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Names to be remembered
Written by: Global Voices
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The death toll and identity details of school children victims in the May 12 Wenchuan earthquake last year has been sealed in a black box by Chinese government officials, like a state secret. Last December, Ai Wei-wei, a most respectable intellectual and blogger, decided to compile the names of school children who died in the earthquake with a voluntary working team. Up till now, they have collected 2,735 names with parent's names and contact details. All the information has been uploaded to bulloger.com, an exile website hosted in overseas server. The online discussion of this civil initiative has been harmonized in China.Why are Ai Wei wei and the team of volunteers so determined to collect all these names? Or why does the Chinese government want to hide the figures and names? Why there is no explanation from the government, Ai Wei wei explains his part of the story:
三百天å‰ï¼Œæˆ'去了四å·æ±¶å·åœ°éœ‡ç¾åŒºï¼Œçœ‹åˆ°çš„是æ- 尽的伤ç-›å'Œæ惧。今天，æˆ'们ä»ç„¶ä¸èƒ½å¤ŸçŸ¥é"在地震ä¸ï¼Œè°ç¦»å¼€æˆ'们去了。那些å©åä¸ºä»€ä¹ˆä¼šç¦»å¼€ï¼Œæ˜¯æ€Žæ ·ç¦»å¼€çš„ã€‚ä»–ä»¬åœ¨åºŸå¢Ÿä¸‹æœŸå¾…çš„æ-¶é-´é‡Œï¼Œå¿ƒé‡Œåœ¨æƒ³ç€ä»€ä¹ˆã€‚æˆ'在那次ç¾éš¾ä¸æ²¡æœ‰ä¼¸å‡ºæ‰‹ï¼Œæˆ'实在感到æ- 力。他们说，å¦ç"Ÿçš„æ»äº¡ä¸Žä»–们的å˜åœ¨æ- 关。他们说这是必然的，是ä¸å¯é¿å…的，是ç»è¿‡ä¸"家论è¯çš„。他们é-å£ä¸è°ˆè…败，回é¿â€œè±†è…渣工程â€ã€‚掩盖事实，以“维稳â€ä¹‹å，å¨èƒã€ç›'ç¦ã€è¿«å®³è¦æ±‚真相的å¦ç"Ÿçˆ¶æ¯ï¼Œå…¬ç„¶çš„è·µè¸å®ªæ³•ï¼Œè·µè¸äººçš„基本æƒåˆ©ã€‚那些在地震ä¸æ»åŽ»çš„å©å，ä¸æ˜¯è¯ç„‰ä¸è¯¦çš„一串数å-，ä¸æ˜¯â€œç»´ç¨³â€ä¸šç»©çš„æˆæžœã€‚那些å©å，他们有父æ¯äº²äººï¼Œæœ‰å¹»æƒ³ï¼Œä¼šæ¬¢ç¬'，有一个属于自己的åå-。这个åå-属于他们，三年ã€äº"年，å八，åä¹å¹´ï¼Œè¿™æ˜¯ä»–们å¯èƒ½è¢«è®°å¿†çš„全部，å¯è¢«å"¤èµ·çš„全部。æ‹'ç»é-忘，æ‹'ç»è°Žè¨€ã€‚æˆ'们å¯åŠ¨äº†â€œå…¬æ°'调查â€ã€‚追忆é€è€…，关怀ç"Ÿå˜ï¼Œæ‰¿æ‹…责任，为了ç"Ÿè€…çš„å¯èƒ½çš„欢ä¹ã€‚寻找æ¯ä¸€ä¸ªå©åçš„å§"å，记ä½ä»–们。那些对公æ°'å˜æœ‰ä¸è¯¥æœ‰çš„幻想的人，请记ä½äº†ï¼Œæˆ'们一天没有离去，这些å©åå°±ä¸ä¼šç¦»åŽ»ã€‚这是ç"Ÿæ´»ç†ç"±çš„一部分，æˆ'们ä¸ä¼šæ"¾å¼ƒçš„。
300 days ago, I went to the earthquake zone in Wenchuan, Sichuan, and i witnessed endless pain and terror.Today, we still don't know who have left us in the
earthquake, why the children have to leave, how they have left us. Or what they were thinking when they were trapped in the ruin.I had not given much help in the disaster, I felt so weak and
helpless then.They said, the death of school children had nothing to do with their existence. They said this is inevitable and experts backed up the argument. They didn't utter a word on
corruption and avoid addressing the issue “bean dregs project” (poorly structured school buildings). They covered up the facts. And under the name of “stability first”,
threatened, detained and prosecuted parents who are looking for the truth and for an answer. They tread on the constitution and people's basic human rights. The children who died in the
earthquake, they are not numbers, nor a performance of “stability first” principle. All these children, they have parent, have their own dreams, laughters and names. The names
belong to them, the names will become memory of them, even though the memoru may not last forever - 3 years, 5 years, 18 years, 19 years, the names is a mark that reminds the world about them in the
future. We have to hold on to our memory and reject lies.We start “citizen investigation” to remember those who passed away, to care about those who still survive. We take
up our responsibility to search for the school children's names, so that they can be remembered. For those who don't believe in citizen's effort, please remember this: the children
won't be gone if we continue to hold on. This is part of our lives' raison'd etre and we cannot give that up.
According to Xinhua's report back in December 2008, in the 5.12 earthquake, among the 159 counties, 14,000 schools have been destroyed and 91% of them are
public schools. However, officially, the collapse of school buildings are mainly the result of the magnitude of the earthquake, rather than human error in the construction of school buildings. Whether or not there are human errors in the “bean dregs project” is up to further investigation and debate, however, it won't be easy for Chinese netizens to further discuss the
matter as Ai Wei-wei's hard work has been harmonized in Chinese internet. According to Zhang3's blogpost and explanation,
on 19 of March, a post titled as “Qing-ming festival is approaching, Let's
commemorate the children victim together” was put up in a forum in Tianya. Within 4 days, the post has more than 100 thousand hits and 3000 comments, and the forum planned to organize a live
chat with Ai Wei Wei. But all the related posts were deleted in the afternoon of 23 of March. The explanation is:ç"±æ–¼æŸäº›å¤§å®¶çŸ¥é"çš„åŽŸå› ï¼ŒåŽŸå®šä»Šå¤©çš„è‰¾æœªæœªå…ˆç"Ÿè¨ªè«‡å› æ•…å–消，特æ¤å'ŠçŸ¥ï¼Œä¸¦å'天涯網å‹è‡´æ‰ï¼
Because of some known reasons, the planned interview with Ai Wei Wei has been cancelled. Here I inform all of you and give my apology to all Tianya friends.
The
interview is now published in bullogger.com in two parts: One and Two. In the interview, Ai explained that he wanted to finish the compilation in the anniversary of Wenchuan earthquake in coming May. Bai Yu-ji from my1510 gives high respect to Ai's initiation and criticizes the government for burying the dead without proper
investigation and explanation: 是的，æˆ'们ä¸çŸ¥é"他们为何æ»ï¼Œä½†è‡³å°'知é"他们已ç»æ»æŽ‰äº†ï¼Œè€Œä¸æ˜¯å¤±è¸ªã€‚他们曾ç»æ˜¯ï¼ŒçŽ°åœ¨ä¹Ÿæ˜¯æˆ'们的弟兄姊妹，亲人儿女，没有一个冷血到é€é¡¶çš„心è„，怎么把他们å·å·æŠ›å¼ƒï¼ŒåŸ‹æŽ‰ä¸ç†å'¢ï¼Ÿ…ç„¶è€Œï¼Œç©¶ç«Ÿä¸ºäº†ä¸€ä¸ªæ€Žæ ·çš„ç†ç"±ä¸è‚¯åŽ»å¯»æ±‚ã€æ•´ç†ã€å…¬å¸ƒè¿™äº›é‡éš¾è€Œæ»åŽ»çš„悲苦å©åçš„åå•å'¢ï¼Ÿä¸ºäº†å›½å®¶ä¹ˆï¼Ÿé‚£æ˜¯æ€Žæ ·çš„一个国家å'¢ï¼Ÿä¸ºäº†äººæ°'么？那åˆæ˜¯æ€Žæ ·ä¸€ç¾¤äººæ°'å'¢ï¼Ÿé‚£éƒ½ä¸å¯èƒ½ï¼Œæˆ'想ä¸å‡ºä»»ä½•çš„ç†ç"±ã€‚è¿™æ ·è'诞而离奇的事情，为什么会å'ç"Ÿã€‚…
Yes, we don't know why they died but we know they have died, not missing. They were and still are our brothers and sisters, families and children. It takes a cruel and
cold blood heart to dump them and bury them…Why there is no effort to sort out the poor children victim's name list, why there is no announcement? For the sake of our nation? What
kind of nation will do that? For the sake of people? What kind of people want that to happen? I can't think of any reason. How could such absurd and non-sense thing have happened…
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