With the tenth anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake occurring in May 2018, Bin Xu's book The Politics of Compassion is a must-read. His work offers insight not only into the dynamics of the post-earthquake volunteering, but also into the broader relationship between state and society in contemporary China.
In the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, an unprecedented series of events occurred: waves of volunteers arrived in the earthquake zone and were welcomed by the party-state. As Xu puts it, it was “the largest collective action since the Tiananmen incident in 1989” (p. 9). Even more surprisingly, in response to the advocacy of public intellectuals, the state held a three-day national mourning period for the earthquake victims—the first ever in Chinese history to mourn the deaths of ordinary people. For a tenuous moment, the public sphere seemed to dilate and glimmer with the prospect of change. As Xu meticulously tracks...
