China’s one-child policy, enacted in 1979, has undoubtedly changed Chinese society. Whether for better — curbing population growth in a country with dire resource limitations — or for worse — creating a generation of “Little Emperors” who are doted on by two generations of extended family — remains a debate that may never been settled. Of course, there are places where this debate can both be stimulating and appropriate. In the context of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is not one of those places.

Here’s Malaysia Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, as quoted in Malaysia’s The Star:

“We have to understand that China has (had) a one-child policy for more than 30 years and for the families of passengers on the flight, they are worried and angered over the loss of their descendants,” he said when winding up the debate for his ministry on the motion of thanks for the royal address in the Dewan Negara, Monday.

…“The Chinese believe that for the final rites, the body must be touched. If not the body, at least they should know where the aircraft crashed.

“As both of these requirements are unfulfilled, they cannot conduct the final rites and in their frustration, they direct their anger at Malaysia.”

Is the implication that a child would be less valuable if a family had more than one, and the families of those Chinese victims would therefore be less angry at Malaysia?

Even if this was true, why say it out loud? As far as political parrying goes — deflecting blame, in this case — this is as clumsy as it comes. Are his listeners supposed to have an a-ha moment because Chinese anger has been put into context? Is his amateur psychoanalysis, paired with a rudimentary understanding of Chinese custom (the body must be touched), supposed to help victims overcome their grief? And what about the juxtaposition of tragic personal loss with the most controversial government policy of the last half-century? Where’s the consonance?

Seven and a half weeks after the disappearance of MH370, we still have no idea where it is. The victims are gone. Does more need to be said?

MH370: One-child policy, burial rites among factors for Chinese nationals’ outburst, says Nazri (The Star)

On April 14, New York Times reporters Kirk Semple and Eric Schmitt published an article titled “China’s Actions in Hunt for Jet Are Seen as Hurting as Much as Helping” that quoted two government officials — one from the US and one from Malaysia, both unnamed — who said China has not, to put it nicely, contributed much to the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. It was a disturbing piece, not least because it seemed to signal the search may have entered a new phase in which the frustrations and difficulties of finding the missing jet could spill into finger-pointing and politics.

No one was doubting that the Chinese had the best intentions in mind, but the truth — an unfortunate one that no one seems able to deny — is that they lacked the expertise and technology to help. (So did other countries, of course, like Malaysia, so its government official’s quote — “‘Really helpful, aren’t they?’ he said sarcastically” – seems diplomatically tone-deaf.) The New York Times article wasn’t exactly groundbreaking, but there was nothing offensive about it. Notably, the journalists did their due diligence:

• China’s foreign ministry was given a chance to comment but chose not to.
• Balance:
  

  “The scope, scale and expense of Chinese operations exceeds anything that China has undertaken to date,” said Jonathan D. Pollack, senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution. “The Chinese are at least as intent on achieving definitive results as anyone else.”

  “It’s possible that this has led some Chinese personnel to reach premature judgments based on limited or inconclusive observations,” Mr. Pollack said. “But this hardly seems unique to China.”

• And most importantly: high-level officials in national governments apparently felt the need to speak publicly about China’s involvement. That makes the story newsworthy.

Not everyone agrees — namely, People’s Daily, the official paper of the Chinese Communist Party. It decided the Times were guilty of exploiting the tragedy to “launch a few cheap shots at China,” as it wrote this morning in a piece called “People’s Daily Journalists address provocative New York Times report” (as tweeted by NY Times reporter Edward Wong). For whatever reason, instead of using text, the piece (“op-ed”? we’re not sure what to call this) is a series of screenshots:

Yes, it does appear the People’s Daily actually called the Times’s PR department and asked – demanded – that reporters turn over their sources. The US justice department has had less success getting journalists to comply, so People’s Daily really had no chance here.

The problem, once again, seems to lie in how China views the role of media. Here, newspapers are expected to leave inconvenient truths unsaid for fear of being rude, or — to put it less nicely — they are trained lapdogs for the government’s use. There is little to no self-awareness, no concept of a public editor, and practically no loyalty to truth, or “facts.” In that case, perhaps we should commend People’s Daily: at least they made a couple of calls, and sent an email.

The latest update on still-missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 – New York Times: “China’s Actions in Hunt for Jet Are Seen as Hurting as Much as Helping” — puts the attention on China’s naval incompetence and prestige hunting. Apparently good intentions don’t get you good press. I read the Times’s article while slowly shaking my head at the entirety of the MH370 situation/mess. Then I came to this quote:

“This is a chance for China to regain some of its lost prestige and show the world what it’s capable of,” said Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at the Tokyo campus of Temple University. “There’s a lot of prestige on the line here.”

You can hear Kingston and a lot of others silently seething, can’t you? There’s a lot of prestige on the line here drips with sarcasm, even if it might not be intended that way.

Another Times’s excerpt follows. Go read the whole story if you want to be disappointed in people.

On April 5, Chinese state-run news media reported that Haixun 01, a Chinese government search vessel apparently operating outside the zone designated that day by the search coordinators, had twice detected underwater signals that might have come from the missing plane’s flight recorders.

Photographs published by the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, showed crewmen using a hand-held hydrophone intended for use in shallow water, casting doubt on the value of the claims.

Still, search officials sent H.M.S. Echo, a British vessel equipped with highly sophisticated listening technology, to verify Haixun 01’s report. Several days later, Echo was quietly pulled from the area of the Chinese ship and sent to assist Ocean Shield, an Australian vessel also equipped with high-tech listening equipment that had detected four signals that search coordinators believed came from the plane’s flight recorders.

The delay in deploying Echo to join Ocean Shield may have cost searchers the opportunity to record more signals and narrow the underwater search area, officials say.

(NYT)

UPDATE, 4/30, 1:05 pm: People’s Daily responds by calling the Times “circling vultures.”

In a televised statement on Monday at Lido Hotel in Beijing, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which has now been missing for 18 days, likely “ended in the southern Indian Ocean.” After his statement, family and friends of MH370 passengers were reportedly notified by text that “none of those on board have survived.”

According to NBC News:

The airline explained in a statement its use of text messages in disseminating the news to family members:

“It is with deep sadness that Malaysia Airlines earlier this evening had to confirm to the families of those on board Flight MH370 that it must now be assumed the flight had been lost. As the Prime Minister said, respect for the families is essential at this difficult time. And it is in that spirit that we informed the majority of the families in advance of the Prime Minister’s statement in person and by telephone. SMSs were used only as an additional means of communicating with the families.”

It was not a pretty scene at Lido Hotel, as ABC News reports:

The words “no survivors” triggered an explosion of grief and rage today in a Beijing hotel conference room filled with families of passengers aboard the Malaysia Airlines flight 370 who have been waiting 17 days for a sign their loved ones were alive.

The more than 100 families stopped listening to the televised news conference when the Malaysian prime minister said those two words. Screams and yelling erupted. Men smashed chairs and yelled, “Lies, lies.”

Several women fainted and medics quickly attended to them, taking them away on stretchers.

Today, the anger spilled over into the streets as protesters gathered outside the Malaysian embassy at Liangmaqiao in Beijing. SCMP reports:

Nearly 100 relatives and their supporters marched on the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing, where they threw plastic water bottles, tried to rush the gate and chanted, “Liars!”

Many wore white T-shirts that read “Let’s pray for MH370” as they held banners and shouted, “Tell the truth! Return our relatives!”

Malcolm Moore of the Telegraph, who live-tweeted from the scene, reports that the protest lasted about two hours before buses arrived to take MH370 relatives away. It was officially sanctioned in that authorities closed down roads to allow the protesters to march to the Malaysian embassy. Other than some pushing and flinging of water bottles, there was no violence.

3-4 public buses, with police on board, are ferrying relatives to the Malaysia Embassy MH370

— malcolmmoore (@MalcolmMoore) March 25, 2014

The relatives lost their temper & attacked police on the buses. They are now marching to the Malaysian embassy MH370

— malcolmmoore (@MalcolmMoore) March 25, 2014

MH370 relatives marching to the Malaysian embassy pic.twitter.com/LGyqByKWa4

— malcolmmoore (@MalcolmMoore) March 25, 2014

All the streets around the Malaysia embassy now closed off MH370 pic.twitter.com/Up8WOCdH6n

— malcolmmoore (@MalcolmMoore) March 25, 2014

Diplomats inside the Malaysian embassy spotted taking pics of the MH370 relatives, relatives start throwing bottles

— malcolmmoore (@MalcolmMoore) March 25, 2014

Meanwhile, Australian authorities temporarily called off searches for MH370 today due to storms. The Wall Street Journal reports that this episode has affected how Chinese travelers see Malaysia:

And finally, Malaysian papers were printed in black and white today in memory of MH370. Via Straits Times:

And here’s today’s Malaysia Star (via Romenesko):

UPDATE, 6:54 pm: It’s not over yet, reports Xinhua:

In fact, if it was closure Malaysian authorities were seeking, then the Australian defense minister expressed an entirely different position.

“Lets be clear — to this point in time we have not successfully recovered or identified any debris from the aircraft in question.”

Minister [David] Johnston told Xinhua at Pearce Airbase outside Perth that the fate of MH370 was still ‘a mystery.’

“And until we recover and positively identify a piece of debris — all is speculation,” he told Xinhua.

The earlier declaration by Malaysian authorities that it was now — somewhat illogically — “assumed beyond reasonable doubt,” that the Malaysian Airlines flight that left Kuala Lumpar for Beijing went down in the Southern Indian Ocean, has drawn strong criticism from both victims families and commentators.

Those words — ‘assumed beyond reasonable doubt’ — would appear to be ill-spoken and ill-timed.

Memetjan Abla, a painter, teacher, husband and father, known for his subtle use of color in his elegant portraits of Uyghur urban life, was lost on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. He was 35.

As the New York Times reported in moving detail, he will be missed:

Among the many others in Beijing waiting for word were the wife and 10-year-old daughter of Maimaitijiang Abula, an ethnic Uighur painter and art teacher from the desert oasis town of Kashgar. The family had been living in Beijing for the past two years while Mr. Abula, 35, studied here at the Chinese Academy of Oil Painting. He was traveling in the group of more than 20 Chinese calligraphers and painters honored at an exhibition at the Malaysian Oriental Arts Center in Kuala Lumpur.

“She just can’t accept it,” a friend, Ku’erbanjiang Saimaiti, said on Sunday of Mr. Abula’s wife. “There’s no information at all at this moment.”

Mr. Abula was proud of his hometown, in the far west, and had done interpretation there for a state television film crew led by Mr. Saimaiti when they were shooting a documentary in 2010. Mr. Abula had joined the Chinese Communist Party and was often teased for it by friends. But he insisted he did not want to become an official, Mr. Saimaiti said, and he was “a responsible and kind artist.”

Although Memtjan has passed on, his art lives on in the present.

Bulaqsu Township Grand Bazaar

His Streets

Memetjan painted Xinjiang street scenes and Uyghur faces with the kind of intimacy that comes only from living in that world. One can recognize that he was a great painter by his touch: powerful, delicate, living –lines full of energy. But one also sees in his work an openness to the senses, a sensitivity open to the rhythms and music of the street. By rhythms, I mean that Memetjan helps us see the way the material forms of Uyghur worlds channel bodies in particular ways. Tarps, streets, carts, trees, dust, and noise coalesce into market scenes where place takes place.

Hot Spot

But these views of the energy in the Uyghur lifeworld was not enough for Memetjan. Whether drawn from his peripheral vision as an artist or his intimacy with Uyghur livelihoods, Memetjan also pointed us toward the shadows and corners of the street where feelings of belonging and waiting are experienced.

Corner of the Bazaar

His People

Memetjan’s portraits were intimate. He was imaging people who were uncomfortable in their pose. They were not accustomed to the recognition of an artist’s eye. They look to the side or straight ahead, but they do not perform the masculine or feminine gestures of strength or passivity. These models are models of friendship, of colleagues; familiar bodies clothed in stripes favored by young Uyghur men. It is hard to tell if there is a shy honesty in these figures, or if they are just tired.

Ismailjan; Alimjan

His Time

In “Outlook” Memetjan introduces a feeling of the gaze — of Uyghur figures gazing at the changing world around them. The hardness of the old towns they have known as permanent was succumbing to the soft colors of new glass and steel; the effervesce of streets under the temporary shade of tarps and trees was being replaced by the distance of machines at work. The horizon was expanded — a slate grey — forever; time seemed to stop.

Outlook (coincidentally, this painting was used as the lead image in our previous dispatch)

But in the spaces away from the bustle of development, a different sense of time still took place. Dusk still happened uninterrupted by incandescence and electricity. Life still followed older rhythms. These quiet moments were what Uyghur livelihoods were built around. Memetjan allowed us to see this, if just for a moment. I didn’t know him, but through his pictures I feel as though I can see pieces of his world.

Night is Coming

For more of Memetjan’s work, visit his website.

Beige Wind runs the website The Art of Life in Chinese Central Asia, which attempts to recognize and create dialogue around the ways minority people create a durable existence, and, in turn, how these voices from the margins implicate all of us in simultaneously distinctive and connected ways.

|Dispatches from Xinjiang Archives|

Those who live and work around Chaoyangmen in Beijing have noticed a recent addition to the neighborhood. Above the Burger King at U-Town Mall, a huge purple banner has been erected that reads, in Chinese, “Time Since Losing Contact,” a reference to the number of hours that have passed since the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

Below the counter, the banner reads, in a combination of English and Chinese, “Boeing 777-200, MH370, 239 people, China 154 countrymen.”

Pictures were uploaded to Instagram by Time Out Beijing (above) and @Howick_Leung (below).

This comes at a time of anger from both representatives of the Chinese government and the friends and relatives of the passengers on MH370. As the New York Times reports, Malaysia Airlines employees were in Beijing on Monday morning to address the relatives of passengers, but the meeting didn’t go well:

“All Malaysians are liars!” one man shouted in Chinese. “Do you know what ‘liars’ means?”

“Tell him in English,” he yelled to the one woman among the four airline employees. She was the interpreter, and the three men were senior managers.

They did not respond to the Chinese man. It was unclear if the interpreter translated the insult.

MH370, bound for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, disappeared somewhere between Malaysia and Vietnam on Saturday. The search is now entering its fifth day.

The picture above — which shows the counter at 84 hours — is outdated.

UPDATE, 11:59 pm: The banner has been taken down.

Follow Margaux @schreursmargaux