China: Names to be remembered · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The death toll and identity details of school children victims in the May 12 Wenchuan earthquake last year has been sealed in a black box by Chinese government officials, like a state secret. Last December, Ai Wei-wei, a most respectable intellectual and blogger, decided to compile the names of school children who died in the earthquake with a voluntary working team. Up till now, they have collected 2,735 children's names with their parent's contact details. All the information has been uploaded to bulloger.com, an exile website hosted in overseas server, as the online discussion of this civil initiative has been harmonized in China.
Why are Ai Wei wei and the team of volunteers so determined to collect all these names? Or why does the Chinese government want to hide the figures and names? While there is no explanation from the government, Ai Wei wei tells his part of the story:
三百天前，我去了四川汶川地震灾区，看到的是无尽的伤痛和恐惧。
今天，我们仍然不能够知道在地震中，谁离开我们去了。那些孩子为什么会离开，是怎样离开的。他们在废墟下期待的时间里，心里在想着什么。
我在那次灾难中没有伸出手，我实在感到无力。
他们说，学生的死亡与他们的存在无关。他们说这是必然的，是不可避免的，是经过专家论证的。他们闭口不谈腐败，回避“豆腐渣工程”。掩盖事实，以“维稳”之名，威胁、监禁、迫害要求真相的学生父母，公然的践踏宪法，践踏人的基本权利。
那些在地震中死去的孩子，不是语焉不详的一串数字，不是“维稳”业绩的成果。
那些孩子，他们有父母亲人，有幻想，会欢笑，有一个属于自己的名字。这个名字属于他们，三年、五年，十八，十九年，这是他们可能被记忆的全部，可被唤起的全部。
拒绝遗忘，拒绝谎言。
我们启动了“公民调查”。追忆逝者，关怀生存，承担责任，为了生者的可能的欢乐。寻找每一个孩子的姓名，记住他们。
那些对公民存有不该有的幻想的人，请记住了，我们一天没有离去，这些孩子就不会离去。这是生活理由的一部分，我们不会放弃的。
Today, we still don't know who have left us in the earthquake, why the children have to leave, how they have left us. Or what they were thinking when they were trapped in the ruin.
I had not given much help in the disaster, I felt so weak and helpless then.
They said, the death of school children had nothing to do with their existence. They said this is inevitable and experts backed up the argument. They didn't utter a word on corruption and avoid addressing the issue “bean dregs project” (poorly structured school buildings). They covered up the facts. And under the name of “stability first”, threatened, detained and prosecuted parents who are looking for the truth and for an answer. They tread on the constitution and people's basic human rights.
The children who died in the earthquake, they are not numbers, nor a performance of “stability first” principle.
All these children, they have parent, have their own dreams, laughters and names. The names belong to them, the names will become memory of them, even though the memoru may not last forever – 3 years, 5 years, 18 years, 19 years, the names is a mark that reminds the world about them in the future.
We have to hold on to our memory and reject lies.
We start “citizen investigation” to remember those who passed away, to care about those who still survive. We take up our responsibility to search for the school children's names, so that they can be remembered.
For those who don't believe in citizen's effort, please remember this: the children won't be gone if we continue to hold on. This is part of our lives’ raison'd etre and we cannot give that up.
According to Xinhua's report back in December 2008, in the 5.12 earthquake, among the 159 counties, 14,000 schools have been destroyed and 91% of them are public schools. However, officially, the collapse of school buildings is mainly the result of the magnitude of the earthquake, rather than human error in the construction of school buildings.
Whether or not there are human errors in the “bean dregs project” is up to further investigation and debate, however, it won't be easy for Chinese netizens to further discuss the matter as Ai Wei-wei's hard work has been harmonized in Chinese internet. According to Zhang3's blogpost and explanation, on 19 of March, a post titled as “Qing-ming festival is approaching, Let's commemorate the children victim together” was put up in a forum in Tianya. Within 4 days, the post has more than 100 thousand hits and 3000 comments, and the forum planned to organize a live chat with Ai Wei Wei. But all the related posts were deleted in the afternoon of 23 of March. The explanation is:
由於某些大家知道的原因，原定今天的艾未未先生訪談因故取消，特此告知，並向天涯網友致歉！
The interview is now published in bullogger.com in two parts: One and Two. In the interview, Ai explained that he wanted to finish the compilation in the anniversary of Wenchuan earthquake in coming May.
Information concerning Ai Wei wei's list have been circulated via twitters, a number of bloggers and netizens still managed to join in and pass on the discussion. Bai Yu-ji from my1510 gives high respect to Ai's initiation and criticizes the government for burying the dead without proper investigation and explanation:
是的，我们不知道他们为何死，但至少知道他们已经死掉了，而不是失踪。他们曾经是，现在也是我们的弟兄姊妹，亲人儿女，没有一个冷血到透顶的心脏，怎么把他们偷偷抛弃，埋掉不理呢？…
然而，究竟为了一个怎样的理由不肯去寻求、整理、公布这些遇难而死去的悲苦孩子的名单呢？为了国家么？那是怎样的一个国家呢？为了人民么？那又是怎样一群人民呢？那都不可能，我想不出任何的理由。这样荒诞而离奇的事情，为什么会发生。…
Why there is no effort to sort out the poor children victim's name list, why there is no announcement? For the sake of our nation? What kind of nation will do that? For the sake of people? What kind of people want that to happen? I can't think of any reason. How could such absurd and non-sense thing have happened…