‘Our little miracle’: the children and the childless of the Sichuan earthquake
In just a few minutes, the May 12, 2008, quake killed a generation of young people in some communities, leaving their parents to face the future alone
Pan Xiaoai was just days from turning 10 when she heard the story of her birth.
Sitting in bed at her home in the city of Dujiangyan in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, Xiaoai was speechless as her mother, Zhang Xiaoyan, recounted the 52 excruciating hours she lay buried under the debris of a seven-storey flat, heavily pregnant with the little girl.
“I couldn’t pity myself,” Zhang said. “I just kept thinking that the most pitiful one was the little baby girl inside me who would soon die before she could even get to see this world.”
Sichuan earthquake, 10 years on: how a tragedy changed China
Zhang, 44, was eight months pregnant with Xiaoai when the quake struck the couple’s home on the outskirts of Chengdu on the afternoon of May 12, 2008. Her husband, Pan Yuncheng, was away when the ceiling caved in on their second-storey flat, trapping Zhang under a pile of rubble.
Their government-built block was destroyed instantly while neighbouring private estates withstood the tremors, Pan said at the time.
For two days, rescuers passed food and water to Zhang through a small hole as they struggled to find a way to free her. As the hours dragged on, it became harder to breathe and Zhang grew sleepy despite her husband’s desperate calls for her to stay awake.
