NPR China Earthquake Slideshow

Here's an overview of our coverage of the May 12, 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Hear audio and see pictures by NPR hosts, reporters and producers:

A look back at NPR coverage of the May 12, 2008 earthquake.

Photos by NPR staff

 

--Andrea Hsu

4:29 PM ET | 06-19-2008 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post

Controversy and Charity

After ten days of working with the All Things Considered Chengdu crew, I'm back in Beijing.

People's lives outside of the epicenter are gradually getting back to normal. Although survivors' pictures are still rolling across the TV screen, entertainment programs are back on. But people seem as enthusiastic about donating to the relief effort as ever, and there's a huge online controversy related to it going on in right now.

It began when the Vanke Company, China's top real estate company (with revenues of 35.5 billion RMB (about $5 billion), donated two million RMB (about $290 thousand) on the day of the disaster. That sum didn't place Vanke among the largest corporate contributors to the relief effort, and thus began criticism from online observers.

Continue reading "Controversy and Charity" »

12:00 PM ET | 06- 5-2008 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post

Injured Children's Emotional Trauma

Wang Sifang, 12, lost 18 classmates in the May 12th earthquake.

Photo by Xiaoyu Xie.

Earlier this week, I visited a major Sichuan hospital.

There I met a few quake survivors, all of them young and in rough shape physically and especially emotionally.

One of them was Wang Sifang. He's a twelve-year-old boy from Shifang Jiandi Zhongxin Elementary School who survived the collapse of his school. Of fifty-three students in his sixth grade class, eighteen were crushed to death. Wang suffers from a broken leg and multiple fractures.

His father told me the boy lost his best friend, and now behaves strangely.

"He gets very agitated and upset when he is hurting from his wound." his dad told me. "Whenever there's an aftershock, he cries and shakes and keeps saying that he doesn't want to stay in the hospital and wants to go home."

Continue reading "Injured Children's Emotional Trauma" »

12:00 PM ET | 06- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

Chengdu: One Heckuva Job

Rivers with tree-lined pathways wind through Chengdu.

Photo by Art Silverman, NPR

Chengdu is not the city I came to a month ago. The city I entered May 2 looked vast, dirty and ugly. I now find it brightly colored, sprinkled with parks and people I enjoy seeing everyday

Also, I'm no longer covering Chengdu, I am experiencing it. And that makes a huge difference. I am moving slower, looking not for news, but for people.

My original plan was to finish up here when the work ended and get out to the glorious mountain, deserts and lakes I have come to love through movies such as "Hero," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," and "House of Flying Daggers."

Instead, I stayed in this Chinese New Orleans. Here's why I say that:

- Sichuan is "different' from the rest of modern China.

- People proudly admit they are very laidback here.

- The food is spicy and people like to party and drink.

- The dialect is distinct and sometimes hard to understand to people from the rest of the country.

Continue reading "Chengdu: One Heckuva Job" »

12:00 PM ET | 06- 3-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

Chengdu On Our Minds

(To read comments from the previous version of this entry go to our May 28th posting HERE.) .

It's my first day out of Southwest China since I landed in Chengdu on March 19. I was woken this morning by the sun, thinking it must be seven or eight in the morning already. And then I remembered: I'm in Beijing. In fact, it was only 5 am (China is all one time zone).

NPR audio engineer Stacey Abbott, right, with NPR Beijing Bureau assistant Joy Ma.

Photo by Brendan Banaszak, NPR

Chengdu was a really hard place to leave. Largely, of course, because there is just so much more to say about the earthquake and its aftermath. Fortunately, we now have Rob Gifford in Sichuan; he'll be in there for the next couple weeks. And he promises to write something for this blog.

But also, it was hard to leave a place that so embraced us as we set out to tell its story. This was true before the earthquake, and became even more so after. Before leaving, I didn't get a chance to see and thank all of the people who helped make our coverage possible. Trying to list them here would take pages and pages.

Our team in Chengdu included, from left, pianist and Northampton, Mass. listener, Xiaoyu Xie, originally from Chengdu; Yadi Zhong, known to us as Rebecca, who teaches English in Chengdu and helped us arrange interviews; and interpreter Philip He.

Photos by Art Silverman, Brendan Banaszak, NPR

Continue reading "Chengdu On Our Minds" »

5:48 PM ET | 05-30-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

Two Pull Each Other Out of Rubble

Fourteen-year old Chen Yuqiu and thirteen-year-old Deng Qinglan used to share a desk at Yinhua school. The older girl helped her friend at math, while the younger girl dispensed advice with English homework.

Chen Yuqiu, 14, recovering in a Sichuan hospital.

Photo by Louisa Lim, NPR

These two young girls may have been ordinary students, but during the earthquake they behaved in a way that was anything but ordinary. It was a Monday afternoon, two minutes before geology class was due to start, and Chen Yuqiu was handing out math papers as the other students were looking at charts and graphics.

Then the room started to shake.

As they saw other children running, they also began to flee their classroom. Chen Yuqiu explains what she remembered happening next.

Continue reading "Two Pull Each Other Out of Rubble" »

12:00 PM ET | 05-28-2008 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post

Your Comments About Our Work

(We first posted final thoughts from All Things Considered producers, hosts and reporters who were in Sichuan here. An extended version of this entry is posted on May 30. Please post new comments at that location.)

From left, Brendan Banazak, Robert Siegel, Chris Turpin, Melissa Block, Andrea Hsu, Stacey Abbott, Joy Ma, Art Silverman Saturday May 24, Sheraton Chengdu.

Photo by a Sheraton Hotel Doorman

12:00 AM ET | 05-28-2008 | permalink | comments (48) | e-mail post

Crisis and Community

All Things Considered host Robert Siegel being sheltered from the sun by farmers in Red Flag village.

Photo by Christopher Turpin, NPR

One moment from our time reporting here in China that lingers with me. It occurred in the magnificently named village of Red Flag.

Robert Siegel, Art Silverman, along with our loyal NPR listener turned interpreter, Xiaoyu Xie, had visited this picturesque hamlet a couple of days earlier, just after the May 12th earthquake. They'd discovered a place where no relief aid had yet arrived.

They decided to return to see if things were any better.

A Gift of Shade

We arrived unannounced in the heat of a blazing day. As I was taking pictures, I realized one of the village women was at my side. She stood close and sheltered me from the sun with her umbrella. As if on cue, other villagers came out of their makeshift tents to shade Robert and Xiaoyu.

Continue reading "Crisis and Community" »

8:40 PM ET | 05-24-2008 | permalink | comments (14) | e-mail post

Bloggers Criticize Relief Contributions

In the go-go capitalism that pervades today's China, success is measured by money. And now sincerity is also being measured by the same yardstick. With ordinary people digging into their pockets to contribute to the earthquake relief effort, the spotlight is being turned on what Chinese celebrities and companies are doing to help out. And this has triggered an angry debate in the blogosphere.

First under the spotlight was basketball star Yao Ming. Although he was quick to make a public appeal for aid, his initial donation of less than $73,000 US was derided by bloggers such as the unusually-named "fish is crazy about balls!"

"When Yao Ming injured his foot, every basketball fan in the whole country worried about him....But this time our country suffers through such a catastrophe, our sporting icon made only a courtesy donation of less than $73,000 US... Yao Ming, this time you let us down."

Continue reading "Bloggers Criticize Relief Contributions" »

11:35 AM ET | 05-23-2008 | permalink | comments (37) | e-mail post

National Treasures: China's Giant Pandas

Dr. Zhang Zhihe, director of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda breeding, talks about the role of his institution and the importance of pandas to China. Melissa Block's radio report on the pandas can be heard on All Things Considered.

4:54 PM ET | 05-22-2008 | permalink | comments (14) | e-mail post