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.
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 th