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it has just been waiting for me |
21 May 2008
As anyone who hasn't been living underneath a rock in Siberia for the last month or so will know, Sichuan province was rocked (only too literally) by a massive and devastating earthquake last week. Not that I, over here in Qingdao, knew anything of this until I recieved a phone call from home enquiring expectantly whether I'd felt the tremors. I immediately and astutely enquired, 'What earthquake?'.But although the earth stayed resolutely still in this part of China's eastern seaboard, tremors have been evident in the emotions of the people of Qingdao. The students, perhaps conscious of the terrible fate of their contemporaries in another part of this vast but united country, became quieter and more sombre. Newspapers and websites, in a public state of mourning, drained their pages of colour, leaving stark black and white to tell the tales of death and destruction emerging. And the government declared that there would be a silence of several minutes at a particular hour on Monday. Normally I must admit I am cynical about such organised manifestations of public feeling. In the UK, particularly in recent years, I believe that the notion of the two minute silence has become a cheap gimmick, increasingly carted out for every news event of even the most tenuous significance. However, this, for once, was a silence which really seemed to mean something. Perhaps because it was not, in fact, silent. The appointed time came, and, instructions having been given over the tannoy, the staff and students of the school fell silent. So far, so banal. But then came the most extraordinary noise. Quietly at first, but gradually growing, catching on and spreading, came the sound of horns. A great,deep, continuous booming horn, perhaps from a ship out in the bay, accompanied by every kind of siren, alarm, klaxon and car horn. All sounding simultaneously, joining in with one another, growing in number, wailing out a cry of collective grief more poignant and moving than the most carefully orchestrated and impressive ceremony. utterly utter [
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