As a former resident of Chengdu*, the sustained coverage of my ex-home in English-language media (which I suspect has only just begun) has caught my attention. For those looking for good on-the-ground coverage of what is going on in Chengdu, Dujiangyan, Wenchuan and the surrounding area, might I suggest the following links:
This report and this audio slideshow on the effects of the earthquake by FT correspondent (and China Economic Review alumnus) Jamil Anderlini:
In Dujiangyan, two rows of soldiers and police held distraught parents back from the site of the collapse, where scores of soldiers sifted through rubble looking for more of the estimated 900 children buried in the rubble.
Each time a child’s body emerged, four soldiers covered the face with cloth and carried it on broken doors or other makeshift stretchers down a human corridor of panicking relatives and deposited it in the mud for the family to claim.
“I can’t take this,” said one soldier as he hurried away from a corpse and back to the rubble.
National Public Radio’s Chengdu Diary blog. By sheer coincidence, the NPR crew have been in Chengdu since the start of the month, joined recently by Robert Siegel ("Support for NPR is provided by the Ford Foundation …"), in preparation for a full week of broadcasts from the city scheduled for next week. Needless to say, what started out as a run-of-the-mill show on daily life in China (complete with snippets on traditional Chinese instruments) took a dramatic turn for them on Monday (here’s a recording of one of Melissa Block’s interviews being interrupted by the actual quake. I couldn’t hear the clip myself, though I mainly blame that on the woeful RealPlayer software).
I’ll be listening next week.
Photo by Art Silverman, NPR
Other posts from Chengdu Diary:
Caught in the Earthquake
A Horrific Scene at a Middle School in Dujiangyan
Meeting Survivors on the Road
*I admittedly have a soft spot for the area, and heartily encourage everyone to contribute what they can to the Chinese Red Cross (info here on how to donate) to help in relief efforts.
UPDATE: With thanks to the China Law Blog, Cn Reviews has a comprehensive list of ways to donate (36 and counting) here.
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