Pictures that will make you weep
The following post is a translation of an email I received from a student. It’s clearly one of those mass emails that he sent out to his whole email list, full of depressing pictures. In the interest of showing something real about Chinese society here, I’m posting some of the pictures as well as the comments that accompany them. The title of the original email is also “Pictures That Will Make You Weep”.
5. For the sake of a few dollars in living expenses…
6. A 17 year old miner. For 1 RMB each time, he carries over 50 kg or coal over 1000 meters.
8. An old grandfather willing to ….. for the sake of subsistence. [The "...." is in the original text, I assume it's there to emphasize that what he has to do is so sad the author would rather not even type it]
10. In Xi’an, at this place, people spend over 30,000 RMB just to eat a meal.
11. Look again at what kind of classrooms our students have class in.
18. Then there’s the poor sweet potato vendor below. Given the choice between worrying about the appearance of the city and his own desire to keep living, what should we choose?
21. Modern man in the rain.
22. A scavenger, this is how this mother has grown old
23. A very poor woman who could not afford traveling expenses herself. After requesting traveling expenses without result from local government, she has finally saved up enough money to visit the grave of her son, who died twenty years ago. This is the first time she has been here, perhaps it will also be her last.
27. This old man who rides through campus every day was once a professor at the university of science and technology. During the cultural revolution, he suffered savage persecution, but after rehabilitation, he had no complaints about his country. Today, he donates his entire salary every month to Project Hope [a charity project that funds rural education initiatives]; as for himself, he lives a ragged existence. Any extra money he comes across he also donates, what a noble man! If he can even begin to enjoy this, he is much better than most people. His son and daughter live internationally; every month they send him some money and he donates that, too. Isn’t this man worthy of our respect and admiration?
30. “Wife, I’m fine. I’m eating and sleeping well, well-clothed as well. The big city is very beautiful…”
32. It’s not that I want to influence the city’s appearance, I’m just hungry… [The references to the city's appearance are referring to complaints and the belief of some that poor people make the cities dirtier and more unsightly...(before you judge, think about the things people say about hobos in America)]
35. This is the sorrow of China’s education system, I hope every Chinese person will see this picture and it will awaken the humanity of a billion Chinese people, we can use our knowledge and abilities to help these people. [The text in the picture itself says: "That day, when the teacher came to class, we were all very unhappy. Actually, we also knew of the pain in our teacher's heart...Can you see it? This is the greatest [most noble] of all professions.”]
37. The most shocking cry, can you hear it? [Text in the photo says: "That day, an English teacher came to the countryside. The first sentence she taught us was 'I want to go to school.' Can you hear it? That is the most shocking/powerful cry of all."]
[The email concludes with this text, presumably by whoever the original author was:] Moving! Depressingly moving! I think this group of pictures power is not just to make people cry, and should awaken those who are still recklessly wasteful. It can make them think about whether or not their money should be spent in a meaningful way. We propose a harmonious [society], today we must create that harmony ourselves.
