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.
Written by Lin Yang · Filed Under All Blogs
Lin Yang is currently a second year MPP candidate at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Prior to Harvard, he spent six months at Tsinghua University in Beijing, conducting research on China's shortage of water resources. He also taught high school mathematics for two years in the Mississippi Delta as part of Teach for America.
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