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In memory of each of them

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-27 07:39

We should build up a monument for the victims of the Wenchuan earthquake with their names carved on it, says an article in Beijing News. The following is an excerpt:

In recent days, the death toll in the quake kept rising, breaking the hearts of Chinese people. Although the quake has claimed the lives of innumerous people, we must find ways to preserve their names and build a monument with their names carved on it.

What we need to remember is not just a national disaster. Only when we remember the name of every dead person can we say that we have a true memory of this disaster and we have real respect for life. The national sorrow over this disaster cannot be preserved only by word of mouth, but should also be kept in various other forms such as books, relics as well as museums, all of which will witness the grief of our nation.

It is our social responsibility to remember the suffering of a nation. The collective suffering of a nation should be embodied in the sorrow over every death. It is the individual sufferer that bears the national suffering.

The history of any nation is a history of the individual. The preservation of the names of the victims is actually filling the gap in the national history. Through the media coverage, we have already known many moving stories and heroic acts in the Wenchuan quake. But there are still a great number of unidentified victims. We should try our best to perverse their names and let their names become a window to our collective memory.

The quake has left rifts on the earth, as it has left scars on human beings. What the country now is doing, from the launch of a national mourning to the decent treatment of the remains of the dead in the quake, not only tries to overcome the tragedy, but also aims to respect the values of human life.

(China Daily 05/27/2008 page8)