Looking back at a year of mixed blessings

Earthquake

Friends old and new

I'm very wary of discussing the experience of covering the magnitude 7 Ya'an earthquake in April. I'm afraid that reiterating the difficulties I, in all of us, faced will only make me seem narcissistic, especially when those who survived the disaster have already left it far behind.

I recently called those with whom I shared the pitch in the Baoxing Stadium - a huge sleeping area - and was given updates on their lives. Some of the news was good, but some was less welcome.

It was a joyous experience to learn that Shu Zhengrong gave birth to a boy on July 1. Her elder son had been seriously ill, so the 42-year-old decided to have another child. She was seven months pregnant when the quake struck.

"My baby and I were lucky," she said in great excitement, the severe bruising on her right elbow and knee now completely cleared. "And what makes me happier still, is that my elder son is also getting better now."

Wu Xiaolong was not as lucky. The national college entrance exam was only six weeks away when the quake hit. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he didn't perform well in the test and ended up at a junior college.

"The earthquake might have had some impact, but I don't blame it for my poor performance," he told me.

The positive note is that he is majoring in computer science, as planned. Wu's home village is so isolated that there is no Internet access and he only got his first computer this fall. It's a second-hand model, given to him by his brother-in-law.

Often, we assume that for those who experience a major quake, flood or tornado, the disaster must be the worst thing that's ever happened to them. The best thing is surviving it, of course.

That may be true sometimes, or for some time, but life continues with the same complications, the ups and downs. And it takes no less effort and pain than before to achieve anything you want - the students returned to their classrooms only four days after the quake to prepare for the exam, despite the frequent aftershocks.

And as a reporter, I meet many different people and always ask them to keep in touch. Yet, I will probably never have the chance to meet most of them again.

But I really want to meet with Shu and Wu. During my time in the quake zone, Shu constantly apologized for being a poor host and asked me to visit Baoxing to taste her homemade Sichuan cuisine. Wu, who has never traveled outside the province, is planning a trip to Beijing during the winter vacation and I have promised to treat him during his visit.

I know we both meant our invitations and I believe we will have a lot to tell each other when we meet.

Further reading: Displaced: One Night in the Canvas City, published on April 24, and Baoxing: Students in a Class of Their Own, on April 26

Students in their final year at senior high school prepare for the college entrance exam at Baoxing Stadium. Wang Jing / China Daily