I first read about this a couple of weeks ago on Pop Candy... After the devasting earthquake last month in China, Beijing-based cartoonist Coco Wang began documenting the humanitarian stories of the quake—stories of survival, courage and hope—and posting them online... as comic strips. Here's an excerpt from her introduction to the project, and why she decided to do it:
The amount of incredibly moving stories of victims, rescuers, volunteers is simply shocking at the moment. I have been collecting newspapers of all the stories, and telling them in the form of comic strips. I hope these stories could show the UK readers the love, warmth and courage of the Chinese people, also the sad and cruel reality of the horrible 5.12 Earthquake.I've been reading through the comics, one by one. They're incredibly moving and inspiring. And some of them are surprisingly funny. (The one about the pandas cracked me up.) Read them all here.
I am back home in Beijing now. Thousands of heart-breaking stories are happening 24 hours non-stop everyday, some are so sad that you can hardly bear, some are incredibly moving that you just can't stop crying... I wanted to go to the front to help with all those people, some of my friends have already gone there, but I heard that the traffic needed to be kept totally clear for rescue transportation at the moment, people like me without knowledge of first-aid and experience of rescue operations going there now would cause chaos and trouble... but I can't just sit at home and do nothing, I have been crying my eyes out in the past three days, I have never felt more proud of my country and people... their love, courage and kindness rock me to my core! I have decided to tell these touching stories by drawing comics. I am going to send you comic strips almost everyday from now on, I hope you could know something about the earthquake in China, although you don't have to do anything, but I hope you could feel our love and hope.