Isn't a Coal Miner just a Coal Miner Anywhere?!

So it seems I have believed for a long time. The manual labor job
that probably has one of the highest date rates, the coal miner is the
ultimate blue-collar job. In China, thousands of them die every year,
only to be replaced by thousands more who come from the countryside
for a quick buck (and a quick death). The lack of regulation in the
mining industry (not just coal) means that laws cannot protect the
workers and can't be used to improve their conditions. Popular belief
(not just here but also everywhere) think that no matter how "safe"
laws make the mines, mining is a dangerous, boring job without any
prospects for brighter future.

But the ongoing media coverage on rescuing 30-some Chilean coal
workers trapped underneath a collapsed mine tunnel for a few months
shows that maybe to simply consider coal miners are hapless and
unfortunate pawns of gigantic mining companies is becoming a thing of
the past, at least in certain parts of the world. There seem to be
daily updates of their lives underneath, telling tales of food/drinks
sent down a pipe and phone calls with families, along with
descriptions of government attention and slow but steady rescue
efforts. Ironically, more than any other country besides Chile,
China, where most of death related to mining in the world occurs, have
heeded the situation in this particular Chilean mine.

Of course, I am not saying similar rescues doesn't happen in China.
Successful rescues are often reported in media as symbols of heroism
and technological prowess, not to mention to engender a sense of
national unity in front of local difficulties. But the number of
success is tiny compared to the number of fatal accidents that lead to
deaths of many innocent workers. Notably, to prevent embarrassment
for the government, Chinese media typically only report mining
accidents AFTER either all trapped workers are rescued (to show
strength of government) or death of all workers are confirmed (to show
that the accident was too unsurmountable for any rescue attempts).

Ok, so at the end, it is about politics, not coal miners' welfare.
Obviously, as I have stated before, China, as a populous country, has
a tradition of sacrificing individuals for the interest of the leaders
and the country. But in a modern society in which a country's way of
treating its citizens is highly correlated with the country's soft
power, perhaps the Chilean model here is a good thing to emulate for
the Chinese? Sure, we can say that the Chilean miners are going to be
rescued at the end unless some unlikely big accident happens, so the
government has nothing to lose by broadcasting their (pretty good)
conditions now, but I don't see the Chinese government doing anything
similar...

As for soft power, I have wrote about it in terms of pop culture
before, but the basic underlying principle of developing better pop
music and dramas is the same as reporting on unfortunate coal miners
trapped underground. The effect of both is to portray a country as a
group of real people with real individual thoughts, rather than a
faceless constituency of the government, who, despite certain
difficulties, are capable of expressing their individual identities
and lead good, fulfilling lives.

The whole point of soft power is to make the foreigners realize that
if they are to become citizens of this country, they can happily be
themselves and improve themselves with others who are equally and
perhaps more expressive and opinionated. The Chileans reporting their
miners celebrating Independence Day and calling their families serve
to remind the Chinese miners watching TV here that they, even though
with the same job and maybe even the same pay as those Chileans,
rather be coal miners there than here.

Those Chilean miners, full of optimism even in complete darkness, have
become national heroes. While on the other hand, under the exact same
situation, the stoic, blank-faced Chinese miners are but canon fodder
(if they die) and a political hassle to death with (even if they live)
for the mining company's continuous profiteering. It really isn't
about them whether they live or die, it is always about the big
players: the government and the mining companies.

Even more than those here who watch Korean dramas wanting to be
Korean, coal miners here would want to be Chilean after this. Thanks
to the stupidity of the state-controlled media who can't see through
this, they have realized that coal miners everywhere are not the same.
Yes, the job is equally hard and dangerous, but at least, somewhere
else, there is more human dignity attached to the job description.
That is the irony of Chinese enthusiasm for a bunch of Chilean trapped
miners.