My daughter belongs to the younger generation known as the "post-1980 kids". A journalist, she went to the earthquake-hit areas in Sichuan a few days ago.

I will never forget the moment just before she boarded her flight at the airport. She never experienced a natural calamity of such magnitude in her young life until now or faced so stern a test of her mettle, which is why she could not help feeling somewhat nervous. As her parents we were worried just as naturally and, unlike when she went on previous reporting trips elsewhere, I saw her off at the airport this time.

It was time for boarding. She held my hands in hers and stared at me with teary eyes as if making sure her father's image was securely stored in her heart.

I have seen members of my family off so many times in my life that it usually feels like a daily chore, but the good-bye to my daughter this time will stay with me forever. Yes, every news report about the aftermath of the earthquake since it struck Wenchuan touched people's hearts, be it about sinkholes, damages, aftershocks, landslides, roads reopened only to be cut off again or how difficult it was to make airdrops ... but the most unforgettable of it all were perhaps the looks and expressions of kind Chinese people in the face of the catastrophe.

Inside Mianyang Stadium, Premier Wen Jiabao bent over to console a few children who had lost their parents. A little girl started crying. Standing next to the premier the secretary of the Sichuan provincial committee of the Communist Party of China, Liu Qibao, could not bear the sight and turned around to hide his tears.

Later, in a tent, Wen softly told a crying child, "(I know) you are hungry. Don't cry. I'll have some milk and biscuits sent to you rightaway." Surprisingly, the starving boy soon stopped crying and gave a little nod in understanding. At that moment Wen looked more like a caring grandpa than the premier of the country.

A small team of People's Liberation Army solders came out of the mountains with their hands full. Some carried injured and soiled villagers on their backs, some others helped old men on canes and still others carried an immobilized person on a stretcher. Two young soldiers barely in their 20s each held a newborn baby in their arms - a pair of opposite-sex twins born amidst aftershocks. Their apparent inexperience in nursing notwithstanding, the young solders showed so much concern about the babies that their clumsiness only served to enhance their brotherly love for the newborns.

A policewoman, who had a newborn of her own to nurse at the moment, breastfed a newly-orphaned baby at a temporary shelter as if it was her own child. Her look, with the baby so peaceful in her bosom, reminds one of Virgin Mary and the Bodhisattva but above all the baby's own mother.

A group of policemen felt so helpless in front of a child trapped underneath a collapsed building because they dared not lift the broken concrete slabs lest they fell on him. They could do nothing except telling him help was on the way, with tears rolling down their faces. When they had to leave the scene the otherwise tough men walked away crying aloud in unbearable sadness and with a deep sense of guilt.

A young farmer-turned-worker squeezed his way to the front of a long queue to donate his blood at a collection center and told the staff members earnestly, not without a hint of embarrassment, "I have no money and cannot go to the disaster area. The only thing I can offer is my blood."

At Nanjiao Airport in Mianyang, President Hu Jintao hurried down the boarding stairs and walked briskly up to Premier Wen, who was waiting for him there. The two top leaders of the nation stood face to face, holding hands firmly together, and said nothing for a good while, but their expression told of a profound understanding at a time of great challenges and the resolve to lead the nation through any adversity.

The massive earthquake in Sichuan once again illustrated how dangerous Mother Nature can be, but the scenes mentioned above showed the unstoppable heartbeat of the indomitable Chinese nation. The catastrophe will ultimately become an extraordinary asset of the Chinese people. It will tell the world: one that loves the people is a powerful military, one that cherishes life is a well-grounded state and one that embraces all living beings is a nation no force can beat.

In fact, since the moment the earthquake occurred we have seen not just the indescribable pain and suffering but infinite hope behind it as well. This hope can be found in the responses from the younger generation to this ultimate test of life and death. It can also be seen in the brisk steps of soldiers on their way to help the earthquake victims deep in the hazardous mountains; in the sweat-soaked backs of medical workers saving lives days on end; in the volunteers' ubiquitous presence in the disaster areas; in the numerous long queues everywhere in the country of people waiting to donate blood; and in the survivors' efforts to free others from the grip of death.

In the face of great sorrow following the great joy of the Olympic torch relay so closely this year, Chinese youths are coming out of their familiar shows of naivete and presenting a new face that bodes very well for the nation's future.

The author is a researcher with China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies

(China Daily 05/21/2008 page10