>
> -- Micky's humble opinion: Â What a fiasco with Chinese characteristics! Â Could it be the ghosts of
> Tian An Men Square massacre coming seeking for revenge ? --
>
> Add locusts to China's list of calamities
> Riots -- check. Earthquake -- check. Flood -- check. Plague -- check. Such a concentration of woes
> in this high-profile year has fanned rumors and superstition.
> By Mark Magnier
> Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
>
> July 3, 2008
>
> BEIJING — First there was the freak snowstorm in February. Then the Tibetan riots in March. Then in
> rapid succession the controversial torch relay, Sichuan earthquake, widespread flooding and an algae
> bloom that's tarnishing the Olympic sailing venue. Just when it seemed that nothing else could go
> wrong this year in China, the locusts arrived.
>
> Locusts? What is going on here? The litany of near-biblical woes would seem to lack only a famine,
> frogs and smiting of the first born.
>
> The Middle Kingdom's parade of problems has threatened to put a major damper on China's anticipated
> moment of glory less than five weeks before the start of the 2008 Beijing Games.
>
> "This sure has been a weird year," said Ma Zhijie, 20, who works in a coffee shop. "There are so
> many disasters, it's hard to know what's happening."
>
> Authorities have been working overtime to tackle, contain and spin their way out of each new
> setback. But the volume of calamities this year would challenge any government, let alone one that
> has staked so much on pulling off the perfect Olympic Games.
>
> This week, China sent out an all-points bulletin for exterminators. About 33,000 professional pest
> killers were quickly dispatched to Inner Mongolia in hope of preventing a cloud of locusts from
> descending on Beijing during the Games.
>
> The vermin apparently hatched a month early because of warmer-than-usual weather and already have
> eaten their way through 3.2 million acres of grassland in three areas of the countryside. With the
> capital only a few hundred miles away and the Chinese leadership in no mood to take chances, about
> 200 tons of pesticide, 100,000 sprayers and four aircraft have been thrown into this battle against
> the bugs.
>
> "To ensure a smooth Olympic Games and stable agricultural production, we have launched a full
> prevention plan to prevent and control further locust migration," Bao Xiang, head of the badly hit
> Xilingol League grassland work station, told the state-run New China News Agency.
>
> Though China's response to some of the year's crises was sluggish, by the time the magnitude 7.9
> earthquake struck Sichuan province in May the government was able to mount a rapid and effective
> response.
>
> "All the disasters this year have certainly given the government lots of practice at crisis
> management," said Peng Zongchao, a public policy professor at Beijing's Qinghua University. "Some
> have been natural, some man-made, some related to health, some to social security."
>
> China is no stranger to disasters, natural or man-made. But such a series of woes in this
> high-profile year has fanned rumors and superstition in a nation where people pay huge sums for
> lucky license plate numbers and feng shui consultants are in high demand.
>
> China has sought to bank as much good luck as possible before the Olympics next month. The opening
> ceremony begins at 8:08 p.m. on the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008. Eight is considered a
> lucky number by the Chinese because in Mandarin the number sounds like the word for "prosperity."
>
> Also, the government built the Olympic Village on a meridian directly north of Tiananmen Square and
> the Forbidden City, consistent with Beijing's core feng shui principles.
>
> These supplications to the gods of fortune by an officially atheist Communist government, however,
> apparently weren't enough. This year has also seen sharply rising prices, a falling stock market, an
> outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease and a major train collision.
>
> The killing of six policemen in Shanghai this week and a riot involving as many as 30,000 people in
> Guizhou province, southwest of Beijing, after the mysterious death of a high school girl have raised
> fears of more problems.
>
> For the leaders, this bad patch is more than something to shake their heads over. The nation's
> 5,000-year history is littered with dynasties that collapsed because the population believed leaders
> had lost the "mandate of heaven."
>
> Among the Internet search terms restricted in recent months include those linking the earthquake to
> the curse of heaven, "the anger by the heaven" or the change of dynasty.
>
> "There's no such thing as luck, these are just natural disasters," said Zhao Shu, a researcher in
> the Beijing Literature and Historical Research Institute. "These rumors will be disproved over time."
>
> But some say the government may share the blame.
>
> "Officials have picked up stones to hit their own feet," said Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociologist at
> People's University in Beijing, citing a Chinese proverb. "Even as they decry rumors and
> superstition surrounding all this bad news, they laid the groundwork with their focus on 8s and by
> calling the Olympic torch a sacred flame. Now common people are throwing it back at them."
>
> Some rumormongers say that the three numbers of the date of the earthquake, 5/12, add up to eight,
> which evokes prosperity, but it also sounds like the word for "handcuffs."
>
> Internet postings have even started linking the five Chinese Olympic mascots, known as fuwa or
> "friendly children," to inauspicious events:
>
> Beibei, a blue fish-like creature, is linked to June floods in the south that killed 176 people and
> affected 43 million.
>
> Jingjing, who resembles a panda, represents the quake that killed at least 85,000 in Sichuan, where
> most pandas live.
>
> Yingying, a Tibetan antelope, is tied to the unrest in Lhasa, the capital of the mountainous region.
>
> Flame-headed Huanhuan is linked to the torch protests.
>
> And Nini, a swallow with a headdress that looks like a kite, is said to represent a major train
> crash in April in an eastern city known for its kites.
>
> "What can you do," said Liu Feng, 39, a salesman. "Some people are superstitious and some are not.
> China always has disasters"
>
> mark.magn...@
latimes.com
