Day of gratitude and grief on anniversary of Sichuan quake that killed 88,000
The 2008 tragedy was officially marked by a 'festival of gratitude,' but questions about the deaths of 5,000 pupil remain unanswered
Bai Peian, a 46-year-old villager in Maoba village, Sichuan, held a simple memorial for his second son, who died in the magnitude 8 Wenchuan earthquake six years ago yesterday.
"We burned some [joss] paper money at home, and that's it," said Bai, still grieving for his 15-year-old son, who died after his three-storey school block collapsed when the quake tore through the region at 2.30pm. Not one of the 500 pupils in the building that day survived.
Bai was busy tending his farm yesterday. "Life goes on … and is getting slightly better," he said. "But the grief of losing a son never goes away."
His lingering sadness stood in stark contrast to the official commemorations being held in the vicinity of the quake's epicentre. It is the sixth anniversary of the devastating quake that left 88,000 people killed or missing.
In Yingxiu township, in Wenchuan county, locals were invited to a "festival of gratitude", an event organised by a government-backed institute that had a range of activities, including a dance by the Qiang, one of China's ethnic groups who live in the region, and a beauty contest "to express the area's gratitude for the aid it has received since the quake", news portal Sichuan Online reported yesterday.
Wang Guorong, a resident of Luobozhai, a Qiang community in the area of Wenchuan, said the village committee organised a dance by a local troupe in memory of the quake victims.