Zhizhong Li calls his parents twice a day, morning and night-but not because he is homesick.
Li, a third-year graduate student in molecular cancer biology, said his parents are just two of thousands of sidewalk refugees in his hometown of Jinyang, sent to the streets after a 7.9-magnitude earthquake rocked China's Sichuan province May 12.
Li's home still stands, but cracks in the building have yet to be inspected. As a result, his parents often find themselves sleeping on the sidewalk, braving the rain without a roof over their heads. Aftershocks rattle their fragile campsite several times a day.
Li estimated that half of his hometown-with a population of 500,000-is in the same position.
Although the buildings toppled almost 8,000 miles away, tremors from the massive seism have sparked a strong call for action among many of Duke's Chinese students.
As of Tuesday, the confirmed death toll stood at 40,000, with China's Sichuan province amassing the greatest tally of victims. Some Duke students were born just miles from the epicenter of the quake in Mianyang.
But the seism was felt throughout most of the country, and Blue Devils hailing from Beijing to Jinyang have begun to rally to the aid of victims they do not know.
"As Chinese students abroad, we're still tightly connected to all the Chinese people back in China," said DCSSA President Weina Wang, a graduate student in biochemistry. "There is one Chinese saying that everybody's aware of: 'When one place needs help, the help will come from all directions.' Even though our friends and family may not have been directly affected, we are Chinese and we will do whatever we can to help the people back in China."
DCSSA and the Asian Students Association, along with smaller, unaffiliated groups of students on campus, are coordinating fund-raising efforts for the victims of the earthquake.
For its part, the University is planning to create a Web site that will outline relief options, identify Duke experts who could be consulted by the Chinese government as relief efforts progress and explore the possibility of supplying medical equipment, drugs and teams of visiting doctors, Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta wrote in an e-mail obtained by The Chronicle.
The University also hopes to provide assistance to victims of the cyclone that hit Myanmar May 4 when opportunities for relief become available.
ASA has already allocated $800 of its budget for relief efforts and plans to appeal to students to match its donation, said senior Muyan Jin, vice president for community affairs.
DCSSA also held a candlelight vigil on the Chapel steps May 14 that drew about 120 people and raised more than $6,500 for the Red Cross Society of China, Wang said. She added that most of those who gathered to commemorate the victims of the quake and pray for those still missing were of Chinese descent, but about 20 were members of the Duke community with no ancestral ties to China.
"I think the support has come from the whole Duke community here," she said.
Wang added that because the process of earthquake repair could take years, she expects the cause to remain a long-term priority for DCSSA. A fundraising component may be incorporated into many of the group's signature events, such as the Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration.
With scores of collapsed schools, education has suffered a devastating blow in the Sichuan province. Li, 2007-2008 president of DCSSA, is working with a group of Chinese graduate students in hopes of collecting donations from current Duke students, faculty and alumni to build the Duke Hope School to educate students whose schools were destroyed. The University cannot offer funding but will provide legal and technical support, Moneta wrote in the e-mail correspondence.
"We want to make Duke a big name in China, comparable to its reputation here," Li said. "Duke has pushed very hard to be a global organization. I think this would be very good for [the University], and of course, it's very good for China as well."
But for now, Li is primarily worried about the safety of his parents.
"They are concerned about how long this will last," he said. "People don't know when it will end."
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