TALES OF GRIT AND SURVIVAL
Ten years after the Wenchuan earthquake its survivors continue to rebuild their lives
It is easy to be overwhelmed by the brutal, raw numbers that provide the backbone to the story of the Wenchuan earthquake of May 12, 2008 — and in a strange way finally not to truly appreciate the scale of the catastrophe.
We are told that when the magnitude 8 quake shook Sichuan province at 2.28 pm that day, and in the days and weeks that followed, over 69,000 people died, about 17,000 people were left unaccounted for and nearly 375,000 people were injured.
However, like the quake itself — which was felt as far afield as Japan, Thailand and Vietnam — its ripples directly touched millions of residents of Sichuan and beyond. Many of those fortunate enough to escape physical injury and not to lose any of their loved ones, lost their homes and livelihoods, and many lost their minds.
The previous biggest earthquake in China in terms of deaths had been that of Tangshan, Hebei province, in 1976, in which more than 242,000 people perished. Anyone from Tangshan, which marked the 40th anniversary of its catastrophe about two years ago, will tell you that not even four decades can fully wipe away the tears or remove the scars of such an event.
Ten years after the Wenchuan quake on May 8, when hundreds of doctors and volunteers from across China gathered for a ceremony in the town of Yingxiu in Wenchuan county, the epicenter of the quake, they marked a period of silence in memory of the victims. Many held white chrysanthemums in their hands.
This week, near the ruins of Xuankou Middle School, where 43 people lost their lives, it was the vibrant colors of blossoming peonies that held sway. A few hundred meters further on, three-story residential buildings, restaurants and shops have sprouted up, the clearest evidence that for all their pain the inhabitants of Yingxiu have taken huge strides in rebuilding their lives.
Here we tell the stories of four of those people, survivors whose optimism testifies to human resilience in the face of unimaginable adversity.
For Zhang Maotang, May 12, 2008, was the day his personal apocalypse began. For almost nine weeks it seemed to him that day after day a relative of his would die, and it plunged him into what he says was madness.
His daughter and her husband were killed by rocks, and a cousin and two nephews died before his eyes.
“It was like an air force bombing a village,” he says. “Houses had collapsed and there was rubble everywhere. I looked after my nephew for an hour before he finally died.”
His wife, who herded sheep on a mountain, was missing. Even as aftershocks continued to shake the area, he ascended the mountain every day, calling out her name.
“I was fearless, but I had completely lost my mind,” he says. “We had been married for more than 40 years and never quarreled or been in fights.”
On the 48th day Zhang decided to risk carrying his search further afield, into a valley where rocks continued to fall. Trying to move any rocks that had come to a rest was not only physically difficult, but also highly dangerous. In one spot as he moved rocks around he saw the unmistakable sign of what had once been life: a human foot. Eventually, as he recognized his wife’s clothing, he knew his search was over.
“I felt stabbing pains in my chest. I took off my coat, wrapped her up and took her home.”
The magnitude-8 earthquake had destroyed Zhang’s home, too, leaving him with 2 cows and 12 sheep.
His meager consolation was that his grandson had survived, and many people, including Xie Chunying, director-general of Luhuo County Health Bureau, tried to persuade him to adopt his orphaned grandson. He refused.
“All I wanted to do was kill myself, but as I considered my grandson I began to think straight. No matter what the challenges were, I was determined to raise him to continue the family line.”
The family now lives in a threestory house, and that boy is a secondary school student.
“It has been 10 years since the earthquake struck, and I have worked hard every day to bring him up with the hope of a better life,” Zhang says.
After the quake, Zhang received compensation of 20,000 yuan for the death of his wife, daughter, and sonin-law. As with other quake survivors, he and his children also received food and 300-yuan individual monthly transitional benefit from the government.
In the second year after the quake, Zhang says, he began spending most of his time on the mountain growing corn, keeping bees and raising chickens.
As the area recovered it was hit by another disaster. On July 10, 2013, a rainstorm swept Sichuan, causing severe floods and landslides affecting more than 800,000 people in Wenchuan county.
Roads and bridges were damaged, and power and telecommunications were cut, and as landslides struck, Zhang’s house, barely five years old, collapsed.
Yet again he set out rebuilding his life, and with the help of government disaster relief grants and money borrowed from his nephew he rebuild his house from scratch.
“I looked at things optimistically. As long as people around me were safe it was easy enough to rebuild my house.”
Over the past five years in China more than 66 million people have been pulled from poverty. In line with national goals on alleviating poverty, the local government in Wenchuan has implemented measures specific to poor households and individuals. For example, in 2015 Zhang was offered free plum saplings and technical support to work on his own plum plantation.
In addition to the income he derives from beekeeping and poultry farming, those plum trees are also now bearing fruit, and last year he made a profit of 12,000 yuan from them, he says. He plans to invest more in his plum growing, he says.
Zhang’s optimism and resilience made him a household name in Miansi township in Wenchuan. Last year the Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture government in Sichuan honored him with the annual Touching Aba award.
However, it is his grandchildren who remain his greatest motivators.
“As long as they live lives of joy I, too, feel happy. I want them to get into a good university and help others — just as others have done so much to help us.”
I looked at things optimistically. As long as people around me were safe it was easy enough to rebuild my house.”
Zhang Maotang, farmer