Hangzhou, Whose Paradise Is It?
tanzhuo, hubin, Paradise, Hangzhou
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD id=postmessage_29756 class=t_msgfont>* [022] Hangzhou, Whose Paradise Is It? (05/10/2009) (Hecaitou's blog)
[URL="http://www.zonaeuropa.com/200905a.brief.htm#022"]http://www.zonaeuropa.com/200905a.brief.htm#022[/URL]
Tan Zhuo, male, born in 1984, hometown Ningxiang (Hunan province), only child. In 2002, he entered the Department of Information Science and Electrical Engineering (Zhejiang University) to major in Communications Engineering. In 2006, he graduated and stayed in Hangzhou to work as an employee of ECI Telecom. He was about to get married.
At 20:50pm on May 7, 2009, he bought a ticket for the movie "City of Life and Death" (aka <Nanjing! Nanjing!>). This is the sixth year that he has been in Hangzhou, so he was walking around a city that he was familiar with. Perhaps he might have heard the low roar of three modified cars approaching from afar. But why was that unusual? He was in his city and he can hear that kind of noise every evening.
Consequently, he was totally unprepared when he was rammed by a red modified Mitsubishi race car the next second. His head hit the front window glass which immediately shattered to pieces. He was catapulted into the air by the force of the collision, even spun a few times in the air, before he dropped to the ground. Blood began to ooze slowly from his mouth and nose. According to eyewitnesses, he "was launched into the air higher than a public bus." When the ambulance arrived, the crew determined that Tan Zhuo's heart had already stopped beating. On Wener Road, the speed limit was 50 kilometers per hour. That red Mitsubishi was racing at more than 70 kilometers per hour.
A Mitsubishi race car; a modified vehicle; a rich young man. These three factors would have been enough to arouse the wrath of the people. Some day, the driver Hu Bin's biggest regret may be that he hit a Zhejiang University graduate. Tan Zhuo is a typical new migrant in Hangzhou. He was born in the 1980's and grew up in a small town in inland China. He studied hard for 12 years and beat out several hundred thousand other students to gain admission into a first-class national science/technology university to major in engineering science. After graduation, he joined a local company, earned a salary and got into a romance. He was prepared to develop slowly, saving a bit of money at a time to eventually buy an apartment, get married and settle down. This kind of life is neither lofty nor lowly, neither good nor bad. But for many other students, it would be their Hangzhou dream too to get a job there and settle down. But now a speeding car driven by a rich young man has destroyed that Hangzhou dream. When the people read in the news report that "the person who caused the accident had a bad attitude," they were enraged. The BBS at Zhejiang University boiled over with rage.
Within 48 hours, this news item appeared at all the major BBS and portals across China. Young students flooded the forums repeatedly and left comments at the major blogs to call for media and Internet attention on this case. The relevant authorities in Hangzhou seemed to have noticed this and they issued the routine orders to control and guide public opinion. They felt that it was embarrassing to have this headline story and they can make the matter go away through appropriate controls. But Hangzhou is an inalienable part of the People's Republic of China. In Hangzhou, there is a real-name registration system, but no such thing exists at the other Chinese BBS's. The Hangzhou media may be forced to use only the officially designated reports, but the other media in China do not have to do so. In Hangzhou, the media reporters may not be able to write in their media, but they continued to speak out in their blogs. Reporters are people too and therefore they have to earn a living. At the same time, reporters know how to speak because they are people too.
Citizens of Hangzhou went to the scene to pay tribute to Tan Zhuo. Clearly, they are unhappy with the car racing that has been going on in this city. For them, the matter is not just pity for a deceased young man. His death symbolizes a certain chronic illness that threatens the lives of everybody in this city. Tan Zhuo is dead, and he could be any citizen. Everybody can face his fate -- to walk in your own city, get hit by a young car racer, tossed into the air, spun around, dropped into the ground and then be dead. What happens after the death of Tan Zhuo is not just a matter for his family, but it is everybody's business. This time, Tan Zhuo died for all the people of Hangzhou. What happens next? The people need to understand just what kind of city they are living in. Is Hangzhou "the paradise on earth" with the all the singing and dancing in ancient lore? Or it is a city where rich young man can speed in cars and kill people?
Human flesh search began immediately on the driver. A traffic violation record from December 7, 2008 was truly astounding:
This record showed that on December 7, 2008, the driver was speeding at 210 kilometers/hour on the Shanghai-Hangzhou Expresswway (which had a speed limit of 120 kilometers/hour). According to <Traffic Laws>, anyone who speeds at more than 50% higher than the speed limit should have his/her driver's license taken away. The incident on May 7, 2009 showed that this law is a joke. So everybody began to ask: If this driver had his license taken away in accordance with the law, would Tan Zhuo be still alive? Once this question got started, the next ones came naturally: Why did this driver get extra consideration from the law? Where did things go wrong? Who authorized this extralegal move? And why aren't street racing being restricted effectively?
If there is true justice and fairness in this world, then there must be an explanation to those for whom the deceased was a son, an employee or a fiancé. An explanation must be given to all those citizens who walk in the streets. Those who enable this driver to have a license to kill must stand up and give an explanation. Hangzhou has always been known as paradise. So the citizens should know whose paradise is this and whose hell is this.
Tan Zhuo when he was alive
Tan Zhuo, May 7, 2009
Related Link: Car racing incident Oiwan Lam, Global Voices Online; Street Racing Rich Kid Kills Pedestrian, Netizens Outraged ChinaSMACK
Laughing and joking after the incident</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
tanzhuo, hubin, Paradise, Hangzhou
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD id=postmessage_29756 class=t_msgfont>* [022] Hangzhou, Whose Paradise Is It? (05/10/2009) (Hecaitou's blog)
[URL="http://www.zonaeuropa.com/200905a.brief.htm#022"]http://www.zonaeuropa.com/200905a.brief.htm#022[/URL]
Tan Zhuo, male, born in 1984, hometown Ningxiang (Hunan province), only child. In 2002, he entered the Department of Information Science and Electrical Engineering (Zhejiang University) to major in Communications Engineering. In 2006, he graduated and stayed in Hangzhou to work as an employee of ECI Telecom. He was about to get married.
At 20:50pm on May 7, 2009, he bought a ticket for the movie "City of Life and Death" (aka <Nanjing! Nanjing!>). This is the sixth year that he has been in Hangzhou, so he was walking around a city that he was familiar with. Perhaps he might have heard the low roar of three modified cars approaching from afar. But why was that unusual? He was in his city and he can hear that kind of noise every evening.
Consequently, he was totally unprepared when he was rammed by a red modified Mitsubishi race car the next second. His head hit the front window glass which immediately shattered to pieces. He was catapulted into the air by the force of the collision, even spun a few times in the air, before he dropped to the ground. Blood began to ooze slowly from his mouth and nose. According to eyewitnesses, he "was launched into the air higher than a public bus." When the ambulance arrived, the crew determined that Tan Zhuo's heart had already stopped beating. On Wener Road, the speed limit was 50 kilometers per hour. That red Mitsubishi was racing at more than 70 kilometers per hour.
A Mitsubishi race car; a modified vehicle; a rich young man. These three factors would have been enough to arouse the wrath of the people. Some day, the driver Hu Bin's biggest regret may be that he hit a Zhejiang University graduate. Tan Zhuo is a typical new migrant in Hangzhou. He was born in the 1980's and grew up in a small town in inland China. He studied hard for 12 years and beat out several hundred thousand other students to gain admission into a first-class national science/technology university to major in engineering science. After graduation, he joined a local company, earned a salary and got into a romance. He was prepared to develop slowly, saving a bit of money at a time to eventually buy an apartment, get married and settle down. This kind of life is neither lofty nor lowly, neither good nor bad. But for many other students, it would be their Hangzhou dream too to get a job there and settle down. But now a speeding car driven by a rich young man has destroyed that Hangzhou dream. When the people read in the news report that "the person who caused the accident had a bad attitude," they were enraged. The BBS at Zhejiang University boiled over with rage.
Within 48 hours, this news item appeared at all the major BBS and portals across China. Young students flooded the forums repeatedly and left comments at the major blogs to call for media and Internet attention on this case. The relevant authorities in Hangzhou seemed to have noticed this and they issued the routine orders to control and guide public opinion. They felt that it was embarrassing to have this headline story and they can make the matter go away through appropriate controls. But Hangzhou is an inalienable part of the People's Republic of China. In Hangzhou, there is a real-name registration system, but no such thing exists at the other Chinese BBS's. The Hangzhou media may be forced to use only the officially designated reports, but the other media in China do not have to do so. In Hangzhou, the media reporters may not be able to write in their media, but they continued to speak out in their blogs. Reporters are people too and therefore they have to earn a living. At the same time, reporters know how to speak because they are people too.
Citizens of Hangzhou went to the scene to pay tribute to Tan Zhuo. Clearly, they are unhappy with the car racing that has been going on in this city. For them, the matter is not just pity for a deceased young man. His death symbolizes a certain chronic illness that threatens the lives of everybody in this city. Tan Zhuo is dead, and he could be any citizen. Everybody can face his fate -- to walk in your own city, get hit by a young car racer, tossed into the air, spun around, dropped into the ground and then be dead. What happens after the death of Tan Zhuo is not just a matter for his family, but it is everybody's business. This time, Tan Zhuo died for all the people of Hangzhou. What happens next? The people need to understand just what kind of city they are living in. Is Hangzhou "the paradise on earth" with the all the singing and dancing in ancient lore? Or it is a city where rich young man can speed in cars and kill people?
Human flesh search began immediately on the driver. A traffic violation record from December 7, 2008 was truly astounding:
This record showed that on December 7, 2008, the driver was speeding at 210 kilometers/hour on the Shanghai-Hangzhou Expresswway (which had a speed limit of 120 kilometers/hour). According to <Traffic Laws>, anyone who speeds at more than 50% higher than the speed limit should have his/her driver's license taken away. The incident on May 7, 2009 showed that this law is a joke. So everybody began to ask: If this driver had his license taken away in accordance with the law, would Tan Zhuo be still alive? Once this question got started, the next ones came naturally: Why did this driver get extra consideration from the law? Where did things go wrong? Who authorized this extralegal move? And why aren't street racing being restricted effectively?
If there is true justice and fairness in this world, then there must be an explanation to those for whom the deceased was a son, an employee or a fiancé. An explanation must be given to all those citizens who walk in the streets. Those who enable this driver to have a license to kill must stand up and give an explanation. Hangzhou has always been known as paradise. So the citizens should know whose paradise is this and whose hell is this.
Tan Zhuo when he was alive
Tan Zhuo, May 7, 2009
Related Link: Car racing incident Oiwan Lam, Global Voices Online; Street Racing Rich Kid Kills Pedestrian, Netizens Outraged ChinaSMACK
Laughing and joking after the incident</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
