Home » Flowers and shutters in front of Zhengzhou subway station-The New York Times

Flowers and shutters in front of Zhengzhou subway station-The New York Times

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Welcome to this issue of “Overseas Chinese Notes”. I am Rong Xiaoqing, a Chinese-language reporter based in New York. Every Thursday, we will interpret and discuss news hotspots from the perspective of the Chinese together, and analyze the highlights of the Times.Welcome to clickhereSubscribe or recommend to friends.

After the news of the Zhengzhou flood came out, I immediately saw on WeChat that some Chinese in the United States posted to Moments: “Zhengzhou hold on! Henan hold on! Overseas Chinese and overseas Chinese care about you!” This is not empty talk. Every time the motherland suffers a disaster, overseas Chinese will participate in the disaster relief at the first time.

In addition to the emotion of blood thicker than water, this is probably also because what happened in Zhengzhou is empathetic. Before the disaster in Zhengzhou, floods were raging in some European countries. The worst-hit Germany had more than 100 people killed and many people missing. The New York subway has recently experienced a situation similar to Zhengzhou. It was flooded in heavy rain. Although there were no casualties, it was enough. People have lingering fears.

The flood control problems faced by Zhengzhou and some cities in China also plague many cities in the world. After the transit of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 caused heavy losses, New York City began investing hundreds of billions of dollars in flood control projects. The “sponge city” that Zhengzhou has invested heavily in construction has not been able to stop the “one-in-a-millennium” flood. Experts are also divided on whether the flood gates in New York can effectively control water.

Natural disasters brought about by climate warming are becoming more frequent, making people all over the world feel more and more like sitting in the same boat. In the face of the challenges of nature, decision makers under different cultures and political systems should have taken the helm at the right time, but they are often panicked, and the degree of inaccuracy is hard to distinguish. After the Zhengzhou flood, there are endless questions about why the subway was not stopped in advance when there was a red warning for heavy rain, and the rescue was not delivered in time after the subway was flooded. The same question is not unfamiliar to people living in the United States. The winter blizzard in New York is an example.

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In December 2010, New York had the sixth largest blizzard in the history of the city. The Times reported that when the Weather Bureau issued a snowstorm warning, the then Mayor Michael Bloomberg was hurriedly heading to Bermuda for a vacation. During the two days he was away from New York, the municipal department was slow to clear snow in many areas. For a time, public dissatisfaction was boiling, and this has become a stain that New Yorkers have been unable to let go of during the term of Mayor Bloomberg. In January 2015, heavy snow approached, and New York and neighboring New Jersey urgently halted the subway, causing many people who rely on subway commuters to catch blind. As a result, the snow was far smaller than the forecast level, which triggered another wave of “overreaction to the government”. “Criticism. In November 2018, New York City did not close the school before the arrival of Blizzard, causing some school buses to pick up the children and be trapped in the snow for hours on the way from school. Some children were not even sent home until 4:30 in the morning the next day. There was neither food nor toilet during the whole emergency. In March 2019, the city government announced the closure of schools on the eve of heavy snowfall. As a result, there was very little snow the next morning, and the city government was accused of “deciding too early”.

But in terms of severity, none of these accidents can compare to the case of Hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans in 2005. Regarding the disaster that caused more than 1,800 deaths and hundreds of billions of dollars in economic losses, the incident investigation records compiled by The Times clearly show that the proportion of man-made disasters is no less than that of natural disasters, and the city, state, and federal government are indisputable. To blame.

These may also explain why some Americans do not believe that the government can save them in the face of disasters, and they can only save themselves if they want to survive. Some people respond by buying toilet paper and gasoline every time there is a hurricane or blizzard warning. Others even buy guns and ammunition because they fear the collapse of public order. As the refugees who tried to rescue their trapped neighbors in the West Coast wildfire last year told the Times reporter: “We know no one will help us, we have to try it.”-It turns out that no one will help them, California Fire Department The evacuation order was long overdue, and the fire truck failed to search and rescue several missing residents in time.

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After living in the United States for more than 20 years, I have witnessed and experienced many disasters. If there is anything that I find rare in the Zhengzhou flood, it is the yellow barriers around the subway station on the first seven days of the victims. plate. I am accustomed to seeing people freely express sympathy and condolences at the scene of various tragedies, such as placing flowers to commemorate the victims of police violence, or placing white bicycles for cyclists and pedestrians who died in car accidents. Those in Zhengzhou covered the flowers. The board looked abrupt, cold, and unthinkable. Before they were finally overthrown, their anachronistic appearance had been swiped on WeChat.

At the same time, there was also a picture of a man wearing a raincoat sitting in front of a subway station. A card beside him said: “Niuniu, Dad still wants to take you home.” Chinese scholarAi XiaomingA poem for this photo also went viral on social media. The poem wrote: “You use a baffle to cover the scene of flowers / but how can you hide Niuniu’s dad / he is sitting there / sad as air Connect life and death”.

Losing a loved one in an unexpected disaster is a pain that everyone can understand at first glance. Even if it is blocked, it is meaningless, right?

  • Tencent announced that its social software WeChat has suspended registration of new users. The official statement is due to technological upgrades. However, in the context of China’s remediation of technology companies, this move has raised doubts about whether the technology giant is already under the sword of supervision.

  • When the Sino-US relationship was at war last year, five Chinese visiting scholars were accused of concealing the background of the Chinese military when applying for visas, including Tang Juan, a cancer researcher who fled into the local Chinese consulate. Now the US Department of Justice has decided to withdraw the lawsuit against them. (Read the Chinese version of this article)

  • The cyber navy that concocts and spreads false news has gradually become a huge industry, serving the governments of China and some other countries.

  • From New York to California, in recent years, businesses have often been targeted by disability defenders as defendants because of disability facilities that do not meet the requirements, including many Chinese restaurants and shops operating in Chinatowns with narrow streets and old facilities. A disabled person raised the issue alone. With more than 180 such lawsuits, what is the story behind him?

  • There are a large number of Asian artists in the classical music industry, and stars such as Yo-Yo Ma and Lang Lang have emerged, but many people feel that they are not really accepted and still face racism and discrimination. These artists began to speak out more actively for this. (Read the Chinese version of this article)

  • Some people say that the United States is a country full of racial discrimination, but why do many immigrants, including Chinese, still get opportunities to rise here? Some people say that the United States is a land of opportunity, but why do blacks still face serious systemic discrimination? Times columnist David Brooks said in his column that the two coexist in the United States.

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Thank you for reading this issue of “Overseas Chinese Notes”, and welcome to write to us to share your thoughts: [email protected]. Click here to view past updates. Welcome on Twitter(@nytchinese), follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more information in Chinese. Also welcome to visit the Chinese website homepage to read more news. See you next time.

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