The Wall Street Journal checks in on the village of Zhaohang outside of Shanghai, China. This is the location that the Walt Disney Company and Chinese officials have selected for a new theme park from the Mouse. Many of the village’s 4000 residents are getting relocation packages, but that has led to some strife among citizens.
Fearing they would be left out of an opportunity for compensation, more than 100 villagers launched two days of protests that culminated with the death on Aug. 5, apparently by a stroke, of a woman who had led them.
At the same time hopes of an economic payoff come with a big project on your backdoor.
One of them, Zhao Jingfang said, “We can’t welcome it more.” Nearby, an elderly woman wearing a yellow Minnie Mouse T-shirt beamed as neighbors cleaning beans mused about their impending payday.
That said, nothing is yet official until the project actually begins. News of the project has been very slow.
I am reminded of Sam Kinison’s hilarious take on hunger in Africa, where he notes that the people seem to be living on sand, and instead of sending them food, we should move them “to where the food is.”
The thing is, most Americans do not identify with the concept of being “tied to the land”. Some people in “the old world” are living in places where their ancestors have lived, going back hundreds if not thousands of years.
So while it is easy for me to say, “I’d take the money and move!”, for some people, it is a psychological trauma.
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