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New hearts, new hands

By You Nuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-16 17:17

The two photos that we have for this week are both recent ones, taken by our photographer Wang Wenlan from the epicenter of the Sichuan earthquake that took place one month ago.

However, the lack of an older photo doesn't mean we don't have a historical perspective. Rather, it is because there is no comparison to the past.

China has no lack of earthquakes in its history. But only in the last one did two unprecedented phenomena occur and make their mark on society - the volunteers and psychological counselors.

In the tightly regimented economic system that China was three decades ago, there was no room for such people; and even if they had been around their actions would hardly have been appreciated. Indeed, with supply and demand kept at basic levels, their services might well have been viewed as unwanted "luxuries" and been pushed aside.

Take volunteer work, for example. The logic of volunteering is similar to that of the market economy, even though they have different financial orientations. Both spring from individual initiatives, not just individual spontaneity but as serious commitments.

Being a volunteer is like launching a private enterprise, however in a different way. It matches what one does the best with what society needs the most - although not for money and material rewards. No such person would have been allowed to exist in China in the mid-1970s when the Tangshan earthquake took place.

But nowadays, from the disaster zone in Sichuan, China has learned many stories about its first generation of volunteers carrying meager supplies and risking their lives to help the victims. Some, as has been told, previously held comfortable jobs in distant large cities while others are university students.

Some volunteers are psychologists. They may not be as visible as the bulldozers clearing the quake's debris and building new towns. But what they are doing is of utter importance in helping the victims relieve themselves of the dark memories and rebuild their belief in a better future.

These people have been offering remarkable services to the nation. They are welcomed by the quake victims and will be welcomed by even more people in society.

It is hard to obtain any statistics about the volunteers and grief counselors in China today. Indeed, they would not have earned so much attention in this heavily GDP-oriented society had the earthquake not occurred.

But the quake only provided a window to see how these two phenomena could spring like mushrooms. The conditions for them to grow were already there, including the appreciation of individual initiatives and help on the person-to-person level.