OPINION> Commentary
The power and the glory of human nature
By Xiong Lei (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-22 07:22

My 85-year-old aunt was home alone in Chengdu when the Wenchuan earthquake struck last week. Both of her children were abroad and could not come to her rightaway.

When I finally reached her on the phone two days later, the old lady sounded in high spirit and refused to leave quake-struck Sichuan. Even though aftershocks continued to shake the city off and on, she said she would stay where she was.

"Before the quake I planned to go to Beijing in June, but now I've changed my mind and I'd remain in Chengdu," she told me a few days later when I called again and asked her to come over.

A native of Anhui, my aunt moved to Sichuan some 50 years ago. "I never felt the Sichuanese to be so lovely until this disaster," she said. "They are great and I won't leave them."

When the rescue work needed blood, my aunt said, citizens rushed to donate blood, far surpassing the blood stations' capacity. "It is simply amazing," exclaimed my aunt, a physician who practised till she was 80.

Many taxi drivers also gave up their business to provide voluntary service of transportation of relief goods or injured people. "They have families to support, but they'd work for the disaster victims for nothing."

Even those who appeared stingy earlier become generous now, my aunt said. "A young friend's elder sister is a shop owner and people used to think she was mean. But she donated 100 cases of instant noodle soon after the quake."

As for herself, my aunt assured me that she was well taken care of by friends and neighbors. "The elevator stopped only on the first day of the quake, and resumed work the following day," she said. "I'm quite safe here."

Her words put me at ease and drew a vivid picture of shining human nature in the unexpected catastrophe.

Of course, Chengdu is not the only place where the human nature is shining. Throughout the stricken areas in Sichuan and other places across the country, cases of similar shining human nature can be found.

An elderly beggar in Nanjing donated 5 yuan before he got all his changes converted into a 100-yuan bill and donated that too for the disaster victims. Those changes were what he had saved from begging, and he made them into the bill to save the recipient clerks the trouble of counting them.

A group of Henan peasants living with HIV/AIDS also called a friend of mine who has headed a group to help them, asking how to donate for the quake-hit people.

"Our blood is bad," one of the peasants said to my friend, "but we could send in some money to them."

My friend and I were greatly touched. These peasants themselves have been marginalized and have to overcome many hardships to sustain themselves. Yet they wanted to help others in plight simply because "we have also been helped and we should reach out to those who are more badly in need."

True, there might be fears and panic when the disaster struck. And there are bound to be grief and sorrow over so many deaths. Then there could even be disorder and undesirable elements in the rescue work.

But one thing is certain. In the wake of the disaster, the whole nation is becoming more united with the same determination not to be overwhelmed by the atrocity of natural forces.

Sure, we in China seem to have stood too many tests this year, from snow disaster to the current earthquake. But with each test we've got stronger, with our human nature shining more brilliant.

As a Ph D candidate with the Chinese Academy of Sciences puts it, these disasters have helped "deepen our love".

"We used to love those who loved us, love our own folks," she observed. "Then we'd love those who we deemed were worth our love, those leaders and heroes. Now we'd give our love to everyone around us and to every life, and we fuse such love into our work, and become more committed to our respective work."

Perhaps that is how our human nature began to shine through the disaster. And that is why we won't be overwhelmed.

The author is media consultant with the Global Environmental Institute

(China Daily 05/22/2008 page9)