# China is one f\*cked up society
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [October 16, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782 "2011-10-16T02:27:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/1 "2011-10-16T02:27:23Z")
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys9DPhAMJr0)
_warning_ extremely disturbing
This is purported to be from mainland China. I can’t understand the reporter in the video, so maybe someone who speaks the language can confirm it, but if it is mainland China, and the video is real… it’s beyond words. What kind of people are these?
I am kinda neutral towards China / trade with China / the whole US vs China thing. Live/let live, to each his own, different cultures hard to judge etc. But if this video is not fake, this is forcing me to change my mind.
For those who don’t want to see the disturbing video - a mini-truck runs over a girl (child I think) in the street and just continues on. People are walking by the injured (dying?) girl on the pavement without paying any attention whatsoever.
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### Author:  [@raskolnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raskolnik)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/2 "2011-10-16T02:32:34Z")
It’s pretty common to see women getting beaten in public,and people stand around watching or even laughing. I have seen it twice.
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### Author:  [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/3 "2011-10-16T02:55:16Z")
This is all too common. This is the main reason I don’t want to live in Communist China
Part of it is due to the assumption in Chinese courts that the person who helps [is responsible for the accident](http://www.globaltimes.cn/opinion/commentary/2010-11/596437.html).
Another reason is Chinese sort the world into two sharply dimarcated categories. 自己人(Our people, ie. family and close friends) and 外人 (outsiders, ala everyone else.) Chinese care more about the people close to them, thus they have less energy for outsiders.
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### Author:  [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/4 "2011-10-16T03:09:37Z")
I didn’t say anything.
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### Author:  [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/5 "2011-10-16T03:18:24Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#):
>
> This is all too common. This is the main reason I don’t want to live in Communist China
I assume from your post you have some comprehension of chineese language.
What kind of time frame was it before someone actually checked on her?
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/6 "2011-10-16T03:24:18Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#):
>
> Part of it is due to the assumption in Chinese courts that the person who helps [is responsible for the accident](http://www.globaltimes.cn/opinion/commentary/2010-11/596437.html).
Is it really an assumption of the court or a finding of the court? Look at the case the article cited. The court didn’t just automatically tell Peng Yu he had to pay for Xu Shoulan’s medical treatment. There was a hearing. Xu testified that it was Peng who had originally knocked her down. Peng testified that it hadn’t been him and he found her already on the ground. The court decided Xu was more credible and ordered Peng to pay a portion of her medical expenses.
Unless you were present and saw what happened, you have to admit it’s quite possible Xu was telling the truth and the court’s ruling was correct.
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### Author:  [@raskolnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raskolnik)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/7 "2011-10-16T03:31:47Z")
Recently I came across a Chinese Joke in an English text book here…
“A mother and her 6 year old child are walking on the street, when they see a little girl trip and fall. The son goes to help the girl up and the mother says ‘if you help her, people will think you knocked her down. Stay out of it’ Later they go home. The Mother is cooking dinner, and she goes into another room, and knocks over the bottle of oil. She doesn’t notice, but her son does. As she come back into the room she sees the oil has all run out of the bottle. Angry , she says to her son ‘Why didn’t you pick the bottle back up?’ Her son says ‘If I picked it up, people would think I knocked it over.’”
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### Author:  [@loshan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/loshan)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/8 "2011-10-16T03:34:23Z")
That was horrifying. Bad enough that I couldn’t finish watching it.
However, I don’t doubt that you could find examples of that kind of inhumanity damn near anywhere in the world you looked for it.
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### Author:  [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/9 "2011-10-16T03:37:37Z")
That looks extremely fake. The toddler was fine but the actual running over, come on sheeple.
The commentary is in Cantonese. Eg, very likely to be sensationalist “news” in Hong Kong.
I didn’t watch the whole thing. After living in mainland China for over 15 years, this does not pass the smell test.
It’s the “national sport” in China to gather around and gawk at anything: street arguement, couple arguing, a Westerner, an accident, etc.
You obviously don’t have much understanding of China if you think that toddlers would get run over and there would not be a crowd of people forming instantly. Now, agreed, that crowd \*may \*not do anything but in my experience they certainly \*would \*do something.
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### Author:  [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/10 "2011-10-16T03:39:39Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#):
>
> Part of it is due to the assumption in Chinese courts that the person who helps [is responsible for the accident](http://www.globaltimes.cn/opinion/commentary/2010-11/596437.html).
You have a better cite than that article? Not saying that it couldn’t happen in China, after all it’s a big country and a lotta shit happens there. That said, it has not been my experience in 15 years that helping someone means you are responsible.
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### Author:  [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/11 "2011-10-16T03:40:28Z")
Wow, that is truly fucked up!
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### Author:  [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/12 "2011-10-16T03:59:23Z")
> [@](#):
>
> 一名约3岁大的小女孩在市场玩耍，突然一辆面包车把她撞倒在地，前轮压过，司机又加油门后轮从女童身上压过，小女孩躺在路中心动弹不得，但尚有生命迹象。期间多名路人经过，但却无动于衷。几分钟过后，一辆货车再次从小女孩身上碾过，此时已经奄奄一息的小女孩不停地挥动着两只小手，似乎在向路人求救。但冷漠的路人依然不顾而去，期间还有不少车辆经过，十分危险。老友记数了一下，短短九分钟的视频，共有20位路人经过，甚至还有带着小孩的母亲，也有停下来看热闹的车主，但却没有一位愿意拉小女孩一把，也没有人拿起手机拨打报警电话，任由小女孩在原地痛苦地呻吟，任由车辆从她身边经过。最后是一位拾荒的阿姨把小女孩从路中心抱到路边，并到处寻找被撞小女孩的妈妈。
> 当我最后看到拾荒阿姨拉起全身瘫软如面条的孩子到时候，我真的差点哭了。
> 孩子被阿姨拉起的时候完全就是一根面条啊。。。人性何在啊！！！！！
> 动动你们的手，微博转发起来吧，让更多的人参与到抓捕这个畜生司机的行列中！
Translation
A girl around 3 years old was playing in the market [off the road[. A car suddenly knocked her down. From the pressure of the front and back wheel, the girl’s heart stopped and she lay prone. She was still alive(lit. She still had lifesigns)， but many people just walked on by, utterly indifferent and unconcerned. A few minutes later, a van drove over her, crushing her tiny body. As she lay dying, she unceasingly waved her tiny hands in a futile attempt to make one of the many passing people help her. They just coldly ignored her and walked on by. More than a few cars passed by, it was very dangerous. A friend counted 20 people who walked past her in the 9 minute video, even mothers carrying their own children didn’t care enough to stop.
Some motorists stopped to gawk at the hurt child but none was willing to pull her to safety nor call the emergency services. Her crys of pain were ignored until a poor street scavenger found her and carried her around and went to to find her mother.
I’m almost crying… by the time the street scavenger found her, she was entirely like a noodle. Where is human [decency]!!!
Get your hands moving, share this on your microblog, lets round up a mob and cage this beast of a driver.
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### Author:  [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/13 "2011-10-16T04:03:15Z")
Let’s not forget, [this sort of thing happens in America too.](http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5013503)
[Video link (disturbing)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuxGh5axb2k)
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### Author:  [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/14 "2011-10-16T04:06:03Z")
Doesn’t anyone else think this is faked? Look, there is no freaking way that people would walk by and not even glance down at the kid. And there is absolutely no freaking way in China that a crowd would not form.
Sorry but this plays on bad bias and not reality.
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### Author:  [@loshan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/loshan)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/15 "2011-10-16T04:55:56Z")
Having never been there, I have no idea how Chinese society reacts.
I hope like hell it’s fake and am most happy to have someone with experience to say they believe that also.
I know people can be uncaring asses, but that is beyond the pale. I would be profoundly grateful to have it be fake if only to not have it be real in my imagination.
Thank you.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/16 "2011-10-16T05:19:53Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#):
>
> Let’s not forget, [this sort of thing happens in America too.](http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5013503)
>
> [Video link (disturbing)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuxGh5axb2k)
Who remembers [Kitty Genovese (wikipedia)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese)? – 36 to 38 neighbors watched and did nothing. Later reports raised controversy over whether that’s the way it actually was. But the sensational after-the-fact publicity provoked national soul-searching (or at least nationwide talking-about-soul-searching). But these kinds of things seem to keep happening here and there every so often.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/17 "2011-10-16T05:46:27Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> Who remembers [Kitty Genovese (wikipedia)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese)? – 36 to 38 neighbors watched and did nothing. Later reports raised controversy over whether that’s the way it actually was. But the sensational after-the-fact publicity provoked national soul-searching (or at least nationwide talking-about-soul-searching). But these kinds of things seem to keep happening here and there every so often.
Actually the Genovese incident has been pretty much entirely debunked. There were never the amount of witnesses early reports claimed, nobody witnessed the entire crime, and those who did witness part of the crime took action. There were calls to the police and at least one person who came out to help Genovese.
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### Author:  [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/18 "2011-10-16T08:41:21Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#):
>
> Doesn’t anyone else think this is faked? Look, there is no freaking way that people would walk by and not even glance down at the kid. And there is absolutely no freaking way in China that a crowd would not form.
>
> Sorry but this plays on bad bias and not reality.
the program is sensationalist, but the video doesn’t look fake. the street has no sidewalk and the timeframe may not have been long enough for a crowd to gather. the passers-by did glance down at the kid. (including the first monster who all but walked over her when he skirted passed. )
the girl was animated, there was a trail of blood(?) and the car did bump over something. you brought a good point on the gawking, but otherwise it appears genuine enough.
> [@drachillix](#):
>
> … What kind of time frame was it before someone actually checked on her?
6 minutes.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/19 "2011-10-16T09:16:33Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#):
>
> This is all too common. This is the main reason I don’t want to live in Communist China
>
> Part of it is due to the assumption in Chinese courts that the person who helps [is responsible for the accident](http://www.globaltimes.cn/opinion/commentary/2010-11/596437.html).
>
> Another reason is Chinese sort the world into two sharply dimarcated categories. 自己人(Our people, ie. family and close friends) and 外人 (outsiders, ala everyone else.) Chinese care more about the people close to them, thus they have less energy for outsiders.
It’s also typical behavior in totalitarian societies. _Don’t stick out, don’t get involved, don’t get the authorities interested in you; nothing good can come from it._ It’s a survival mechanism.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2011, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/20 "2011-10-16T09:18:48Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#):
>
> The commentary is in Cantonese. Eg, very likely to be sensationalist “news” in Hong Kong.
It’s not like the Hongkies have anything to be proud of. From a post I made in a thread [eight years ago](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=225828):
> [@](#):
>
> Around 1994, the South China Morning Post reported on the story of a well-dressed woman who collapsed in the street from a diabetic coma in Hong Kong, at about 4 in the morning. At around 4.30 a newspaper seller, who had a phone in her booth, unlocked about 20 feet from the unconscious woman. Then the commuters started passing. By the time a westerner called an ambulance, at about 8 o’clock, they calculated that something like 10,000 people had passed her, some stepping over her body. She died in the ambulance. When they interviewed the newspaper seller, she said “hey, it’s not my problem”, and all my Chinese friends whom I questioned agreed with her. The SCMP then sent underover reporters out all over Hong Kong to feign collapses. In every single case, the “ill” person was helped by westerners, except for one where they were helped by some Fillippinos.
>
> Also anecdotally, a friend in Beijing attempted to help a man who had been knocked off his bike. As he attended to the guy, a large group of Chinese people gathered around him muttering words to the effect of “typical westerner, always sticking their noses in where they’re not wanted”.
Though the Beijing story confirms that you’re likely to have a huge group gawping. Pretty much every street incident I’ve ever seen in China involves Olympic standard gawping.
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