Earthquake coverage question

[lilongyue]

Anyone else find it strange that among all the footage of earthquake relief constantly shown on the TV, all the people look like Han Chinese? The western parts of Sichuan, particularly the mountainous regions, used to belong to Tibet, it is called Kham in Tibetan. Those remote mountain areas should be teeming with Tibetans. I lived with Tibetans for nearly a year in India, and so am familiar with Tibetan features. While sometimes they resemble Han Chinese, they actually have some very specific sets of features not shared with Han Chinese. But I've only seen Tibetan looking people once on the news reports, and those were two monks who spoke heavily accented Mandarin. The news agencies seem to like filling the intros to the earthquake programs will all kinds of "Tibetan" images, i.e. Tibetan style temples, old women in traditional Tibetan dress spinning prayer wheels, etc., but I never see any of that in the reports themselves, only typical, crappy, small Han Chinese style towns. I was wondering if this may be because the traditional style Tibetan homes and temples were built more strongly than the schools and big apartment buildings built by corrupt contractors. If that is the case, it might be yet another reason, in addition to the government being wary of creating more sympathy for Tibetans than already exists abroad, that they don't show any fully Tibetan towns or villages in the coverage.

Before anybody thinks I crazy for thinking that traditional structures could hold up to an earthquake better than a modern buildings, the area I spent all my time in while in India had had a major earthquake before I arrived. All the traditional homes built in that area, using mud bricks and wooden beams, held up better than all the "modern" homes. It seems that the traditional techniques made the homes more stable, and also more flexible, and not one collapsed during the earthquake there.

[zozzen]

From my limited observation, along the road to epicenter Wenchuan, traditional tibetan houses were not immune from the earthquake, but there's no giant-size school, hospital and the buildings are not so crowded, there'd be false illusion that their scale were lesser.

But it's right that reporters paid much lesser attention to these areas. The areas that many Tibetans live are far from the city center, some of them were at an altitude of more than 4500m.

[Long Zhiren]

Maybe the Chinese are following the American example, but do a better job at it.

Consider the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. The media sensationalized the destruction and mayhem in San Francisco and Oakland. Those might have been the more concentrated and impressive destructions. However, the media skipped the fact that the epicenter was 50 populated miles to the south. Closer to the epicenter were cities like San Jose, with a bigger population than San Francisco. And on top of the epicenter was Watsonville which was pretty well leveled. The media gave us about 1000 photos of San Francisco & Oakland for one of about anywhere else. That's 1000 photos of 20% of the population to 1 photo of 80% of the population. The media also made the fires look to have consumed everything.

The coverage of Chinese media on the May 12 quake, in comparison, was far better, more encompassing as soon as the roads were cleared. The Chinese media probably had 1000 photos of 50% of the population to 1 photo of the remaining 50% of the population. And guess what. The number of Tibetans is tiny. Have you noticed the coverage in Chongqing province? There's not much coverage, but there was plenty of effects there, though not as severe as in Sichuan, but still much more suffering by Han Chinese than by Tibetans total everywhere.

The May 12, 2008 Sichuan earthquake had over a hundred times more power than that 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. It was also much more of a direct hit compared to the Loma Prieta.

[renzhe]

According to Wikipedia, Sichuan is 95% Han Chinese, and 1.5% Tibetan. I don't find it very surprising that most of the victims will be Han.

Another aspect is that the remote mountain regions are, well, remote and more difficult to get to for your average TV crew. Such coverage is always biased towards big cities because that's where the deaths are the most concentrated, and where one can film the most impressive footage of destruction.

[lilongyue]

According to Wikipedia, Sichuan is 95% Han Chinese, and 1.5% Tibetan. I don't find it very surprising that most of the victims will be Han.

Another aspect is that the remote mountain regions are, well, remote and more difficult to get to for your average TV crew. Such coverage is always biased towards big cities because that's where the deaths are the most concentrated, and where one can film the most impressive footage of destruction.

My point wasn't whether most of the victims were Han or Tibetan, but the amount of coverage given the Tibetan victims. Considering the small population of Tibet, (I've seen several figures for how many Tibetans there were pre-invasion and don't know which to trust, but the population is now close to three million), and the VAST population of the rest of China, 1.5% could be a rather large number of people.

I'm not trying to imply that there is a conspiracy, just found it strange. There are plenty of Tibetans living at lower elevations, however. My friend who lived in Chengdu said he saw Tibetans every day, all over the place, in the city and living just outside of town, so I don't believe that they all lived at nose-bleeding heights. But it might just be that in those more remote areas, like the noes where al the coverage is, they don't live all piled up on top of each other like Han Chinese like to do. Or, maybe there is something else going on . . .

[roddy]

Khamaid.org has more info on the situation where they work. Muyongshi has said that Aba is locked down due to protests / the earthquake. Beichuan is largely Qiang, not Tibetan, although how you tell the difference I don't know. And we're not really talking about western Sichuan here, the epicenter was just west of Chengdu and north-west at that.

Draw what conclusions you will from that disjointed set of facts.

[muyongshi]

Muyongshi has said that Aba is locked down due to protests / the earthquake. Beichuan is largely Qiang, not Tibetan, although how you tell the difference I don't know.

Aba is as far as I know in semi-lock down now, meaning you can't come and go freely but certain parts are now open.

The difference is that the Qiang looks more like Han Chinese (and have pretty much been all but bred into the Han race). The same for the Bai Ma (which are officially classified Tibetan but look more of a mix between Han and Tibetan features, but still very distinct) which live up farther north towards Jiu Zhai Gou (Ping Wu area).

I agree with others that have pretty much have stated that journalists are lazy (okay so they didn't say it in so many words). They just aren't going to spend the time that it takes to get out into those areas (to get a semi close village from Chengdu you will have to drive a minimum of 4 hours and if you want to get where the majority of Tibetans are you will have to go 6-10 hours out). That and they aren't large population centers, makes it not as exciting to report. My old landlord lived in Beichuan (actually above 北川县城 where the 唐家山堰塞湖 now exists) and in his little small "village" all the houses are underwater still but that doesn't get reported about how many villages were underwater, they just reported how the 县城 would be flooded. Make sense? This is how the modern media works...and it ain't gonna change...

[lilongyue]

OK, did the math. According to Wikipedia, as of 2004 the population of Sichuan was 87,250,000, making the Tibetan population (at 1.5%) 1,308,750. Not a small number, but as I had thought, small in comparison to the 85,941,250 Han plus various other minorities. Out of curiosity, I checked how many people my home city of Seattle has. As of January 1st, 2008, it's 592,800. So that means that there are almost 2 Seattles' worth of Tibetans living in Sichuan. Ok, now I'm really beginning to wonder about the coverage . . .

[muyongshi]

A fellow seatllite...pleased to know ya!!

[imron]

Rather than thinking about it in terms of seattles, think of it like this: For every 190 han you see in the media's coverage, you're likely to see 7 other minorities, and 3 tibetans. Given certain areas are likely to have a higher/lower concentration of Tibetans, then if the media coverage is sticking to big cities, and/or the worst hit areas (not because of any anti-tibetan bias, but because they're the easiest places to report from), then the number of tibetans per 200 people is likely to be even lower.

[Chinapage]

The area settled by the Tibetans are to the North of the epicenter, and

largely escaped damages by the earthquake.

Also, the two major cities Chengdu and Chongqing are to the South of

the epicenter, and also did not suffer much damage.

Had the epicenter occured 150 km to the south, millions may die.

Thousands of modern buildings may collapse.

Consider ourselves lucky this time.

Ming

[zozzen]

I think i'd look so silly to ask, "hey victim, are you Han or Tibetan?"

During my whole month in the affected areas, people seem not to care whose races they are. No matter they're Han, Tibetan or Jiang, they are victims.

Sichuan, like Yunan, is a big hub for many races. I can't distinguish them all the time, but do we have to?

[lilongyue]

I think i'd look so silly to ask, "hey victim, are you Han or Tibetan?"

I would as well, I was just talking about the coverage.

Rather than thinking about it in terms of seattles, think of it like this: For every 190 han you see in the media's coverage, you're likely to see 7 other minorities, and 3 tibetans. Given certain areas are likely to have a higher/lower concentration of Tibetans, then if the media coverage is sticking to big cities, and/or the worst hit areas (not because of any anti-tibetan bias, but because they're the easiest places to report from), then the number of tibetans per 200 people is likely to be even lower.

Very good point. As what was formerly known as Kham was a rather large piece of land (split up between what are now three provinces) I assumed the Tibetan population would be higher. But the Tibetan population was small and sparse to begin with. After living with Tibetans for almost a year, and hearing incredibly tragic stories from many people, I tend to sympathize with them a lot.

A fellow seatllite...pleased to know ya!!

Hi! We should grab a cuppa joe sometime and chat! If we lived near each other, that is.

[zozzen]

I think i'd look so silly to ask, "hey victim, are you Han or Tibetan?"

I would as well, I was just talking about the coverage.

then how could you distinguish tibetans and hans if you didn't ask?

[lilongyue]

then how could you distinguish tibetans and hans if you didn't ask?

from original post:

I lived with Tibetans for nearly a year in India, and so am familiar with Tibetan features. While sometimes they resemble Han Chinese, they actually have some very specific sets of features not shared with Han Chinese.

[muyongshi]

I agree about the tibetans in not only facial appearance, build, etc but as well as in there daily dress. A good majority of them are very distinguishable by one look.

[zozzen]

I lived with Tibetans for nearly a year in India, and so am familiar with Tibetan features. While sometimes they resemble Han Chinese, they actually have some very specific sets of features not shared with Han Chinese.

i know. but wondering if the tibetans living in sichuan cities also have "a set of specific features" not shared with han chinese?

[lilongyue]

i know. but wondering if the tibetans living in sichuan cities also have "a set of specific features" not shared with han chinese?

Since features do overlap, and there undoubtedly are Tibetans who have intermarried with Han Chinese, I'm sure I could mistake certain Tibetans for Chinese. I also generally avoid watching TV, and so I haven't seen a lot of the coverage, at least in relation to how much of it is shown, I mean. That's one of the reasons I started this thread, I wanted to see what others thought. There have been a lot of good reasons given as to why I haven't seen any obviously ethnic Tibetan people on these news broadcasts. By which I mean the Tibetans that do not look Han Chinese at all, i.e. have darker skin than many Han, high, pronounced cheek bones, and much more flat faces. To cope with the high altitudes, Tibetans are also barrel-chested. The evolved huge lungs to take in more air, to get more oxygen, since the air is so thin up there. Han Chinese do not share this specific trait, either.

Full-blooded Tibetans really look different from Han Chinese. It's just like the Nepalis who live way up in the mountains, near Tibet, they don't resemble the Nepalis of lower elevations, who look more Indian. Or the Indians from the region bordering Tibet, like Ladakh, which was once part of Tibet, and is far enough away from China, and remote enough to stop any Han Chinese, or many Indians, from interbreeding with the locals. Ladakhis don't resemble Indians at all, but look Tibetan and definitely do not look Han Chinese. Bhutanese would be another good example, they look a lot like Tibetans and also nothing like Han Chinese. One can easily see the ethnicity shared by all the people from the areas I just mentioned, if one has been to these places, or met enough people from those regions.

Tibetan traditional dress doesn't resemble traditional Han Chinese dress, either. I don't know how common it is for Tibetans in China to wear the traditional chuba, but one sees it all the time in India. Younger Tibetans in India generally dress more Western, but middle aged Tibetans (and older), especially the women, usually wear the chuba. For special occasions the younger Tibetans in India will dress up in traditional garb. If there had been Tibetans in traditional dress on the news broadcasts, it would have been immediately obvious they were Tibetan. Tibetan men traditionally wear their hair long, especially Khampas.

When I first moved to Hangzhou I noticed a group of Tibetan kids hanging out on this one particular corner every night. I had forgotten all my Tibetan, and didn't speak Chinese at the time, so I didn't approach them. But I could tell immediately they were Tibetan. They didn't look Han Chinese at all. I'm guessing the people who are having such a hard time accepting that Tibetans are often very distinguishable from Han Chinese simply lack exposure. People like muyongshi and myself who have had a lot of exposure know how distinct Tibetan features, build and dress are. It would probably be easy to do some image searches and turn up a lot of photos of Tibetans. Try it and compare.

[zozzen]

your question is that although you don't generally watch tv news, but you didn't see pure-blood tibetans that resemble tibetans in India on TV, so you doubt something else was going on. Right?

The problem is that you have an illusion that your exposure to tibetans in india is enough to give you a power to understand all of them. Tibetans are very big ethic groups and have many sub-tribes.

She's a tibetan.

These 摩梭 ladies are also tibetans.

So are they.

[zozzen]

The game "Who's Tibetan" cancelled.