Beijing Shows Strong Hand in Shepherding Grief

Monday afternoon, a country that seems to be in constant motion came to a standstill. For three minutes, traffic froze, construction workers halted their drilling and workers stood silently outside their offices in white shirts that read "Press On." Associated Press A rescue crew in Tashui, China, stops work to mark respect for the dead. The moment of silence, part of a three-day period of national mourning to mark the 34,073 confirmed dead from the magnitude 7.9 earthquake that shook Sichuan province exactly one week before, came on a day of more grim news: The official Xinhua news agency reported that a series of mudslides had killed 200 rescue workers. The mourning reflects both a tremendous sense of loss and the government's desire to ensure that emotions are channeled properly. Even as concerned citizens around the country cried in honor of the dead pictured on television, some survivors in Sichuan found their grief turning into anger. During the official mourning period, the government has taken the unusual step of effectively shutting down entertainment in China -- silencing karaoke parlors, forcing entertainment programming off Web sites and TV stations, shutting down online games and suspending TV and online ads. The last time China undertook such a long national period of grieving was when Mao Zedong died in 1976. Historians say it is the first time such an event has been held in honor of regular citizens, rather than government leaders, according to Xinhua. The mourning period helps the grief-stricken nation "have some sense of psychological closure," said Dali Yang, the director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore. "It's all the more important because there's no national religion and the Chinese Communist Party cannot bring in a priest to help the healing process." The government is using its control of old and new media to shape the conversation. Party-run coverage from broadcaster China Central Television, including repeated footage of flags being lowered to half-staff, replaced normal programming on many broadcasters. Foreign broadcasts of HBO and other entertainment channels were replaced with a message that said they had been cut off "in order to express our heartfelt condolences for the victims of the disastrous earthquake."1 Chinese newspapers, some of which provided their own aggressive coverage last week, relied more on stories from Xinhua. Newspapers across the country used only black ink on their front pages. And on the Internet, the largest portal and video-sharing sites shut down some of their entertainment offerings in accordance with a government order. An order sent to some Web sites, as reported by a blog known as the Shanghaist, required them to "immediately report and give priority to reports on the national mourning days." Chinese bloggers, sometimes critical of government efforts to regulate speech, largely expressed solidarity with the idea of a mourning period; technology commentator Hong Bo, known as Keso, posted on his blog an ancient Chinese poem about crying. "It's pretty amazing that the government can do this," said Bill Bishop, a Beijing-based Internet entrepreneur. "I think it just shows some people may have gotten a little complacent about how the media work in China; it shows where the power really does still lie." The quake relief effort has received 10.8 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in monetary and in-kind donations. The government hasn't yet said how much of that came from Chinese nationals. Office buildings, shops and restaurants all over the country held their own fund-raising efforts Monday. A Sunday-night telethon on China Central Television raised 1.5 billion yuan. The quake has cost companies 67 billion yuan in direct losses so far, according to the government. A retired soldier who joined mourners in the moment of observance along Beijing's Wangfujing area said he had been trying unsuccessfully to get a team of volunteers together to go to Sichuan. "I want to say to the people of the affected areas, 'Don't be afraid. The party, the country and the whole nation's people are all helping you,'" he said, as his eyes filled with tears. "I hope they can rebuild their homeland as soon as possible. I feel very proud to be Chinese." In Beijing's Tiananmen Square, hundreds rallied after the moment, carrying Chinese flags and shouting "Go, China," a phrase usually used at sporting events.