In the wake of tragedy, Yang looks to the future
Source: Xinhua |
February 7, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
IN a cramped but neat room in Zhouqu in northwest China's Gansu Province, Yang Huili, 23, was busy cooking dinner.
The Spring Festival, or Chinese lunar New Year, which fell last Thursday, is an occasion for reunions of family members and relatives in China. This year's Spring Festival, however, was the loneliest one for Yang and her 18-year-old brother, because a deadly mudslide swept away eight of their family members last year.
Zhouqu, a densely populated county with 50,000 inhabitants, was devastated when an avalanche of mud roared down the slopes of a mountain on August 8 following days of heavy rain. The disaster killed more than 1,471 people, while 294 more remain missing.
Like many other survivors, Yang and her brother were orphaned. They had to move to a makeshift dwelling since the mudslide washed away the family's two-story house.
Yang was working as an intern in a foreign trade company in Xi'an in Shaanxi Province last August. She chatted with her mother on the phone several hours before the disaster.
"We just talked for a while because I had to work. I never thought that would be the last time for me to talk with her," Yang said.
At midnight, Yang learned of the mudslide so she rang her parents, but could not get through.
She walked 14 hours with her brother, a high school student in a neighboring county, to reach their razed home village after the mudslide forced the closure of highways.
"The first month after the disaster was the toughest. We looked for the bodies of our parents and other relatives in the ruins during the day and slept on a classroom floor at night," she said.
Yang failed to find her parents' bodies but she and her brother did find some pictures and their parents' clothes amid the debris. But they didn't dare to look at the photos or keep the clothes. "We felt heart broken when seeing them, so my brother and I held a memorial ceremony for my parents by burning the photos and clothes," Yang said.
The unhappy experience has made Yang a self-reliant young woman. "We cannot change the things that already happened. We must stay strong and look ahead," she said, placing a steaming dish on the dinner table. Soon the little room was filled with appetizing smells.
However, just six months ago she didn't know how to cook. "We used to be taken care of by my parents. Now I have to learn to look after my brother and myself," Yang said.
In Zhouqu, where one in 10 perished in the mudslides, residents are trying to stay strong. As one wrote as a new year resolution: "Let sunshine fill our hearts. We'll look for the silver lining through our bright eyes."
The Spring Festival, or Chinese lunar New Year, which fell last Thursday, is an occasion for reunions of family members and relatives in China. This year's Spring Festival, however, was the loneliest one for Yang and her 18-year-old brother, because a deadly mudslide swept away eight of their family members last year.
Zhouqu, a densely populated county with 50,000 inhabitants, was devastated when an avalanche of mud roared down the slopes of a mountain on August 8 following days of heavy rain. The disaster killed more than 1,471 people, while 294 more remain missing.
Like many other survivors, Yang and her brother were orphaned. They had to move to a makeshift dwelling since the mudslide washed away the family's two-story house.
Yang was working as an intern in a foreign trade company in Xi'an in Shaanxi Province last August. She chatted with her mother on the phone several hours before the disaster.
"We just talked for a while because I had to work. I never thought that would be the last time for me to talk with her," Yang said.
At midnight, Yang learned of the mudslide so she rang her parents, but could not get through.
She walked 14 hours with her brother, a high school student in a neighboring county, to reach their razed home village after the mudslide forced the closure of highways.
"The first month after the disaster was the toughest. We looked for the bodies of our parents and other relatives in the ruins during the day and slept on a classroom floor at night," she said.
Yang failed to find her parents' bodies but she and her brother did find some pictures and their parents' clothes amid the debris. But they didn't dare to look at the photos or keep the clothes. "We felt heart broken when seeing them, so my brother and I held a memorial ceremony for my parents by burning the photos and clothes," Yang said.
The unhappy experience has made Yang a self-reliant young woman. "We cannot change the things that already happened. We must stay strong and look ahead," she said, placing a steaming dish on the dinner table. Soon the little room was filled with appetizing smells.
However, just six months ago she didn't know how to cook. "We used to be taken care of by my parents. Now I have to learn to look after my brother and myself," Yang said.
In Zhouqu, where one in 10 perished in the mudslides, residents are trying to stay strong. As one wrote as a new year resolution: "Let sunshine fill our hearts. We'll look for the silver lining through our bright eyes."
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