Disaster spawns feast of poems

After the catastrophic earthquake, poems mushroomed on many websites and in TV programs, expressing relief, sadness, care and love.

The booming of "quake poems" reminds many people of the 1980s - a glorious period for poems.

Some poets even consider this phenomenon a turning point of the special literature that is nearly half forgotten.

However, in my view, these intellectuals might mistakenly take the current poem campaign for another peak as in Tang Dynasty.

Most authors of the "quake poems" are amateurs with aims at expressing condolence.

Facing the huge disaster, they wrote the poems from their deep hearts and also moved people to tears. But such poems were still at relatively low level of aesthetic value, hardly making people ponder.

Temporary passion of just a small group of people could hardly result in a renaissance of poetry.

Secondly, TV images have exerted greater influence than characters in modern popular culture.

Good works of literature often become better known after being turned into films or TV dramas.

Furthermore, gradually becoming a form of industry, literature more and more helps business people to make profits.

Against such a background I hardly expect that poetry will actually enter into another great period.

Huang Hai

On blog.sina.com.cn

Unpractical ban

Several days ago, the education bureau of Mianxian county of Shaanxi province announced a temporary regulation that teachers are forbidden to run away ahead of students in the event of aftershocks during college entrance exam. It sparked a heated debate among netizens.

Some netizens argue that everyone's life is equally important, and the students' lives are no more precious than teachers'.

But some others support the regulation, saying the regulation reflected professional ethics.

In my view, such a regulation came into being against the special background of the huge natural disaster, in which a teacher was reported to have run away without protecting his students.

But I have doubts on the regulation's real effect. When a catastrophe falls on us, who runs first depends on the actual situation.

Judging from practical reasons, we should try our best to protect as many lives as possible.

It's unrealistic to expect every teacher to behave like the heroes such as Tan Qianqiu, and it's also unfair to force everyone to be a martyr.

By the way, if the decision makers themselves are on the scene, can all of them promise to stay until the last student gets out of danger?

The Chinese people have cherished the traditional value of saving others even at cost of their own lives for a long time.

But we cherish such values because they are easier preached than practiced.

We cannot regulate moral practices with administrative orders.

As to those run-away teachers, we could laugh at, criticize or even despise them. But we cannot forbid them from running. Anyway, ethics is not law.

Dayaqingfeng

On blog.xinhuanet.com

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(China Daily 06/10/2008 page9)