# China is one f\*cked up society **URL:** \ **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:** 3
**Author:** ![raskolnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e47c2d/32.png) [@raskolnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raskolnik)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/41 "2011-10-16T23:21:50Z")
-Looks like it is real…it’s on a bridge blog > **[2-Year-Old Girl Ran Over by Van & Ignored by 18 Bystanders - chinaSMACK](https://www.chinasmack.com/2-year-old-chinese-girl-ran-over-by-van-ignored-by-18-bystanders)** > > Video of a 2-year-old Chinese girl who is hit & ran over by both a van & a truck in Foshan, Guangdong & subsequently ignored by 18 Chinese bystanders passing by. More Yep, Guandong province, Foshan City ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/42 "2011-10-17T00:13:25Z")
They make a mighty good General Chicken! ---
**Author:** ![simple\_homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@simple\_homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simple_homer)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/43 "2011-10-17T02:36:07Z")
> [@raskolnik](#): > > -Looks like it is real…it’s on a bridge blog > [http://www.chinasmack.com/2011/videos/2-year-old-chinese-girl-ran-over-by-van-ignored-by-18-bystanders.html](http://www.chinasmack.com/2011/videos/2-year-old-chinese-girl-ran-over-by-van-ignored-by-18-bystanders.html) > Yep, Guandong province, Foshan City That link has Chinese people themselves commenting about how and why this is possible and maybe even typical in China. Comments such as this " It isn’t ignoring, it’s not daring. If one were to encounter a Nanjing judge, one would be screwed. [Note: “Nanjing judge” refers to the infamous 2006 case of a man named Peng Yu who helped a woman to the hospital after she had fallen only to have the old woman accuse him of knocking her down. The Nanjing judge in that case ultimately ruled that common sense dictated that only the person who hit her would take her to the hospital, setting a precedent that continues only further discourages and reinforces many Chinese people’s wariness to help others in similar situations.] " I live in China, and in my walks around China I have come across less serious traffic accidents where many people stand around and watch, but no one does anything to help. It is my understanding that it is the fear of being held liable that keeps people from trying to help. ---
**Author:** ![raskolnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e47c2d/32.png) [@raskolnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raskolnik)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/44 "2011-10-17T03:02:03Z")
[http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-10/17/content\_13909567.htm](http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-10/17/content_13909567.htm) and china daily ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/45 "2011-10-17T03:40:09Z")
I’m not suprised if it’s real. I once ran past a group of people that included 3 men in their 40’s watched as a young man in his 20’s beat the shit out of his girlfriend in a parking lot while I intervened. I was more upset with the “men” standing by watching than the guy laying the beat down on his gf. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/46 "2011-10-17T03:48:01Z")
> [@raskolnik](#): > > [http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-10/17/content\_13909567.htm](http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-10/17/content_13909567.htm) > and china daily According to reports the van driver had just split up from his girlfriend and was talking on his mobile phone when he hit the girl. “If she is dead, I may pay only about 20,000 yuan ($3,125). But if she is injured, it may cost me hundreds of thousands yuan,” said the driver over the phone to the media, before he gave himself up to the police. When she ran from shop to shop for the identity of the girl, the rag collector was told by a number of shopkeepers to mind her own business. =================== A seriously f\*cked up society. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/47 "2011-10-17T04:45:58Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > What do you mean the toddler was fine but for the running over? Did you not see the footage of her in the hospitable? Did you not see her unable to sit up when someone tried to sit her up and pull her out of the road? > I know that Mandarin and Cantonese are the two main versions of the Chinese language. (Don’t get into the fine distinctions of this) are you saying that Cantonese are all a bunch of liars and we should take your word on that? > [@Zebra](#): > > IWhat do you mean the toddler was fine but for the running over? Did you not see the footage of her in the hospitable? Did you not see her unable to sit up when someone tried to sit her up and pull her out of the road? > > I know that Mandarin and Cantonese are the two main versions of the Chinese language. (Don’t get into the fine distinctions of this) are you saying that Cantonese are all a bunch of liars and we should take your word on that? The kid walking looks like real footage. To me, the actual impact, running over, etc looks faked and spliced. You may disagree but that is what it looks like to me. It is also entirely possible that this is some kind of cheap propaganda pumped out by some local government organization in China to call out how bad society has become or an attempt to drive the right behavior via shock value. We have no information that it is the same kid as in the hospital. And that hospital room looks \*incredibly \*fancy by Chinese standards. Another peg on the dubious meter. Most hospital rooms are very basic. I’ve been in a neo natal unit, in a transplant hosptial for foreigners, in regular rooms, in maternity rooms, in foreign clinics, etc. Chinese blogs are _ahem_ very often emotionally based and often wrong on sensationalist cases. Chinese blogs tend to shoot first and ask questions later. I would want to see some better verification than blog-s-sphere. There are still plenty of people in China that believe Japanese raise kittens in big bottles for “kitty in a bottle” pets. That was one on the blogosphere about 9 years ago that I remember clearly. Hong Kong-ese generally speaking are predjudiced against Mainlanders. This has gotten better over the past couple of decades, IMHO, but still evident. I lived in Hong Kong for 5 years total, both in the 1980s and 3 years in the 1990’s with my mainland wife. HK is full of journalism that would make the National Enquirer or World Weekly News look reputable. The journalists on the sensationalist rags or minor TV stations sell viewers big time on how HK is better than China. And China is full of unsubstantiated “news” stories, and its good fodder for their demographic. So, when one sees a sensationalistic piece out of HK news, well lets say that they’ve been wrong a lot more than one would expect. Again I’m not saying that its categorically impossible that this is not faked, but I’m about 99% covinced that it is faked. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/48 "2011-10-17T04:53:22Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > Again I’m not saying that its categorically impossible that this is not faked, but I’m about 99% covinced that it is faked. So - how reputable is China Daily? > **[Hospital offers little hope for girl's survival|Society|chinadaily.com.cn](http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-10/17/content_13909567.htm)** > > A 2-year-old girl who was ignored by passers-by as she lay injured after being run over twice, has been declared brain dead by doctors, who say she could die at any time. ---
**Author:** ![raskolnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e47c2d/32.png) [@raskolnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raskolnik)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/49 "2011-10-17T06:10:09Z")
It’s official [http://pic.people.com.cn/GB/15912038.html](http://pic.people.com.cn/GB/15912038.html) That’s the official party paper PEOPLE’S DAILY Seems the government is tired of this &^#% ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/50 "2011-10-17T10:11:12Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > I think it’s worth keeping in mind that the economic incentives for producing stuff like this are different in other countries. In the US, the best a fake news story could hope to be would be a briefly viral YouTube video, so nobody really has any good reason to produce realistic fake stuff like this. > > But in other places, news stations will pay good money for airable sensationalist footage, without worrying too much about veracity as much as how well it makes for good TV. There are a lot of incentives to produce convincing fake news. There are often fake “outrage” news stories- such as the now pretty much debunked story that street vendors were stuffing dumplings with cardboard processed to resemble pork. > > If this were the US, I’d ask “why the heck would anyone fake something like that,” but in China, not so much. Um, what? Doesn’t Fox News pay well in the US? Does it not check their sources at all? Is there not quite some money to be made selling fake videos to the news stations, if you tailor them right, esp. if you get invited as expert on this topic? ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/51 "2011-10-17T10:12:33Z")
> [@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). How is this different from US law where people are afraid to give first aid to injured people because they might be sued for malpractice? ---
**Author:** ![raskolnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e47c2d/32.png) [@raskolnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raskolnik)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/52 "2011-10-17T10:19:50Z")
The odds of an organ of the CCP publishing anything that may make China look bad,and is also not true would seem pretty close to 0. -The attacking of Chinese society as a whole for it’s lack of ‘moral fiber’ has been a trademark of Hu Jintao practice ie harmonious society. Should a government cadre have been involved this would be hushed up, but the street acting like Li Gang is another story. Know your place rabble! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/53 "2011-10-17T10:57:28Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > How is this different from US law where people are afraid to give first aid to injured people because they might be sued for malpractice? We’re in the pit now, so I can finally tell you this. You don’t know shit about America, so stop commenting on it. Especially when your purpose is obviously to tell us how much America sucks. FYI, there is no such worry, because of [Good Samaritan Laws](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law#United_States). If you weren’t always jumping at the chance to say how bad the U.S. is, you’d know that, since they are mentioned all the time here, while the other is only mentioned as a historical relic. Oh, and, no, Fox News doesn’t pay for fake editorials. They have no reason to do so. They may pay for footage, but they aren’t going to put on something that will be immediately contradicted unless they can blame the “lamestream media” for trying to silence them. They have to, at the very least, convince their conservative viewers that what they say is true. The fact that you equate Fox News with tabloid journalism is another example of how you don’t know what you think you know about the U.S. But at least that’s understandable confusion. Trying to call us hypocrites is not. ---
**Author:** ![raskolnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e47c2d/32.png) [@raskolnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raskolnik)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/54 "2011-10-17T11:14:16Z")
Is everything in the world turning into a “right-wing left wing fox news NPR debate?” ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/55 "2011-10-17T11:36:15Z")
If China is “one fucked-up society” how come this is getting such airplay in that country and so many shocked comments from Chinese people? If this were normal behavior it seems to me that it wouldn’t rate the raising of a single Chinese eyebrow. The truth is of course that shocking things happen everywhere, including the US, and this isn’t an indictment of a whole nation, just a few passers-by. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/56 "2011-10-17T12:06:25Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > FYI, there is no such worry, because of [Good Samaritan Laws](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law#United_States). If you weren’t always jumping at the chance to say how bad the U.S. is, you’d know that, since they are mentioned all the time here, while the other is only mentioned as a historical relic. From your own quote > [@](#): > > The details of good Samaritan laws/acts in various jurisdictions vary, including who is protected from liability and in what circumstances. > In some jurisdictions, unless a caretaker relationship (such as a parent-child or doctor-patient relationship) exists prior to the illness or injury, or the “good Samaritan” is responsible for the existence of the illness or injury, no person is required to give aid of any sort to a victim. So how am I jumping on the US by quoting historical relics that still apply in some states of the US, just not all? > [@](#): > > Oh, and, no, Fox News doesn’t pay for fake editorials. They have no reason to do so. They may pay for footage, but they aren’t going to put on something that will be immediately contradicted unless they can blame the “lamestream media” for trying to silence them. They have to, at the very least, convince their conservative viewers that what they say is true. So the countless quotes of cases where Fox has blatantly lied are liberal lies, I assume? Or people jumping onto the US again? (Even though it’s American media who proved Fox wrong). > [@](#): > > The fact that you equate Fox News with tabloid journalism is another example of how you don’t know what you think you know about the U.S. But at least that’s understandable confusion. Trying to call us hypocrites is not. I didn’t equate Fox with tabloid journalism, but I also fail to see the big difference it makes: both are sleazy, disreputable sources that aren’t concerned with fact checking so much as with making money with huge quotas, and possibly pushing some agenda. But then, most of US media is concerned with quotas first, truth second in the last decades. It’s lamented often on this board how you can’t trust anything in normal media because there is no fact-checking. It’s lamented by journalists themselves in editorials that for every real reporter doing fact-checking, there are a dozen or more “pundits” writing editorials, since that pays more and gives more respect, leading to only the freshest and greenest and lowest-paid reporters doing real reporting. And yes, I do call a country where in many states/ juridsictions, Good Samaritian laws don’t apply and therefore, people don’t want to help, condemning a whole different country based on the (possible) actions of a few hundred people, hypocritical. In addition, in the US, once somebody called 911 and the ambulance arrived, in most jurisdictions time would now spent trying to find the parents to give consent before the hospital could act; and once the parents were found and even if they gave consent, they would also need to have insurance, otherwise the hospital would stabilize the toddler and then kick them out. (And isn’t this one of the reasons, besides religion, that many people refuse necessary treatment in the US, because they can’t afford the bill? But the US is so much more civilised, if just people would stop being mean to it!) ---
**Author:** ![raskolnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e47c2d/32.png) [@raskolnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raskolnik)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/57 "2011-10-17T12:12:49Z")
I’ve pretty much never seen a woman beaten in the street in the US, but have seen it in Russia, Korea, and China. Seems like the Yanks may have a few advantages. ---
**Author:** ![by-tor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/by-tor/32/266_2.png) [@by-tor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/by-tor)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/58 "2011-10-17T14:25:27Z")
The story has been picked up by the BBC: > **[Home - BBC News](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news)** > > Visit BBC News for up-to-the-minute news, breaking news, video, audio and feature stories. BBC News provides trusted World and UK news as well as local and regional perspectives. Also entertainment, business, science, technology and health news. ---
**Author:** ![raskolnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e47c2d/32.png) [@raskolnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raskolnik)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/59 "2011-10-17T14:33:13Z")
This is going to be the (ignore the various objections refered to earlier) the Kitty Genovese of the PRC. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782/60 "2011-10-17T14:47:25Z")
> [@raskolnik](#): > > I’ve pretty much never seen a woman beaten in the street in the US, but have seen it in Russia, Korea, and China. Seems like the Yanks may have a few advantages. I fail to see the advantage to beating the women indoors instead of in the streets compared to not beating the women by empowering them. Unless you mean that because guns are legal, women in the US can kill their attackers? They just will spend double the time in prison than men who beat their women to death, but I guess that’s the price they pay for being uppity. Or are you going to claim that it’s “US-bashing” that a significant part of the men in US believes that women should submit to men like in the Bible, that in many states in the US, rape in marriage is not illegal or recognized, that in many states women can’t throw out the men during marital altercations (The safe haven law that states that regardless of who owns the house/flat, if the woman is assaulted, the police can forbid the man to come there for the next 24/48 hours; this greatly reduces beatings and solves the problem that many women endure beatings because they have no other place to go). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-is-one-f-cked-up-society/599782.md?page=4)