Ai Weiwei (艾未未) is a leading Chinese artist, curator, architectural designer, cultural and social commentator. Ai Weiwei is also one of the artist who helped design the Olympic National Stadium known as the Bird’s Nest. Recently, he has been stirring up emotions and creating a sensation on his blog by criticizing the Chinese government’s management of the disaster response and chides officials for “still not having provided a full accounting of schoolchildren’s deaths.” Ai and many Chinese attribute the deaths of the schoolchildren to poorly constructed schools. On his blog, Ai Weiwei attempts to create a complete list of children killed in the 7.9-magnitude earthquake; so far he has gathered more than 1,500 names. Here’s what Ai Weiwei has to say about the earthquake:
“5.12汶川地震死亡学生”调查
汶川地震过去300多天了。四川政府机构迟迟推衍的神秘的死亡数据和名单，模糊了成千上万的中小学生死亡于“豆腐渣工程”的事实。
2008年12月15日，我们开始了“5.12汶川地震死亡学生”的调查整理工作，在多次向四川省政府民政，公安和教育机构要求公布死亡学生人数及名单,遭到拒绝的情况下，通过网络信息线索，对地震重灾区域进行了实地走访调查。
感谢对遇难孩子关注的人们，希望看到这个名单的人都能参与进来，提供信息并广为转帖。在2009年5月12日的地震周年到来之前，完善这份“汶川地震死亡学生”名单。
拒绝死亡，尊重生命，寄托哀思，告慰亡灵。
Why is Ai Weiwei so angry?
“I’m really tired of this bull, I went there, and I saw the school building collapsed, and next to it is a building that is fine.” He’s not the only one who’s angry, when I saw the pictures and read the reports from Sichuan, it’s hard to accept the fact that buildings built in the 1970s were still standing while those built a few years ago have turned into rubbles killing its inhabitants.
No time to point fingers
Almost a year has passed since the May 12th earthquake that killed more than 80,000 people. We have to admit that this was both a natural disaster and a man-made disaster. No matter what we say or what the government does or propose to do, the victims of this disaster will not come back to life. However, have we learned anything from this disaster?
A reactive government
Although the Chinese government was praised for having reacted swiftly, indeed they have reacted quickly. Premier Wen Jiabao was immediately at the disaster zone and directed the rescue efforts. Moreover, the army was invaluable, rescuing victims trapped under the rubbles, opening up roads and damming rivers to prevent floods. But if we take a step back and look at all the government’s responses – they are all reactions. No matter how fast you react, it is still a reaction. It seems the Chinese government is good at reacting but bad at preventative measures.
In conclusion
I commend what Ai Weiwei is doing, at least he has not forgot. Most people have forgotten about May 12th, people these days are more concern about the auction in France, the islands south of Hainan, and Coca Cola’s acquisition of Huiyuan. It will take another tremble to refocus people’s attention on what is really important: the citizen of China – 老百姓. When that happens, I’m sure there will be a strong reaction, just like last time.
Blame all this on the “Roving Crab” from the river. The littler creatures know what it is doing.
By the way, “老百姓” shouldn’t be translated into citizens. The more accurate translation should be “grassroots”.