherous Escape
Rough Roads
Very Rough Roads
Lunching in a Tent
Damaged Interior of a Dongqi Plant in Han Wang
Han Wang Neighborhood
Walking through a Ghost Town
Abandoned Apartments
Damaged Footbridges
Han Wang street filled with debris.
The Clock that Stopped Ticking
Walking through a Makeshift Elementary School in the Refugee Camp
Signs of Recovery, Residents Growing Their Own Vegetables
The Rabbit Queen
A Rabbit at the Rabbit King
Today, we went to Dayi, about 40 minute drive west of Chengdu. Not much to see, a town of about 200,000 people, with the stench of fermenting soy sauce and black vinegar on the drive in. But Dayi has one of China’s crown jewel social enterprises. Founded 20 years ago, the Sichuan Yuping Rabbit Co. Ltd. does more than just raise rabbits and produce rabbit-related products. We spoke with the Rabbit Queen, Zhang Shuping, the general manager of the company, who explained how it all works.
From the outset, its founder, Ren Yuping, wanted to devote his business towards helping rural farmers earn a sustainable source of income. Born and raised in Dayi, Yuping started with only one pair of rabbits, and began building a business that has become one of the largest distributors of rabbit products in Sichuan. With the help of Heifer International in the late 1980s, they were able to expand to 48 rabbits, but with the condition that they must lift up others who are also in need. In order to serve their social mission, Yuping’s firm started “The Rabbit Research Center for Povery Relief.” It’s a training center where, for a nominal fee that covers only costs, rural farmers can learn how to raise rabbits and market their own rabbit meat. Yuping also provides a startup pair to those who cannot afford to buy them. Their enterprise is also entirely self-sustaining, relying on mostly government grants and program partnerships for funding, as well as the fee paid by trainees.
You might wonder, why rabbits? Raising rabbits can be an amazing source of income for those who are impoverished. Rabbits don’t eat very much, they require minimal upkeep. They grow fast. They also reproduce astonishingly quickly. Finally, the market for rabbit meat is very good in southern China, whereas in the north, the market for rabbit fur, for clothing, is also growing rapidly. In addition to the training center, Sichuan Yuping also collaborates on economic development projects with Heifer International and local governments. They enter villages and run training workshops on how to set up the entire production to market process for individual farmers whom they’ve identified as potential entrepreneurs. In 20 years of operation, Sichuan Yuping has succeeded in pulling over 300,000 people out of poverty. Because of these achievements, both Ren Yuping and his company now have a nickname throughout the region: The Rabbit King (兔王).
In addition, the company has spent a lot of resources researching how to create an eco-friendly production system. They current use rabbit fertilizer to grow vegetables, rely on methane gas to power small appliances near the rabbit cages, and use the vegetables to feed the rabbits. When the earthquake occurred, two of Rabbit King’s production facilities were completely destroyed. Despite becoming a disaster victim, the Rabbit King sent his workforce to participate in earthquake relief work, and now spends 30% of his time visiting disaster-stricken villages to run rabbit training workshops.
After spending over 90 minutes with us, our host, the Rabbit Queen, gave us each a bag of barbeque rabbit meat for the road. But I took home something even more valuable: the answer to my earlier question of whether China can grow its own social entrepreneurs within its borders.
For more information on the Rabbit King: http://www.chinarabbitking.com
Posing with the Rabbit Queen
Panda Express
by Minghua Li on January 11, 2009 in All Blogs
Panda Eating Bamboo
Sichuan is not only well known for the recent earthquake which is the subject of our research, but also the home to furbears known as pandas. The last time I was in Chendu I missed the opportunity to visit these endangered animals of which only 1500 live in the wild. Lin and I were lucky enough to get a break from our interviews and visit the Chendu Panda Reserve, located on the outskirts of Chengdu. Set in a landscaped bamboo forest, the reserve is an ideal place for these animals since they are always eating bamboo. Even babies only a couple of months old vigorously chew on bamboo shoots as they rolled around their pen. Despite their seemingly innocuous appearance, pandas are quite dangerous and can inflict serious harm to those who traspass into their enclosures.
The reserve also housed another surprise - adorable red pandas which resembled a mix between the red fox, racoon, and cat. These creatures are much smaller than pandas but are related. Also known as the firefox, the red panda is the mascot for the Mozilla Firefox browser. They are agile creatures that love to climb trees and recline lazily on branches high above visitors. Perhaps the best part of the trip was getting a chance to visit a large group of baby pandas play around in their pen. Watching the little ones in real life is so many times better than watching them on TV.
Tomorrow we will visit Deyang to tour the earthquake zone. Although we’ve been quite busy collecting information and conducting informational interviews, the most important part of our research will soon commence. I am looking forward to this part of our trip.
Cass Sunstein to the Obama Administration
by Forrest Dunbar on January 9, 2009 in Features
As widely predicted, Obama has brought down his longtime friend and former Chicago Law colleague Cass Sunstein to serve with him in Washington. Reportedly, Sunstein will be heading the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within the Office of Management and Budget, making him the Obama Administration’s “regulatory czar”.
You can read the Citizen’s recent interview with Professor Sunstein, in which he elides a question regarding political appointment, here.
No word yet on the where his wife and HKS Professor Samantha Power will land.
