Honking Horns...

...Usually mean "hey, I'm passing."　And since people drift in and out of the lanes like they're quaint suggestions, there is a lot of honking. As a result, drivers generally don't check before they turn or change lanes because they expect someone will beep at them if a collision is imminent. Which then necessitates drivers to honk for 10 seconds in Morse code if they see someone getting on a bicycle in a parking lot 9 seconds away. Gotta be safe, because the cyclist is probably not going to look.

They also honk to clear traffic jams and increase the flow of traffic.

But today I was awoken from a nap by the sound of every car in Beijing honking simultaneously. When the air-raid horn started I became a little alarmed and kept looking into the sky half-expecting Japanese bombers to suddenly emerge from the pollution cloud.

Not knowing what to do in the event of a Japanese surprise attack, I did as all college students do when faced with a problem of modern life, I ran a quick google search:

China will begin three days of mourning with a nationwide silence at 2.28pm this afternoon, precisely one week after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck.

Air raid sirens and horns of vehicles, trains and ships will be sounded in grief at the end of a three-minute silence and national flags will fly at half-mast across the country and at Chinese embassies worldwide.

Source

I’m glad I’m not the only person who thought the horns and sirens disrupted the silence. Here’s a youtube video of the scene here in Beijing since the Shanhaiist’s video was removed.

Ah, the earthquake in Sichuan. A public relations officer wet dream. The timing for such a catastrophic geologic event was so precise. How did the Earth's crust know to fracture now, during this decade, and this year, and this month, just two weeks after a natural disaster leveled Burma and brought worldwide condemnation of its government's failure to respond? China, unlike Burma, has allowed and encouraged press coverage of its relief efforts, which has everyone here getting warm fuzzies about the their government’s vigour and effectiveness. The president Hu Jintao and prime minister Wen Jiabao have been rushing around from PR opportunity to another, looking concerned, saluting troops, and likely kissing any baby boys pulled from wreckage.

Contrast this with America, where if there was similar press coverage of a disaster response some of today’s college students would be alleging the government planned it. Many Americans thrive on flinging hate at the government. That fact always mystified me since I knew that people ran the government, and those people were elected by American voters. Nonetheless, it’s probably good somewhere in the world the people hate their government unconditionally so that yin and yang are in balance.

The earthquake helped shift everyone’s focus away from the fact that protests during the Olympic torch tour have been so severe security officials have frequently needed to make unscheduled changes to it’s route or stage the relay in areas restricted from the public. The full story of the tour’s path through protest after protest makes for a fascinating read. If China hosts the Olympics again sometime soon we may need to create a separate event just for the world tour considering the amount of foot speed and dexterity required by its bearers to hurdle demonstrators and juke their water balloons of protest.

So is China’s response to the earthquake actually having an effect on how the West is reporting on China? Maybe, if the recent cover of Time here in China is an indication.

The outpouring of support has been a revelation. For years, China's citizens couldn't watch the evening news without being reminded of their darker sides, of the grasping, reckless self-interest that has characterized China's headlong rush to become wealthy and powerful: stories of slave labor and child-kidnapping rings, rampant government corruption, counterfeit products, tainted food, dangerous toys and, lately, a crackdown on dissent in Tibet. But from a monstrous humanitarian crisis has come a new self-awareness, a recognition of the Chinese people's sympathy and generosity of spirit. The earthquake has been a "shock of consciousness" as scholar Jiang Wenran puts it, a collective epiphany when the nation was suddenly confronted with how much it had changed in two decades of booming growth — and liked what it saw.

Actually, last time I watched the evening news it was 20% about actual events in the country—which I guess you could construe the Shanxi slave scandal as, 40% about the growth of the economy, and 40% about the NBA and Yao Ming. Of course, now that the NBA has joined Sharon Stone and Carrefour on China’s shitlist, I suppose the dramatic description could be more accurate.

It's not just China's self-image that has changed. The quake has altered, at least temporarily, the world's perception of China, whose growing economic and military might is viewed with suspicion and fear in many quarters. China's relationship with the West has been particularly strained after March's bloody demonstrations in Tibet and the chaotic protests that dogged the Olympic Torch relay. But the quake, coming just 10 days after Cyclone Nargis ripped into Burma, has cast the Chinese government in a different light. By blocking foreign aid, Burma's paranoid military junta demonstrated just how impotent and callous to the suffering of its citizens a repressive autocracy can be.

Remind me to fully read all the articles I plan to reference in a post so that I don’t discover everything I’m saying has already been published somewhere. Nonetheless, here it is clear as day, by not being completely evil and mercilessly denying relief to your suffering population the world will forget all the shit they’ve been talking for the past 30 years and embrace you, at least temporarily. I hope it’s very temporary otherwise my faith in the free press will level out next to Xinhua news.

"The Olympics seemed destined for disaster and that would have been a major setback for China's emergence onto the world stage," says the diplomat. "Now many people will be cheering for the Chinese and hoping they pull off a good show. That will be pivotal for China self-confidence and its perception of its place in the world."

I suppose if a blizzard can save Christmas an earthquake can save the Olympics. He makes another point though, that people should cheer for China to win big at the Olympics. I hope they smoke the US and Russia in Gold medals. Why? Because the Chinese are the only people on the planet who think the world respects countries who win Gold Medals. They’ll swell up with pride, just like a kindergarten kid getting a smiley sticker on his worksheet. And, like a child, maybe they’ll stop being so insecure if they get enough positive reinforcement. There you go, good China. Look, the world thinks you’re way strong, and my, how many 1st place ribbons you have!