MCLC: Chinese Mayan-doomsday cult (1)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Lee Mack <lee.mack at ringierchina.com>
Subject: Chinese Mayan-doomsday cult (1)
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Source: City Weekend:
http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/beijing/articles/blogs-beijing/beijingologist
/local-take-2012-and-end-world/

The Local Take on 2012 and the End of the World

While putting together our Beijing bucket list (part 1
<http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/beijing/articles/mag-bj/cover/the-great-beij
ing-bucket-list-part-1/> and part 2
<http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/beijing/articles/mag-bj/cover/the-great-beij
ing-bucket-list-part-2/>), we asked ourselves: What do Chinese people
think about the Mayan prophecy that the world will end on December 21?
Between hundreds buying doomsday survival kits and others stuffing their
stomachs one chuan'r after another without a trace of worry, the Chinese
remain inscrutable.

“The world will not last much longer,” says Wang Chongming, a former
watermelon grower who now repairs bicycles in Paoju Hutong. Wang has not
heard of the Mayan prophecy and thought 2012 to be no more than the
premise of “an intense American big film
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190080/>,” but he believes doomsday is close
nonetheless. “I had to give up on watermelons because there was no water
anywhere. Nothing would grow,” said Wang. “We have destroyed this planet.”

Others have already taken action. For RMB20,000, you can buy a “Noah’s Ark
for one <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/7904900.html>” made by
Chen Liangjin of Henan. It’s a steel/PVC waterproof ball enclosure, into
which you can curl up and hide, in case of earthquake, flood or tsunami.
“Doomsday or not, natural disasters are going to happen more and more
often,” said Chen on the phone, “we all need to be prepared.”

 While not many Chinese seem convinced by the Mayan calendar, there’s some
consensus that major changes are looming. “I don't think anything as
dramatic as the end of the world is going to happen, but I keep having
this feeling that big changes will soon happen,” says Huang Shaojie
<http://www.globaltimes.cn/NEWS/tabid/99/ID/691308/Gloves-off-in-Asia-expo-
art-show-brawl.aspx>, former science columnist and now a web editor.
“Politically, two of the biggest countries in the world, China and the
U.S., have both reached a point where they have to either break the status
quo or lose the opportunity and mess everything up. The collective
conscience of humanity senses a paradigm shift is coming soon.”

What can we do then, besides stuffing our ark with a lifetime’s supply of
food? “Live each day as if it is your last, because it very well may be,”
Huang says.

Best,

Lee Mack