3 Days of Mourning

A week after a colossal earthquake (recently upgraded to an 8.0) devastated parts of Sichuan Province, the government has launched a 3 day mourning period across China as the chances of pulling out any further survivors from the rubble begins to look rather grim. Over 50,000 lives are feared to have perished from this natural catastrophe while 10 million Chinese (exceeding the populations of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas combined) have been left without homes. In the face of such tragedy, the Chinese flag has been lowered to half mass (a first for many of my younger Chinese colleagues). And at 2:28 pm today, exactly one week after the earth violently shook instantly reducing cities to piles of concrete and destroying millions of lives, the nation held a moment of silence. In downtown Beijing, tens of thousands of Chinese poured out of office buildings, shopping centers, and restaurants, traffic on all roads and highways came to a standstill, and even hard-hat migrant workers stood in single file along steel frames of unfinished buildings. When the clock struck 2:28 pm, the country’s automobiles and emergency response vehicles honked their horns and sounded their sirens unremitting for 3 minutes – an unforgettable howl demonstrating the immense collective sorrow of the mighty Chinese Dragon. It was simply surreal but also quite touching.

During the next 3 days, all forms of entertainment are to be suspended - no music, no KTV, no movies, no cheerful activities of any kind. I am not exactly sure how well this will be applied to some of Beijing’s and Shanghai’s more lively food & beverage venues, but in a purely economic sense, the next few days will be tough for many small businesses. I consider myself a compassionate human being, but three days of stagnation in China’s entertainment industry and similar growth markets may heed a noticeable negative impact. Being non-Chinese, I am certainly farther removed from this calamity than those around me, but I don’t think that I am the only one that has reservations. In a country where “to get rich is glorious” while political dogma has diminished during the past 30 years, money trumps everything. When it comes to money, many Chinese still draw a circle around themselves and their families and are often unphased by events happening elsewhere. However, I must admit that in light of this recent disaster, public support, especially in the form of donations, has been unprecedented in its selflessness….even though I hear stories of bosses mandating contributions from their employees.

In China’s dog-eats-dog environment, a healthy level of patriotism and shared respect is sustainable especially in regards to honoring the dead, but when one’s business and livelihood is threatened, Chinese are quick to throw these principles out the window. Therefore, I doubt we will see these businesses fully scale back their entertainment services. I, for one, plan on going to a Happy Hour get together tomorrow evening – I mourn differently, I guess.