Gen Z鈥檚 online Henan rescues
Print Edition
At 5pm on July 20, Zhao Jiaqi and her roommate Lou Yikun, two juniors at Beijing Technology and Business University completed a mock test for the postgraduate entrance examination and started to read news online.
At the same time, 27-year-old Zhang Jingshu, a Chinese student at Columbia University, was at a hotel in San Francisco and preparing for her return to China. She habitually checked her phone before going to bed.
鈥淩ecord rains hit central China鈥檚 Henan Province.鈥 鈥淩ainstorms in Henan cause massive disruptions.鈥 The news feed was roaring with information on the Henan floods.
They were unaware that they would soon throw themselves into the same invisible battlefield.
The record downpour showed no signs of abating, with requests for help popping up on China鈥檚 social media platforms.
The death toll from torrential rain in Henan was 99 as of last Thursday. More than 13.91 million people have been affected by the latest round of downpours since July 16.
The more information they got, the more desperate Zhao and Lou, both 21, were to go to the front line to render help.
On July 21, they searched online and joined dozens of WeChat and QQ groups focusing on disaster relief. Zhang Jingshu was also a member of these groups.
One of the admins of these online groups was a post-1995 generation netizen called Hezi from the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu. Hezi swung into action on July 20 and launched an online rescue campaign.
鈥淲e classify and verify the online messages before inputting the data on shared documents. Then, we connect those in need of help with the rescue services,鈥 said Hezi.
As more young people got involved in different online rescue groups, the anti-disaster fight by China鈥檚 Generation Z using their fingertips has rallied thousands of volunteers from home and abroad who are working in shifts 24 hours a day to offer help through the Internet.
On July 24, Hezi announced on his WeChat account he had founded 10 online rescue groups of more than 3,000 people. His teams had collected over 10,000 messages and assisted the rescue of thousands.
The original aim of his teams was simply to collect callis for help.
The situation, however, demanded more. 鈥淲ith plenty of information pouring in, it is far from enough. Urgent messages might be washed away by the highly repetitive and scattered ones,鈥 Hezi added.
To ensure targeted rescue, the teams were divided into several groups tasked with different responsibilities like searching and verifying information, and contacting rescuers.
During her flight back to China, Zhang Jingshu, majoring in education data analysis, was busy tapping on the laptop to filter critical information. As soon as she arrived, Zhang shared the information through Wechat.
Zhao and Lou were part of another group to check if information sources were reliable and if people were still awaiting help. They tagged the data with different colors. Green meant saved, red indicated very urgent, orange for urgent while gray suggested the source had lost contact or even died.
Their only food for two days after volunteering was a single hamburger. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 dare to sleep. A one-minute delay may leave one trapped person dead,鈥 Zhao said.
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