Their man in purple

Four days after the earthquake, dozens of surviving students of Beichuan Middle School yelled the name of their physics teacher, Zhang Jiachun, on the ruins of the collapsed school building. They searched frantically in the debris for anything that looked purple, the color of a new shirt Zhang wore on the day the quake struck.

The physics class started at 2:20 pm that day. When 34-year-old Zhang entered the classroom, his new attire immediately aroused cheers and claps from students.

"He looked really gorgeous in that light purple shirt," recalled a girl. Many girls thought the letters "GE" on his shirt were short for "girl friend".