Vigil commemorates China's earthquake victims

Members of Greenville's Chinese-American community, ECU faculty and staff, ECU students and others gathered last night to remember the thousands of Chinese who died in the earthquake on May 12, which left the Sichuan province of the country devastated.

The vigil, sponsored by the ECU Chinese Association and the Greenville Chinese School, took place in front of ECU's Joyner Library on the mall at 8 p.m. Participants gathered for a candlelit ceremony that included speeches by the mayor of Greenville, the principal of the Greenville Chinese School and other Chinese-American members of the ECU faculty. The president of the ECU Chinese Association, Chengcheng Li, opened up the night with words of comfort for the crowd assembled.

"Our hearts are bleeding for those who lost loved ones and homes and pray that comfort will go to the hearts, minds and bodies of our Chinese brothers and sisters," Li said.

Latest figures from USA Today report that the death toll in China has reached over 67,000, with thousands more missing from the earthquake that registered 7.9 on the Richter scale.

After Li spoke, Dr. David Conde, senior associate vice chancellor for special initiatives in the Office of the Provost at ECU spoke about rebuilding areas hit hardest by the earthquake that demolished the area a mere 16 days ago.

"We…need to come together to honor the dead and rebuild what was lost on that fateful day of May 12," Conde said.

A speech by Jianming Chen, an ECU faculty member of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology gave a moving speech all in Chinese which undoubtedly touched even members of the audience that didn't understand the language. A moment of silence followed Chen's speech.

Greenville Mayor Pat Dunn also offered words of condolence and comfort to the crowd gathered.

"On occasions like this we realize how connected we are," she said. "We also realize that in a twinkling of an eye, things can change. There's no doubt that many of you know someone who knows someone who died in this tragedy. On behalf of our city, I say thank you for being here, reaching out and caring about this tragedy."

Xiaoming Zeng, principal of the Greenville Chinese School, was the last person to address the crowd. He told members of the audience that there was something they could do to help victims of the tragedy in China: help build a school for the children whose school building had been wiped out by the quake.

"May 12, 2008 is a day all of us will remember," he said. "Near to 7,000 school buildings were lost or damaged. Without schools, [children's] dreams will become nightmares."

Zeng and Li collected donations for the school, which will be built in an area of China hit hardest by the natural disaster. According to Li, members supporting the project collect about $3,000 last weekend at Greenville's Sam's Club, and will be out collecting donations for the school this weekend as well. All of the money collected will be put into the Greenville Chinese School Earthquake Fund and be used to fund the building of a school in China.

"Rebuilding is a long-term project," Zeng said. "It may take an entire generation to do this."

This writer can be contacted at editor@theeastcarolinian.com.