Comments on: Coco Wang: China 5:12 Earthquake

Coco Wang: China 5:12 Earthquake

By The Grace of God — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:35:14 -0800

Ten simple, shattering comics about the earthquake in China. Via MoFi.

By: Mike D

Mike D — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:47:30 -0800

Got about halfway through and had to stop. "Simple" and "shattering". Says it all. But thank you for posting this.

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:56:13 -0800

There are two funny ones at the end to cheer you up.

By: never used baby shoes

never used baby shoes — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:56:26 -0800

Couldn't get past the second one. Shattering indeed.

By: malpractice

malpractice — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:56:35 -0800

Fantastic, thank you.

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:57:11 -0800

There are two funny ones at the end to cheer you up. I thought this was a very nice touch.

By: sveskemus

sveskemus — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:08:55 -0800

Wow. Thanks for this, BTGOG.

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:11:49 -0800

Long time since a comic brought tears to my eyes... especially devastating to read on the back of watching the Chinese Democracy documentary.

By: tkolar

tkolar — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:14:08 -0800

These were good, although I'm sure that some are urban legends. There is an interesting lack of praying and thanking of gods (or ancestors) going on there. I wonder if that's just the author or part of a wider trend.

By: Phanx

Phanx — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:19:47 -0800

The internet has made me a bad person. My first thought was: these improving stories have been made up by the Chinese government.

By: Asparagirl

Asparagirl — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:42:23 -0800

The story of Mr. Tan will not leave my head.

By: farishta

farishta — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:44:20 -0800

Thanks for this, very powerful, though I'm sure a few are urban legends. Nonetheless simple, and shattering, as you described them. Also, don't mean to derail, but monkeyfilter? What's all this, then?

By: Jerub

Jerub — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:46:27 -0800

Wow, the one about the policeman at the school was a real tear-jerker for me. Thank-you for posting this link. It's heartening to read stories about real heroes and people being saved from disasters. The last one was kinda funny. It was good to have it finish on a positive note.

By: Citizen Premier

Citizen Premier — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:53:15 -0800

This is a pretty big embarrassment for the Chinese government--they saved money by building schools that were structurally inadequate. Some of these stories might be exaggerations, but if so it was most likely done by ordinary people. Oh, and I made it to the 7th one before getting choked up. Is that the high score?

By: nax

nax — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:00:44 -0800

By: of strange foe

of strange foe — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:00:51 -0800

Thank you for posting this.

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:01:34 -0800

This is a pretty big embarrassment for the Chinese government--they saved money by building schools that were structurally inadequate. On the other hand, it looks like the Chinese military/national guard and their equipment were available for domestic humanitarian purposes.

By: tkchrist

tkchrist — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:09:07 -0800

Very moving. And I hate to be cynical but I too wonder if some of those stories were based on the human need for wish-fulfillment in the face of such terrible tragedy and might be slightly if not completely exaggerated forms of spontaneous urban legends. Though I'd like to believe otherwise.

By: Grimp0teuthis

Grimp0teuthis — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:12:38 -0800

Oof. These hurt.

By: synaesthetichaze

synaesthetichaze — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:20:03 -0800

These are excellent comics, but I too doubt the authenticity of the stories themselves. Take the first as an example: how many of you would sing Happy Birthday to what you presume to be a corpse? It strikes me as very disrespectful... if she doesn't wake up. Which she does, here; how delightfully unlikely! I think in reality the order was reversed. She is rescued, presumed dead, wakes up, the brother says 'hooray, it was her birthday,' and the singing commences. This reflects what you generally see in real life, as opposed to making a great story. Nevertheless, I enjoyed them. Thank you for posting this!

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:25:27 -0800

I thought she was in a coma or precarious medical condition, not presumed dead.

By: Baby_Balrog

Baby_Balrog — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:26:56 -0800

Wow - you people are skeptical to a fault. Thanks for posting this - really moving and heart-breaking stuff. Especially poignant - I'm in my finals week for EMT training... so many incredible heroes. This is the last time I'll stay home when the tsunami/earthquake/cyclone spawns another mind boggling catastrophe.

By: luftmensch

luftmensch — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:34:53 -0800

Wonderful. Sweet and painful, with some funny bits at the end to help keep your sould from being entirely crushed.

By: Samuel Farrow

Samuel Farrow — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:44:46 -0800

Does anyone know which way around the months and dates are listed in China?

By: tksh

tksh — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:52:18 -0800

This is a pretty big embarrassment for the Chinese government--they saved money by building schools that were structurally inadequate. It's more like they didn't have enough money to build structurally sound buildings in the first place. Not enough concrete? Well, we'll have to made do with adding more sand. Can't afford to hire experience workers from out of town/city/province? We'll hire the local farmers too. Can't make the deadline or afford to extend the project any longer? We'll continue working in the rain, even if it means pouring foundation in the rain. Add in the mix of corruption on top and it just doesn't end well at all. Good post though. It's been refreshing to see everyone (the foreign media, the Chinese media, the Chinese bloggers) stop bickering and just have frank, open observations about what has happened and what's happening now.

By: tksh

tksh — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:53:46 -0800

Samuel Farrow: Does anyone know which way around the months and dates are listed in China? If you see something like 6/4, it's month/day.

By: vorfeed

vorfeed — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 16:11:59 -0800

The names and places might be "urban legends", perhaps, but almost 70,000 people died in that quake. Out of that many, I don't doubt that each of these stories really happened. Twice.

By: aeschenkarnos

aeschenkarnos — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 16:48:09 -0800

Beautiful and very moving. IMO, it should be translated into Burmese and airdropped there.

By: arnicae

arnicae — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 16:50:18 -0800

Brought tears to my eyes. .

By: six-or-six-thirty

six-or-six-thirty — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:31:42 -0800

Some may have been 'urban legends', I guess, but there are actual pictures of actual people from this event, most likely those mentioned in these comics, in these positions. The one that comes to mind especially is the mother bent over her baby to protect it. Kirth Gerson made a link to these, which I think is where I saw that such a one. I'd say I would love to read the stories that have come out of the whole ordeal when they show the best of people, but I don't think I can take them. These few comics were almost too much for me.

By: gomichild

gomichild — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:40:43 -0800

I've actually seen the footage for the first comic several times on Japanese TV. It's just as described - people singing Happy Birthday to this girl they've just dug out of the rubble and are trying to save.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:55:53 -0800

Coco Wang?

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:59:16 -0800

Seriously, I'm weeping like a baby reading this. This project reminds me a lot of this one about Hurricane Katrina. (this is not meant in any way to compare the two, believe me)

By: dhartung

dhartung — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:01:00 -0800

Stories like these make me wonder where the Hollywood meme of panicky people pushing old ladies down stairs and stomping over the bodies of children to escape disaster come from. People are *good.* Extremity brings out the best in us. People don't panic in disasters. I didn't -- like vorfeed -- doubt any of these stories. There are similar tales from any major disaster. I think there were some first-hand accounts from the San Francisco earthquake and fire posted here sometime about a year ago. Most of the stories weren't so much window-dressing as basic, heartfelt things that would normally go on in such rescues. The coke thing? Easy. The last text message? Well, it's the 21st century. If I could reach my mobile I'd do that. Many people in the 9/11 attacks had chances to write last messages to their families or make last calls. If you look at the Jessica McClure story or Floyd Collins you find a whole flash community developing during a rescue. Dozens or even hundreds of people who are rooting for someone to survive. This report of the Happy Birthday singing is a little less dramatic. It doesn't claim that the singing even seemed to revive her. But there's an equally remarkable story about a little girl aged 5 who "climbed out of the rubble herself". Maybe the cop story fits the state propaganda narrative best of all, but I can easily imagine the same story transposed to, say, Texas.

By: empath

empath — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:04:31 -0800

Aside from being touching stores (which I agree, are just on the edge of believability) the art technique in these comics is really wonderful. This one makes spectacular use of panel shapes to impart emotion, for example.

By: Solon and Thanks

Solon and Thanks — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:12:12 -0800

By: DecemberBoy

DecemberBoy — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:45:31 -0800

This is amazing stuff. If it hadn't been for the "Holy shit! The earthquake knocked me to Russia!" and the guy complaining he'd been ripped off because his car was shaking at the end, the whole thing would have been too depressing to read through. I won't forget the Mr. Tan story for a while. Yeah, most of the stories probably aren't 100% true, but they're most likely slightly changed versions of real stories or several real stories combined into one rather than totally fabricated stories.

By: fungible

fungible — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:50:25 -0800

This is a pretty big embarrassment for the Chinese government. Yeah but then I saw this picture the other day: Jiang Guohua, the Communist Party boss of Mianzhu, knelt Sunday to ask parents of earthquake victims to abandon their protest. Could you even imagine something like that happening here? Wow.

By: HyperBlue

HyperBlue — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 20:42:30 -0800

Found myself wishing this was some sort of propaganda, but sadly most of this is likely true. Thank goodness for the lighthearted ending..HOLY SHIT! This earthquake is FUCKING POWERFUL!! I am rocked to a foreign land!!

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:13:51 -0800

A helicopter evacuating injured people from China's earthquake zone has crashed in fog with 14 people on board.

By: perilous

perilous — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:30:12 -0800

Thank you so much for this post. Harrowing is indeed the word.

By: effugas

effugas — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:05:27 -0800

Whoa. That last panel, with the car rattling through the quake, and the driver being so very angry because he just bought it and how could it be shaking with just the AC... The year was 1989, I was home alone in San Francisco, and my parents didn't get home for another twenty minutes. They had just gotten the tires rotated. They had no idea. (Our next door neighbor's daughter was by then trapped under the Cypress freeway. She was pregnant...lost the baby.) Weird to remember all that, in this context. Amazing comics.

By: wemayfreeze

wemayfreeze — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:14:07 -0800

I hated the last two, but the rest were great. Ouch great. Maybe if the funny ones were interspersed?

By: Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese

Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:59:31 -0800

The year was 1989, I was home alone in San Francisco, and my parents didn't get home for another twenty minutes. They had just gotten the tires rotated. They had no idea. For me it was 1992, leaving a friend's party in L.A. on the night before Martin Luther King day. Two in the morning and I'm on Veteran's Ave heading toward Wilshire Blvd when my motorcycle starts shaking like crazy. "Damn, what's wrong with my bike? Is my tire flat? I'd better pull over... Oh. Shit."

By: Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese

Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:39 -0800

For me it was 1992 err, 1994, I mean.

By: jeffburdges

jeffburdges — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:59:47 -0800

tksh : No, all the recent massive earthquakes have hit poor countries, this was mostly just corruption.

By: Phanx

Phanx — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 02:52:20 -0800

Coco Wang's own remarks.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:27:42 -0800

Jiang Guohua, the Communist Party boss of Mianzhu, knelt Sunday to ask parents of earthquake victims to abandon their protest. Damn.

By: jammy

jammy — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:50:46 -0800

thank you for this - thank you very very much

By: MildlyDisturbed

MildlyDisturbed — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:25:02 -0800

Man, my cynicism and heartless-internet-bastard need work as I had to stop reading, go and close my office door, before continuing. That was the saddest and most inspiring and horrible and beautiful thing I have read in a long time.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:55:26 -0800

A Double Tragedy for China

By: bugmuncher

bugmuncher — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:05:25 -0800

I don't know what to think. Disaster reporting in America was wrong in the Katrina aftermath. "they're raping and killing in the Astrodome!" was widely reported, but mostly untrue. And our media, complacent and bumbling as they have been, are not under direct control of government. Coco Wang's sources are Chinese newspapers. While I don't know which papers he reads, it is a good bet that a lot of the reporting is coming from Xinhua News Agency, which Reporters Sans Frontieres called the world's largest propaganda machine. But each of these stories is plausible. So I have no conclusion.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:44:40 -0800

Tibet still closed to foreign press despite "unprecedented" post-quake openness in Sichuan

By: homunculus

homunculus — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:45:25 -0800

Tiananmen Square massacre still a taboo subject in press and online on 19th anniversary

By: homunculus

homunculus — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:18:42 -0800

Chinese police drag grieving parents from protest

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:55:12 -0800

China urged to release Tiananmen Square prisoners

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:15:49 -0800

China's Grief, Unearthed

By: PhatLobley

PhatLobley — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:39:16 -0800

I was about to post these, after reading them and crying my eyes out. Glad I searched. Glad people are reading them. Thanks, BTGOG.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:48:48 -0800

Falling Short: Olympic Promises Unfulfilled as China Falters on Press Freedom

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:37:21 -0800

Survivors in China Sift Rubble for the Past

By: homunculus

homunculus — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:17:07 -0800

Glued Geographic

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 11:11:27 -0800

Chinese riots over girl's death

By: tkolar

tkolar — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:07:36 -0800

Dude, you are perilously close to wandering out of the "adding pertinent links to threads" zone and into "using old Metafilter threads for google bombing" territory.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:34:14 -0800

This seemed potentially pertinent to me. A lot of Chinese people are getting increasingly frustrated with the corruption of local officials. There have been quite a few riots in China in the last few years. After the Sichuan earthquake, the government was very open at first, but then the parents of the dead schoolchildren started demanding justice (right around the anniversary of Tiananmen), so the window closed. Now the government is back to spouting propaganda and suppressing dissenters, which is making some people even angrier. I wonder if this explosion in Guizhou, which borders Sichuan, was fueled in part by word of mouth of what's been happening next door.