IN THE DAYS following the May 12 Sichuan earthquake, volunteers began streaming into affected areas bearing medical supplies, food and money. The media quickly began covering these efforts, highlighting stories of urban Chinese professionals driving their new cars overnight to reach the earthquake zone and retirees sending their monthly incomes to help purchase medicine. A "shock of consciousness," as one scholar called it, swept the country, as citizens instinctively set aside their decades' long push to get gloriously rich and turned their attention to helping victims.
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