CHINESE READERS
THEN
STREET LENDING LIBRARY 1981
AND NOW: The collision of two high-speed trains near Wenzhou two days ago has provided an opening into how the news can get out and get commented on in China despite the strictures of the regime.
The high-speed rail system is a source of pride at home and potential profit abroad. The Beijing-Shanghai express line was opened recently with great fanfare. There have been some problems before, but nothing like this tragedy.
From the authorities came conflicting stories. The most basic facts seemed to be that one train "stalled after being struck by lightning and was rammed by another one behind it."
From one survivor, "minutes after the accident," came a plea for help -- on Sina Weibo, "China's version of Twitter" -- and by the next night, "four million messages about the crash," according to the New York Times.
The message official China wanted front and center was "great love in the face of great disaster." One Weibo "micro-blogger" saw instead, as The Guardian reported, a China like "a train rushing through a lightning storm," and warned that "When a country is so corrupt that one lightning strike can cause a train crash ... none of us is exempt."
No comments:
Post a Comment