By Erik Nilsson (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-16 07:40

The profiles of valiant heroes and a compassionate public are emerging as the dust begins to settle in the wake of China's most devastating earthquake in three decades.

The valor of those who sacrificed their lives to save others, and the concern and sympathy of people from home and abroad, are nearly as earthshaking as the quake that has unleashed so much woe upon a nation rapped by calamities since the year began. Surely, the catastrophic blizzards of this January, and the collision of two trains in Shandong province and spread of hand-foot-mouth disease this month have made 2008, so far, a year in which many Chinese feel they are being tested.

The disaster that struck on Monday seems to be the latest page of that test, and the verdict seems to be in: The quake shook the ground but not the Chinese spirit. Instead, it has brought out the best of it.

Extraordinary acts of heroism and goodwill are rife among the results of these extraordinary assays, and they offer lessons we should continue to observe during times more ordinary, after life largely returns to normalcy.

These lessons come from people such as 24-year-old schoolteacher Gou Xiaochao. After rescuing five students in a severely damaged schoolhouse in Tongjiang county, Sichuan province, Gou rushed back into the building to save another three - an act of valor that ultimately cost him his life.

English teacher Wu Zhonghong also died after he dashed back into Huaiyuan Middle School in Chongzhou, Sichuan province, to rescue two students left behind during the building's evacuation. Because of his selflessness, the students survived the schoolhouse's collapse, but Wu did not.

Another teacher surnamed Qu died when the schoolhouse at which she taught buckled, and she flung herself over a kindergartener, taking the brunt of a tumbling concrete slab on her back to shield the child from being crushed.

Surley, the way adversity brings out the best in people is almost universally marveled at. But perhaps the greater curiosity is why so often a more ordinary state of affairs fails to do so.

One recent news item was an incident in which none of 30-some bus passengers helped 11-year-old Peng Fei, of Chongqing municipality, when a pickpocket assaulted him. After Peng saw the thief pilfering a passenger's money and alerted the victim, the thief gripped the child's throat and struck him as the busload silently looked on. Surely, the passengers exercised less altruistic valor in the face of less danger than those who have risked, and in some cases sacrificed, their lives during the disasters that have besieged the country this year.

It seems that in times of "business as usual", nearly all of us for some reason are less likely to act on behalf of others.

However, disasters, such as the quake, that destroy lives somehow create a renewed sense of selfless compassion. But why is it that the earth must tremble to so rattle our consciousnesses?

The answer is it doesn't have to, and the lessons offered by the heroes and the compassionate of the recent calamity are something we should all remember and learn from. And we should continue to do so long after the last body is buried, the last road is reopened and the last building is reconstructed.

There is now a deep desire to honor those who have made sacrifices for others in this tragedy. Surely, one of the best ways of doing this is taking their deeds as a legacy - a cardinal "north" of our moral compass, so to speak - even when the quake becomes yesterday's news and most of us are back to an ordinary state of affairs.

E-mail:erik_nilsson@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/16/2008 page8)