TANGSHAN: Zhang Youlu was 9 years old when his parents died in the
earthquake that devastated his hometown of Tangshan, Hebei province, in
1976.
Zhang grew up in a government-run boarding school for quake orphans
in the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang. Today, he runs a bookstore in
Tangshan, about 200 km east of Beijing.
The 8.0-magnitude quake that
devastated Wenchuan county, Sichuan province, and killed more than 65,000 people
caused Zhang's woeful childhood memories to resurface.
"My heart ached
when I saw the children who lost both parents in the quake - the surviving
babies of dead parents and the older children who are finding it difficult to
believe their parents are dead," Zhang said.
Two days after the quake, he
made a post on an online forum calling upon all Tangshan orphans to provide love
and care for Sichuan's quake victims.
Hundreds of people have heeded his
call over the past week, providing cash donations, and offering foster care and
counseling services for victims in the hardest-hit areas.
"As quake
orphans ourselves, we feel those children's pain more deeply than anyone else,"
he said.
Passing on love
Thirty-two years after the devastating
quake that claimed 240,000 lives in Tangshan, the more than 4,200 orphans of
that disaster are being brought together as adults by their desire to repay
society for the love and support they were given.
More than 300 Tangshan
orphans rallied in front of the monument commemorating the 1976 quake in the
city's downtown area last Tuesday to mourn the dead and donate money for
quake-affected areas, even though nearly all of them had already donated more
than once.
Hundreds more in other Chinese cities heeded their call, also
giving money.
Quake orphan Zhang Xiangqing, now president of a steel
company in Tianjin, has donated 100 million yuan ($14 million). "I hope the
money will help build new homes and schools that will withstand
earthquakes."
Tangshan government employee Liu Yuanping passed a message
on to Sichuan quake orphans: "Be strong, and be brave. You'll all grow up like
everyone else."
Liu was 14 when his parents, brother and sister died in
the Tangshan quake. He spent two years in a boarding school for quake orphans in
his hometown before high school.
Throughout his hour-long interview with
Xinhua last Tuesday, Liu answered multiple phone calls, most of which were from
his former classmates. "We all want to adopt some orphans," he said. "We had
similar experiences and can become better foster parents than those who
haven't."
Heart to heart
Yang Shan woke up to find her legs were
gone.
Counseling her was impossible, because the senior high school
student from Beichuan county - one of the hardest-hit areas, where more than
7,000 died - would scream whenever a stranger came near her.
Then, one
day, Dang Yuxin approached Yang and told her: "I'm from Tangshan, and I know how
you feel." These simple words calmed the tearful girl. The 1976 quake, one of
the most unforgettable events in China's modern history, etched the city's name
into the hearts of every Chinese older than age 10.
Dang was able to
approach the girl, hold her hand and reassure her she was safe. "If you want to
cry, just do it, and you'll feel better," Dang told her.
Once the girl
stopped weeping, Dang related her own experience.
She was 6 months old
when rescuers pulled her from the rubble of her home. Her parents were dead, and
no one knew her name, so she was sent to a special school with more than 100
quake orphans. There she was named Dang Yuxin, meaning: "The Communist Party
gave her a new life."
Yang listened quietly to her account. Once Dang had
finished, Yang recalled the terrible scenes she had witnessed after the quake -
her dead classmates, textbooks, satchels, scraps of clothing and blood
everywhere. She talked until she was exhausted, and then she finally fell
asleep.
When she woke, she was no longer afraid of the doctors and
nurses.
"Just help them face the truth. Don't tell them lies, such as:
'Your parents are still alive but have gone away'," Dang told a team of
volunteers in Mianyang, where Yang and many other survivors are being
treated.
The team of 17 counselors from Tangshan had traveled to Mianzhu
and Beichuan, two of the areas hardest-hit by last Monday's quake. They hoped to
provide psychotherapy for victims in Sichuan by sharing the coping skills they
developed after the 1976 quake.
"I tried hard to fight back tears every
session," Dang said. "But I have to be strong and tell them to be strong,
too."
Xinhua
|
