http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niNP4qZeN84
A popular singer Zhang Liang Ying.
She is also a native of si chuan.
She sings in a donation concert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niNP4qZeN84
A popular singer Zhang Liang Ying.
She is also a native of si chuan.
She sings in a donation concert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K89f...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxpMOsCd4jA
China started 3 days of mourning from May 19th to May 21st.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q5Cx...eature=related
Jackie Chan donated.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-clj...eature=related
JC sings for the relief effort.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb0Rg...eature=related
JC talks.
part of 3 days of mourning.
youku and all the other chinese websites are in black and white.
http://www.youku.com/
Last edited by SPJ; 05-19-2008 at 08:27 PM.
We've been working hard to put together Martial Arts Benefit for Quake Victims, which I mentioned earlier on this thread. When it comes to charity events, it's always fascinating to me to see which martial artists walk the walk, so to speak. Here in America, we're getting a full page news piece in the front page every day, along with a report in the first five minutes on TV news broadcasts. There's been some good coverage on public radio and TV, but the web has proven itself again as a major news source for events as they happen.
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart
I'm not big on Chinese mysticism, superstition and numerology, but I translate our horoscope and have a working understanding of its symbolic power to China. What's more, in our upcoming issue, there's an article that discusses the 8 symbolism behind the Olympics. Below is an except from an article from today's front page. For the complete article, follow this link.
Lucky 8
China's Olympics have been carefully planned to begin around the lucky number eight. Ba, or eight in Chinese, sounds similar to the word for wealth. The Games open on Aug. 8, 2008, at 8 p.m.
But exactly 88 days before the Games are expected to begin, the largest earthquake to hit China in three decades struck Sichuan province. By Tuesday, the death toll reached more than 40,000, and the government estimates the figure could climb to as many as 50,000 people.
At the highest levels, the government has sought to reassure survivors of the quake, and the rest of the country, that it will spare no effort in rescue and rebuilding. Both Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao have visited the region.
Yang of Singapore's East Asian Institute says the quake could lead to positive changes, like stricter building codes for schools and better safety measures. While the Communist Party of China has extolled its own virtues throughout the week, he said, "I think they are learning some lessons."
It all adds up to ...
Yet skepticism in superstitious China remains, largely among many youths who don't remember the Cultural Revolution or the hardships of past years.
On the widely used QQ Web chat service, a popular post has been widely circulated in which the author describes how the month and day of each traumatic event equals eight. The Jan. 25 snowstorm, for example, is 1+2+5=8. The same for Tibet's uprising on March 14 (3+1+4=8) and the May 12 earthquake (5+1+2=8).
His conclusion when adding up the three events: 8-8-08 - the day of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart
The weakest of all weak things is a virtue that has not been tested in the fire.
~ Mark Twain
Everyone has a plan until they’ve been hit.
~ Joe Lewis
A warrior may choose pacifism; others are condemned to it.
~ Author unknown
"You don't feel lonely.Because you have a lively monkey"
"Ninja can HURT the Spartan, but the Spartan can KILL the Ninja"
I read that
1. there were over 7000 aftershocks since the big shake.
2. 5 million people homeless, they are in need of 3 million tents.
3. Bei chuan and other county townships are quarantined. there are 2 blockade lines established by the military and police. meaning nobody in or out.
4. sadly that, stray dogs are being "eliminated" for fear of eating dead people flesh and spreading disease such as rabies???
5. military chemical unit spraying disinfectant, medical teams are on site to "control" possible spreading of disease from human, live stock and wild lives.
6. the train tickets out of cheng du are 10 times or higher normal rates. yes everything "costs" more in cheng du and other disaster areas. due to scarcity and scalping.
7. make shift "quarters" may be too "close" or crowded" for comfort. but it is always better than nothing against the cold and rains.
--
number 8 or any other numbers are just numbers.
august 8 or ba ba (88) is also a father's day.
I planned a trip to beijing and then taking the train or tian lu all the way to tibet.
I planned to take my father to watch the show in olympic games opening on father's day, 2008.
--
due to other matters, the trips are cancelled.
now that the big quakes shook si chuan. we donated some money to the red cross.
yes, there are red tapes or beaucrasy in any government or agency including red cross.
--
we paid some respect to the death on Monday, too.
--
our thoughts and prayers are with the family and people that are affected by this.
--
Si Chuan people continue to strive. or ting zhu.
The rest of China, overseas chinese and friends abroad, we are all behind you.
--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOqyZzbqptc
first shipment from the US arrived from Hawaii and Alaska.
the supplies are allocated to Bei Chuan.
President increased aid to 1.3 million US$.
Australia doubled its donation.
over 3000 people visited Chinese counsil in LA. They received over 1 million US $ donation in person and from mails.
in this relief effort, more money are actually from people and companies donations.
---
Last edited by SPJ; 05-22-2008 at 07:31 AM.
1. Yuan yuan panda missing for 5 days, came home, the panda preservation center is out of apple and fresh bamboo, due to earth quake. baby pandas are eating rice soup like their human keepers. Pandas will be flew out and evacuated to bei jing for now.
2. rescue teams stopped searching for survivors and are leaving the area. 20% remaining buildings in bei chuan will be blown up by demolition teams, so the 1400 years old town will disappear 100%. the government and people are relocated to nearby town.
3. the same demolition fates are due for du jian yan and qing shan cheng. both are like 4000 years old "establishments".
4. PRC government allocated 5% of his budget this year for relief effort. meaning, 5% cut across the board for all government expenditure.
5. 20 provencial grovernments are helping si chuan to recover and rebuild.
6. the scale and scope of military moblilization for the relief are biggest in modern history. It is almost like landing of normandie in WWII. and German invasion of urkrain in ww II.
7. Tibetan government in exile called for cessation of protests worldwide and starting to raise funds and support the relief in si chuan.
---
Last edited by SPJ; 05-22-2008 at 01:55 PM.
Thanks for the report, Andy. It's great to have you posting from the source.
We're scrambling to get everything in place for tomorrow's benefit. Raffle prizes, donations and such have been pouring in. It's been incredible.
As for the feng shui of 8, it actually goes deeper. There are people now postulating that it ties to the fuwa.
Chinese Officials Seek to Quell Superstitions About Earthquakes
By Dune Lawrence
May 20 (Bloomberg) -- Earthquake specialists in Sichuan today tried to quell rumors about earthquake omens contributing to public anxiety after the 7.9-magnitude tremor that hit China on May 12, killing more than 40,000 people.
The forecasting institute of Sichuan's Earthquake Bureau said today that reports of spring water becoming murky, paddy fields bubbling and crowds of toads crossing roads were after effects of the earthquake and continuing shocks, not omens of more, Xinhua News Agency reported today.
China's deadliest earthquake in 32 years is spurring the nation's citizens to find superstitious significance in animal behavior, the date of the Beijing's Olympic Games and even the Olympic mascots.
Residents of Tongzi County in Guizhou province reported large numbers of frogs and toads moving together, which they took as a sign of another tremor, state-run Xinhua said, citing the vice mayor of the local city.
Internet messages have circulated in recent days noting that the dates associated with deadly snowstorms starting in January, riots in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa in March and the earthquake in Sichuan all add up to 8. Beijing's Summer Olympic Games are set to begin on Aug. 8, 2008, or 8/8/08.
Online posts have also linked the five Olympic mascots, called ``fuwas,'' to the misfortunes China has experienced this year. The panda fuwa represents the Sichuan earthquake, the flame fuwa protests during the Olympic torch relay, the Tibetan antelope fuwa riots in Lhasa, and the swallow fuwa a train crash in Shandong province, a center of kite-flying in China, according to the messages.
The posts speculate that the last fuwa, a dolphin, may signify an even worse disaster to come.China’s Disasters by the Number
The Chinese government declared three days of official mourning beginning Monday for last week’s earthquake. In addition to a lax ban on “public entertainment,” and advertisements, it began with three minutes of national silence at 2.28pm - the time the quake began last week. Drivers were asked to honk their horns at the same time and disaster sirens were also scheduled to wail, which I feared would jar the solemn mood and wouldn't sound too much different from a routine Beijing traffic jam. Nine people in our department stood before two TV sets ticking down the time towards the moment and watching silent footage of the disaster.
Out a window I could see construction workers in blue jump suits and yellow hard hats standing across the street atop office buildings, most with hands folded and heads bowed. The horns began howling; the sirens keened above them and it was as if the entire country was suddenly weeping. Two female coworkers dabbed their eyes and I also began choking up.
Three minutes later it ended. True silence for a second except for sniffles and televisions, then the jackhammers, saws and drills at the construction sites began their barrage again.
"So sad, too sad," one person whispered, a little embarrassed at her tears.
"It's okay." I said. "Everyone is sad."
Like the US post-9/11 and my fellow office workers, many of China's Netizens have been trying to find meaning in what it is being called the worst year in the country's history - though none mention the famines in the late '50s or the Cultural Revolution years.
There were the crippling snowstorms of January, unrest in Tibet followed by what is widely perceived here as international insult and humiliation heaped on the "sacred flame" of the Olympic torch while it made its journey outside the Middle Kingdom. A horrific train crash came next and now the earthquake the Internet is abuzz with material that is familiar in its own way to Americans who have pondered the coincidences of the John Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln assassinations ("Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy, Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln; both had vice presidents from southern states named Johnson...").
It is also reminiscent of the weird idea that a Nostradamus couplet foretold the attack on the Twin Towers, or that the word "Satan" could be seen in the smoke that rose above the collapsed building on 9/11.
In China, it's about numbers: add up the dates of the snowstorm (1-25), the Tibet riots (3-14) and the earthquake (5-12) individually and you get "8" normally an unusually auspicious number and the reason the Olympics will kick off on 8-8-08 (and why it costs significantly more to get a phone number with multiple 8's).
The five tooth-achingly cute cartoon character Olympic mascots called "Fuwa" – I think of them as exotic, colorful Smurfs are also now seen by some to be harbingers of China's recent miseries. Representing a fish, panda, swallow, Tibetan antelope and the Olympic flame, those seeking coincidence see the panda as an earthquake warning, since the ravaged area is also home to China's endangered giant panda; the Tibetan antelope well, you can figure that out; ditto for the Olympic flame; the swallow is seen as emblematic for the "kite city" of Weifang in Shandong province where China experienced a deadly train crash last month.
The remaining one is a fish symbol, representing water, which online doomsayers suggest could indicate pending horror in the Yangtze River.
Some Taiwanese TV stations are also blaming the feng shui of Beijing's massive new "Bird Nest" Olympic stadium, saying it has "interrupted the pulse" of a giant dragon said to lie beneath the country.
Then there are sincere, if syrupy, efforts to offer some online comfort, like this anonymous poem, which is jerking tears throughout the country. There is now talk of turning it into an earthquake memorial song.
For the children of Wenchuan who have died in the earthquake
Hurry child, grab mommy's hands
Child, tightly grab mommy's hand
The way to heaven is too dark and mommy's afraid you'll hit your head
Hurry, tightly grab mommy's hands, let mom go with you
Mommy, I'm scared that the road to heaven is too dark
I can't see your hands since the fallen walls stole the sunshine away
I will never again see your loving gaze
Child, you can go to the road ahead
You will have no sadness, no endless homework, or your father's scolding
You must remember daddy's face and mine
In the next life we will walk together again
Gene Ching
Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
Author of Shaolin Trips
Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart
Yes, it has been a pretty intense couple of years for China.
I really hope that these things will result in something that is very strong and positive.
Kung Fu is good for you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpKSV...eature=related
raising funds for si chuan relief on Taiwan TV.
the president elected also volunteered to answer the phone and receive contribution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n87F8KAMhh0
A TV reporter experienced the first quake and ran out.