- Jan 2, 2006
- 10,455
- 35
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China - Saving Face
Dali Old Town is a thriving mountain community on the banks of Erhai lake. A year ago there was an Indian tourist who got stranded on the mountain, which can get as high as around 12,000ft and is covered in snow. This mountain range is no joke. He phoned down to the town and a group of professional western mountain and rock climbers, the first of their kind in the community, quickly gathered together to form a rescue party. When they got to the trail entrance they were refused entrance by the local Chinese police, their logic being that they didn't want to put anyone else in danger. Dali does not have an official mountain rescue team and the local officials are not qualified or even interested in mountain rescue.
The rescue party could not get into the mountain. The local authorities did not go up to get him. No one went up.
The man died, alone, despite being able to communicate via cell phone to the party down below.
The same thing happened two nights ago. A foreign hiker staying at one of the local western hostels took a wrong turn while descending, slipped down into a steep valley, and became stranded. He could not go further down or further up and both night and snow began falling. He phoned the hostel at 5:30PM.
Upon hearing this, the local western community immediately dropped everything and formed a volunteer rescue team of professional mountain rescuers to go save their mate. They let the police know, but spurred from last year's event, they knew they had to dash up the mountain before the police could close off the area. Nothing was going to get in the way of them saving their friend. Within an hour this team, a melting pot of professionals from all parts of the world, was already dashing up the mountain carrying headlamps, ropes, carabiners, harnesses, extra clothes, and beginning the search. At 11PM they finally found the lost hiker and the resulting 3 hour rescue back up the steep valley ended in success. The local authorities couldn't be found anywhere during this entire period, despite telling the rescue team multiple times that they were coming up as well. By 3AM everyone walked out of there alive, past the police waiting at the foot of the mountain, to share beers and warm stew back in town.
This became big news on China's version of Twitter, Weibo. Reporters swarmed the area. Yesterday a friend of mine who was following the situation told me that the police, desiring to save face, lied to the Chinese Weibo community that they had actually spent all night roaming the mountain trying to find this guy, when they were actually just waiting at the base of the mountain in a repeat of last year's situation. Due to their "heroic efforts", the police became the heroes and the lost hiker became the bad guy for doing such a stupid thing as getting stranded on a mountain and putting all these hard working policemen in danger. The foreign rescue party hardly got any mention.
Upon hearing this "official account" and of the Chinese public opinion, the rescuers said,
"Doesn't matter. We got our mate back."
A friend of mine, who is Chinese, said that on this day he was ashamed to be Chinese.
This gives me tremendous hope.
What good is saving face if your public face is a lie? Your own personal, internal accountability to yourself should be what matters most to YOU. Provided your principles are sound, this is what should guide your actions. If you know what you're doing is wrong, don't do it. If you know what you're doing is just and good, fight for it.
My hope is that my friend, who is young, will be representative of the new generation of Chinese, a generation that holds themselves to a high level of accountability with solid principles to back up their character. I want him to usher in a revolutionary, honorable age of Chinese civilization, free from the effects of needing to save face at whatever cost, such as lying or covering up the facts to millions of your own people.
No matter what country or part of the world you're from, we're all in this short existence together. We all need more people like my friend and the selfless mountain rescuers.
Dali Old Town is a thriving mountain community on the banks of Erhai lake. A year ago there was an Indian tourist who got stranded on the mountain, which can get as high as around 12,000ft and is covered in snow. This mountain range is no joke. He phoned down to the town and a group of professional western mountain and rock climbers, the first of their kind in the community, quickly gathered together to form a rescue party. When they got to the trail entrance they were refused entrance by the local Chinese police, their logic being that they didn't want to put anyone else in danger. Dali does not have an official mountain rescue team and the local officials are not qualified or even interested in mountain rescue.
The rescue party could not get into the mountain. The local authorities did not go up to get him. No one went up.
The man died, alone, despite being able to communicate via cell phone to the party down below.
The same thing happened two nights ago. A foreign hiker staying at one of the local western hostels took a wrong turn while descending, slipped down into a steep valley, and became stranded. He could not go further down or further up and both night and snow began falling. He phoned the hostel at 5:30PM.
Upon hearing this, the local western community immediately dropped everything and formed a volunteer rescue team of professional mountain rescuers to go save their mate. They let the police know, but spurred from last year's event, they knew they had to dash up the mountain before the police could close off the area. Nothing was going to get in the way of them saving their friend. Within an hour this team, a melting pot of professionals from all parts of the world, was already dashing up the mountain carrying headlamps, ropes, carabiners, harnesses, extra clothes, and beginning the search. At 11PM they finally found the lost hiker and the resulting 3 hour rescue back up the steep valley ended in success. The local authorities couldn't be found anywhere during this entire period, despite telling the rescue team multiple times that they were coming up as well. By 3AM everyone walked out of there alive, past the police waiting at the foot of the mountain, to share beers and warm stew back in town.
This became big news on China's version of Twitter, Weibo. Reporters swarmed the area. Yesterday a friend of mine who was following the situation told me that the police, desiring to save face, lied to the Chinese Weibo community that they had actually spent all night roaming the mountain trying to find this guy, when they were actually just waiting at the base of the mountain in a repeat of last year's situation. Due to their "heroic efforts", the police became the heroes and the lost hiker became the bad guy for doing such a stupid thing as getting stranded on a mountain and putting all these hard working policemen in danger. The foreign rescue party hardly got any mention.
Upon hearing this "official account" and of the Chinese public opinion, the rescuers said,
"Doesn't matter. We got our mate back."
A friend of mine, who is Chinese, said that on this day he was ashamed to be Chinese.
This gives me tremendous hope.
What good is saving face if your public face is a lie? Your own personal, internal accountability to yourself should be what matters most to YOU. Provided your principles are sound, this is what should guide your actions. If you know what you're doing is wrong, don't do it. If you know what you're doing is just and good, fight for it.
My hope is that my friend, who is young, will be representative of the new generation of Chinese, a generation that holds themselves to a high level of accountability with solid principles to back up their character. I want him to usher in a revolutionary, honorable age of Chinese civilization, free from the effects of needing to save face at whatever cost, such as lying or covering up the facts to millions of your own people.
No matter what country or part of the world you're from, we're all in this short existence together. We all need more people like my friend and the selfless mountain rescuers.
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