A Slow Boat to China

Fang Jun (方军), one of the Chinese bloggers on Mindmeters, offered this thought regarding the killings at Virginia Tech, or more appropriately the media response of it. The title is “Tragedy.”

I feel sorrow for the campus tragedy that occurred in America.

But the thought suddenly occurred to me, why does everyone care this much about America?

In fact, today an accident where 32 people were killed also occurred in China.

At the Qinghe Special Steel Company in Tieling, Liaoning province, a molten steel spill killed 32 people and injured 2.

After 911, the entire world was shocked. It was called an an event that affected the entire world.

But soon after, a bomb exploded on a train in India. How many people remember that?

How many people remember the tsunami in Southwest Asia?

Don’t tell me that events in America have a more symbolic siginificance.

I believe one simple truth, that every life is in the end a life, and all are equal.

I’ve been following the events in Blacksburg like a lot of fellow Americans, because there is something shocking about the events there that is much more disturbing to me than those in Liaoning, or in Iraq. On a number of blogs in China, people have discussed why going to America is coveted by so many Chinese citizens. Often the answer is that they desire a “正常的生活”, or a “normal life.” I think this is probably what many Americans have (and many take for granted), and why events like the ones in Blacksburg, Columbine, and 911 shock so many people. Cho Seung-Hui had that normal life, and for some reason was still drawn to do what he did.

Fang Jun is right, though, that in Liaoning 32 families no longer have fathers or sons, in what by all accounts must have been a horrific accident. If there’s any decency in us humans, we’ll give them the same sympathy and attention we feel for Virginia Tech students.

32 People Killed when 20 Tons of Molten Steel Flows into Their Meeting Room