A billion people nation coming to a standstill to pay tribute to the 34,000 people that died in the Sichuan quake on May 12th 2008 is very powerful to experience.
From our office, 3 metro stops away and in a straight line from Tian an Men square we could see traffic coming to a standstill, office employees standing to attention and on TV the flags flying at half mast.
It is not so much the fact that such a fitting tribute is being paid in light of such a catastrophe as the momentum it acquired since day one. For us who cannot read or understand the local news, evidence of solidarity has been manifest and we have come across it in most unexpected ways.
Aside from today's 3 minutes of silence where the only thing that could be heard in Beijing was sirens and car horns, there is a 3 day mourning period starting from today.
I work in advertising and the first thing I heard about it was an email from the boss to the whole office asking us to ensure that no advertising would go on air on radio or TV during the next 3 days. Apparently this is a governmental edict.
Judging by tonight's programming which is a kind of a news/telethon extravaganza identical on every single Beijing channel, I guess it would be unseemly for any advertiser to take advantage of any sort of viewing patterns. At any rate, no one has the choice to make the faux pas.
On a more personal note I find it very interesting that we no longer get HBO and Cinemax at the hotel. Instead the black and white screen carries a notice; "according to an announcement of the State Council of the PRC, May 19-21, are national mourning days. In order to express our heartfelt condolences for the victims of the disastrous earthquake in Sichuan, we will suspend the relay of overseas channels that contain entertainment programs during the above period". It's not that I mind it. It's more that I am surprised by it. By the intervention, I guess. By the fact that I am being taught a lesson of loss even at this most superficial level. By the fact that someone interferes in this very trivial of things as what I can watch or not for entertainment.
A nation of a billion people standing still is impressive indeed. What's even more impressive is the lines we saw at the mobile blood bank in Wangfujing - Beijing's central shopping street - all young people ready to give that most personal, simple and useful gift of self.
The power of "critical mass" in action is unforgettable.
