Tangshan quake memories alive in names
Print Edition
EVEN though Yang Zhensheng has no memories of his own of the earthquake that flattened his hometown shortly before his birth, the disaster will forever be part of his life — he is named after it.
His given name “zhen” means earthquake and “sheng” means birth. He was the first baby born in the rubble of Tangshan, a city that lies more than 150 kilometers to the southwest of Beijing, after the 7.8-magnitude event which claimed more than 242,000 lives on July 28, 1976.
Chinese parents commonly mark historical events in the names of their children, and many of those who will soon turn 40 have the Chinese character “zhen” in their given names. Zhensheng and Kangzhen (quake resistant) are among the most common.
“We didn’t experience the horror ourselves, but it left a permanent mark on us,” Yang said.
After graduation Yang went to work in the local civil affairs bureau, the department in charge of disaster relief, and has been head of the Tangshan sanatorium for paraplegia for 11 years.
The earthquake left 3,817 survivors paraplegic, more than 800 of whom are still alive. In the sanatorium, patients receive treatment, food, accommodation and allowance.
“Born on the day of the tragedy. I’m happy to care for them,” Yang said.
At noon on August 4, Yu Fengrong gave birth to a daughter in a temporary shack, not long after she was pulled from the debris. She still remembers holding her baby and weeping as rain poured through the roof. The desperate mother felt a small measure of relief to see soldiers arrive with hot porridge and boiled eggs — the traditional food for new Chinese mothers.
For the next month, the soldiers helped the family through their hardest of times, visiting them nearly every day with milk powder, noodles and anything else they could find.
Yu Fengrong and her husband Yu Zhanshui showed their gratitude to their saviors in the name of their daughter, Yu Shuiqing.
The pronunciation of her name is the same as the Chinese idiom to mean literally “the affection between fish and water,” which is usually used to describe the rapport between the military and civilians.
Sun Hu was also delivered in a tent on August 4 without water or electricity by Dr Zhou Juanhua, a member of a rescue team sent by a Shanghai hospital.
Sun’s mother had a difficult labor, and Zhou had to kneel on the ground for seven hours to deliver the baby.
Sun was given the name “Hu,” the abbreviation for Shanghai, to express their admiration for the Shanghai doctor.
The children of Tangshan earthquake have been taught the true meaning of gratitude by their parents.
Following the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan Province in 2008, more than 270 Tangshan people, named Zhensheng or Kangzhen, visited the Tangshan quake monument, and donated for Sichuan victims.
“We can’t just sit idly by. It was only through the kindness of people all over the country that we are alive today,” Yang said.
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