records of the great earthquake

May 12 was the second anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake. Here’s a snapshot of the economic recovery process at grassroots level:

 "30 yuan per box. Two boxes for 50 yuan." Underneath tents by the road next to the rubble that was the Xuankou Middle School in Yingxiu, Sichuan, the peddlers are selling their special wares. At almost every stall, there is the video disk.A portable DVD player repeats these "authentic earthquake scenes which you cannot see in television news reports." Every peddler emphasized that their product was more realistic and exciting. 

The interesting thing here is that these exploitation videos have been cobbled together from mobile phone footage and the like for sale by survivors of the quake to the thousands of earthquake tourists who still flock to the scene. No doubt the authenticity of the vendors as survivors is part of the product’s appeal, that in turn creating a kind of secondary market for fake quake survivors. Also: 

Many women carrying children on their backs are selling chrysanthemum flowers. A tourist purchases a chrysanthemum and lays it on top of the rubble to express sorrow for the deceased as well as generate income for the survivors. When pain can be sold without misgiving, the survivors can continue living in a sustainable, genuine manner.