A week after the Sichuan earthquake lit up instant messengers and Twitter, Google statistics show a huge drop in searches during a national moment of silence.
Google China users stopped searching almost completely during a national moment of silence on May 19, 2008
(Credit: Google China)Users apparently observed the silence while sitting at their computers. Meanwhile many people around the country paused.
My experience seems a bit odd in retrospect. Having just landed in Shenzhen, a Mainland metropolis across the border from Hong Kong, I found people at the pick-up area speechless, but surrounded by blaring bus horns. I considered the possibility that the sound, which I couldn't determine the source of at the time, was an air raid siren or fire alarm. I still don't know if it was just angry drivers who wondered why traffic had stopped or a sort of alarm to mark the moment. [UPDATE: My friend Austin Ramzy writes that rescue vehicles honked in Sichuan as well.]
I spent the following week in Hong Kong, where the earthquake of course dominated the news and much discussion among foreign journalists. Now in Shanghai, acquaintances reported seeing people crowded around the television yesterday. When I got online again, I knew it was the newest aftershock.
Television seems to be dominated by hopeful stories. Record rescues, hard-working soldiers sifting through rubble, national leaders consoling and rallying earthquake victims. Foreign media on the other hand broadcasts its usual extremely sad images. Mothers digging through concrete slabs looking for children, sons wearing lost fathers' clothing.
A three-day period of mourning last week was marked online by the temporary shutting of several entertainment websites, including Tudou, and myriad commemorative displays.
Whether people here know anyone in the affected areas or not, the national character of this ongoing loss of life is impossible to avoid.
Link via Jacky Peng and Global Voices Online
Editors' note: this post has been updated to reflect a new magnitude given to the earthquake. Although the earthquake was initially rated as a 7.8 magnitude, the U.S. Geological Survey updated it to 7.9 after a further review of the data.
The loss of life and damage in many cities in and around China's Sichuan province continues to grow after a 7.9 earthquake hit about 55 miles from the major city of Chengdu at 2:28 p.m. local time on Monday.
I live in Beijing, which is about 950 miles from the epicenter. Along with others, I first learned of the quake via Twitter, which has been lit up with first-, second-, third-, and many-hand information about various personal experiences, and hundreds of links to other reports. By contrast, mainstream media such as Sohu.com were partially responsible for a massive rumor mill that pervaded Beijing on Monday evening, with an apparently incorrect prediction of a quake in Beijing between 11:00 p.m. and midnight local time--right now.
Twits, as I prefer to call those who use Twitter, passed information and repeated via twitter what we heard from phone calls, SMS, IM, and e-mail with affected areas. We knew where people had felt it and had short descriptions from various locations quickly. Many soon switched to self-congratulations about how cool it was that Twitter had operated so quickly, and then that subsided for some comments about how we were commenting on our speed. Jeff Jarvis twittered that he'll be writing about this in The Guardian. It clearly is a fast-moving rhetorical space.
Meanwhile, via MSN instant messaging, mobile-phone text messages, and media such as Sohu, a rumor emerged claiming that a quake had struck in Beijing's suburbs at the same time and that some authority was predicting the big one for between 11 p.m. and midnight. As I said, that's right now, so my sense is that this is a hoax that will either be vindicated or made ridiculous in a matter of minutes.
By the time I had been repeatedly warned about tonight, I checked Sohu, which was then carrying a statement from the Chinese national earthquake-monitoring group saying there was no such prediction. Indeed, "twits" were quick to point out that although China is relatively good at predicting earthquakes, such a precise prediction is regarded as more or less impossible.
The latest word from Chengdu: "More aftershock! This is getting old now. Boring!"
My thoughts are with those in the southwest, and I do hope that skepticism takes the day on the Beijing rumor.
Update: Rick Martin at CNET Asia has more, including some good people to follow on Twitter for information.
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