Debilitating Sandstorm Inspires Poetic Reactions From Residents
Despite finding acceptance in Hollywood, Beijing has long-experienced its own "gritty reboot" at the beginning of every year in the form of debilitating seasonal sandstorms, the latest of which has raised the Air Quality Index to above 900 and caused city authorities to issue a blue alert warning to the public Thursday morning.
Residents familiar with the airbourne attacks of flying catkins and regular smog now have to contend with city-wide PM 10 readings that have gone into the 1,000s after a northwest wind unexpectedly ushered the sandstorm into the city early this morning.
Although the sand threatens public safety by reducing visibility and the local air quality, Beijingers have reacted with poise and grace in the face of danger.
This morning has seen the posting of a number of sandstorm-related content on the Chinese internet that all possess a poetic and lyrical theme to them with some even resembling the style of motivational posters, like the following.
Most of the time the phrase ”沙逼“ is used as a substitute for profanity, but as seen in this design (shown above) it follows its literal meaning:
Tonight, sand has inundated Beijing
Don't work overtime; go home early
The sandstorm has provoked a sentimental reaction in some people like the above image which reads in English:
Beijing: We, besides smog, also have sandstorms.
The sandstorm reminds some people of lyrics, like those from "Float Across the Sea to See You" (shown above), a song by singer Liu Mingxiang and was featured on Chinese reality TV show The Voice of China a few years ago (English lyrics as follows):
No matter what will happen in the end
Looking at you from afar in the blowing sand of the wind
The sadness is too much for me to bear
A local film production studio commemorated today's sandstorm with a heavy artistic flair by writing:
A thriller of a storm,
has struck again
And even though Beijing gets a lot of haze throughout the year, the sepia-toned sandstorm has inspired some people to take artistic photographs like the one above. At the same time, the following short poem has been making the rounds on Chinese social media:
Here in Beijing, we dined on a bitter diet of air pollution in February...
sandstorms in March...
flying catkins in April...
poplar tree fluff in May...
Today, it is a full-course meal...
Some people used today's sandstorm as an opportunity to juxtapose conflicting elements of our environment (shown below):
If there's any further doubt that Beijingers view the sandstorm from a poetic and literary perspective, here's an image of looking at a historical novel on a phone in the middle of the sandstorm.
Why are Beijingers so inclined to express themselves artistically when it comes to sandstorms? One possible reason may be that the sand provides a welcome medium to showcase their artistic abilities.
In the wake of a heavy sandstorm in 2006, Beijingers wrote "It's raining dirt" on sand-covered cars:
As they did in 2010:
But, Beijingers are already in good company. The use of sand as an art form has long been popularized in China through the practice of "sand painting":https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=o0116fu7uua&width=500&height=375&auto=0
Images: news.youth.cn, Weibo, news.Sina.com.cn
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