Deep Wounds of the Sichuan Quake

四川地震的深度创伤

Deep Wounds of the Sichuan Quake

One of the recurring themes from last year's earthquake in Sichuan is official corruption and the extent it contributed to the collapse of substandard schools, killing a still unknown number of children. Another, less discussed issue, is the degree to which many local officials in the disaster zone were victims themselves.

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自去年四川地震以来，一个反复出现的主题是关于政府官员的腐败，以及因之产生的未达标学校的倒塌，导致仍不知确切数字的孩子们的死亡。而很少论及的另一个问题，是灾区地方官员自己成为受害者的程度。

In Beichuan, where as many as 15,000 residents were killed, a quarter of the local officials also perished in the quake. Many of the survivors lost family members. When my colleague Lin Yang and photographer Ian Teh went back to Sichuan last fall, we met with a Beichuan official whose wife and daughter were both killed on May 12. Zhang Kangqi keeps a drawing of them, sketched from old ID photos, by his bed. All other mementos of them were buried in Beichuan. (You can see Ian's photos of the recovery efforts, including a portrait of Zhang, in this gallery.)

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在北川，多达15，000名居民死亡，四分之一的地方官员也在地震中死去。许多幸存者失去了家人。去年秋天，我和同事杨林和摄像郑永仁回到四川时，遇到一位北川官员，他的妻子和女儿都在5.12地震中死亡。张康齐保存着从旧身份证的照片上临摹下来的一张她们的画像，放在床头。她们的其它所有遗物都被埋在北川下面了。(在这个画廊中，你可以看到郑永仁画的在关恢复工作的照片，其中包括一幅张的肖像。)

Zhang immersed himself in recovery efforts, but not all his co-workers had the same capacity to work through their suffering. A few weeks before we visited Dong Yufei, another local official who lost his son, killed himself. "He was a good man," Zhang said of Yu, "but not everyone can handle the pressure. His child had died."

张专注地做着恢复工作，但是，他的同事并不都具有同样的战胜痛苦的能力。在我们采访董玉飞之前几个星期，另一位失去儿子的地方官自杀了。“他是个好人，”张提到玉飞说，“不过，并不是每个人都能应付压力。他的孩子死了。”

Yesterday brought the grim news that another Beichuan official committed suicide. Feng Xiang, the vice director of the Beichuan publicity department, had lost his 7-year-old son in the quake. Shortly before his death Feng, 33, wrote a post on his blog titled "What If," urging his family not to grieve. "Son, when you left, your father did not have a future, did not have hope, did not have any expectations," Feng wrote. "To be with you is my biggest joy."

昨天，又传来一个无情的消息，另一位北川官员自杀了。北川宣传部副主任冯翔在地震中失去了七岁的儿子。33岁的冯翔死前不久在博客中以“假如”为题力劝家人不要悲伤。冯写道：“儿子，你离开了，爸爸没有了未来，没有了希望，没有了憧憬，与你相聚，是爸爸最大的快乐。”