"Dear All,
Shantou Air Defence Siren will be performed from 11:00am to 11:15am on June 21(memorial date of the fall of Shantou during Japanese invasion war in 1939). The performance will last 15 minutes. You will hear outdoor siren in the city and on campus during the time. Please stay calm. No special response needs to be made."
So basically, the air raid sirens will be blaring outside while we're teaching on Thursday. Possibly at the same time that they're blowing up the mountains for concrete, which I wrote about earlier. And we're not supposed to react. I'm not passing judgement, but there is an awful lot of anti-Japanese sentiment here. An awful lot. For good reason, perhaps, but I just don't see how this kind of thing is helping to do anything but feed that 60+ year old resentment in the minds of the people, young and old...
That's my two cents. I'll bring earplugs that day.
they're going to have a siren going for 15 minutes? Wouldn't it more appropriate (and less disruptive) to have a moment of 'silence' in rememberence? Their saying not to have a response is a kind way of saying, "don't complain about it".
Posted by: jenn harper | June 19, 2007 at 06:27 AM
they refer to it as a "performance."
enough said.
Posted by: Kristin | June 20, 2007 at 06:41 AM