lack of compassion for the crippled?

[warpedbored]

I think this is a grossly misunderstood cultural issue... we in the west are often wont to applyl morallism to many eastern situations.

 

I think the core principle is multi-faced; partly fear (as has been mentioned) and partly plain humanism; chinese culture does not get involved in other people's personal business. A begger should just find a job and work to better their own life; as the other 1 billion suffer to do. 吃苦 is a lifelong meal for some. Why should you give an easy meal to another while your's is bitter.

 

This goes way back to ancient times; not just Mao... who could care a less for ancient teachings, but where else did any idea 'flower' in him?

 

There is an ancient saying of, "why thank god... thank me", which comes from an old cosmological tale. Very humanistic.

 

Moral of the story is: each person is responsible for their actions.. sounds a bit like western existentialism... just thousands of years earlier.

You bring up some interesting points David. A lot of how we look at it is through the Christian charity mindset which is not a part of traditional Chinese culture. Still the specific case I am referring to, the man had a severe disability, probably MS. There is no way this man can walk or crawl let alone do any kind of work. His movements were writhing and scooting. He was having extreme difficulty trying to make it two feet from the gutter to the sidewalk. How would such a person be cared for? I suppose that most Chinese would consider that the family's responsibility. I also surmise that if the family is having difficulty making ends meet they would expect him to contribute by earning what money he can begging. Coming from a culture that not all that long ago was struggling to feed themselves I can see how their focus would me on my family and friends first. I think I am finally beginning to understand this. I wonder if the family of the man would be looked down upon for making him beg?

[Yuanyang]

Speaking of Lack of Compassion ... NFL Player Ticketed While Mother-in-Law Dies

[amberjack1234]

I think that most of the causes of this kind of behavior have pretty well be covered here except for one. Some of these misfortunate souls are literally owned by what the Black Hand. This group of people buy these people from their families, orphanages and some are even kidnapped and burned, crippled, maimed and mutilated then put on the streets to beg for money. I have even read that some of them make more money that the people that work for a living. Now I would like to say that this most certainly is not every case but this scenario certainly is prevalent in the begging business.

 

I have read that if you get up early enough in the morning one can spot these kind of operations by the Black Hand people bring these people out and placing these misfortunate people in the best spots to make the most money. I have also read that they are watched all day for their protection to see that nothing happens to them. At night time they are collected and taken to a place where they are provided food and shelter.

 

This certainly does not address the lack of compassion for accident victims. I think that there are Chinese people that would and do help just not that many. Partly I think it¡¯s because they don¡¯t know how to help. My wife¡¯s mother is a surgeon but she can¡¯t even put a band aid on my finger.

 

Then there is the, you don¡¯t get involved for fear of being accused of causing the accident and being sued for your life savings. Example: The old lady that fell down at the bus stop and a person helped her get up and the old lady accused this person of pushing her down. Sued him in court and won a very large settlement. This was highly publicized in China Daily.

 

A friend of mine owns a motor cycle shop in Beijing and he was hit up for a similar scam. The perpetrators sued him in court for an accident they had on a motorcycle that they had bought from him. He had some friend in the police department and they found out that the couple was hitting him up to pay for an expensive wedding for themselves. He was acquitted in court.

 

Larry

[griz326]

The movie Slumdog Millionaire shows that "black hand" tactics are not uniquely Chinese.

[Christopher]

Speaking of Lack of Compassion ... NFL Player Ticketed While Mother-in-Law Dies

There was another guy whose mother died in the car of respiratory disease sitting in the back seat behind him, because some deputy couldn't wait to write the ticket until the guy had delivered her to the emergency room. All for an expired plate.

 

Hell of a way to go, sitting in the back seat of your sons car choking your life out, while he gets a ticket written. No excuses, medical emergencies trump expired plates every time.

[amberjack1234]

Speaking of Lack of Compassion ... NFL Player Ticketed While Mother-in-Law Dies

There was another guy whose mother died in the car of respiratory disease sitting in the back seat behind him, because some deputy couldn't wait to write the ticket until the guy had delivered her to the emergency room. All for an expired plate.

 

Hell of a way to go, sitting in the back seat of your sons car choking your life out, while he gets a ticket written. No excuses, medical emergencies trump expired plates every time.

Severe action should have been taken against that law officer. Has this story been followed up?

 

Then there was the American that was in Beijing that was having a heart attack and the cab driver took the long route to the hospital (20 additional minutes) so that he could a bigger fair. The American later died. He had a english/Chinese speaking person with him that finally concluded what was going on and told the cab driver if he didn't get the man to the hospital quickly he was going to kick his ass.

 

Larry

[amberjack1234]

The movie Slumdog Millionaire shows that "black hand" tactics are not uniquely Chinese.

Of that I am very certain but I only concern myself with America and China as they are mostly the only countries that I take any interest in. I am sorry I haven't seen the movie yet.

 

Larry

Edited March 31, 2009 by amberjack1234 (see edit history)

[weiaijiayou]

I hope none our Chinese members take offense but one of the things I've noticed on all of my trips to Chinese is what seemed to me to be a lack of compassion for severely crippled. On one of my excursions to downtown Nanning while riding the bus I saw a severely crippled man who likely has MS or some similar disability writhing in the street trying to make it back on the sidewalk. His shirt was coming off and it was not all that warm that day. I asked my wife, "why doesn't anyone help this man?". She told me "this is China, no same America." Later when we were returning from our trip to the countryside we came upon a motorcycle accident where the rider had hit a pole. I assume he was dead because a tarp had been pulled up over his head. A woman was on her knees sobbing uncontrollably as pedestrians just walked on by paying little attention. This image still haunts me. It almost seems that if you are not a friend or family member no one cares.

 

One other likely cause of the failure to help in some of these cases is diffusion of responsibility. When there's lots of people around -- i.e., lots of potential helpers -- any one of those people is much less likely to do anything. This phenomenon has been shown in studies using, e.g., college students in the united states, and there have been several documented cases in which dozens of us citizens watched or heard as someone was murdered and not a single person called the police or helped. I imagine this is likely part of the reason why you (OP) did nothing to help the crippled man. Instead, you said to yourself, "why isn't anyone helping this guy?" It's a human tendency, not a chinese one.

 

Second, I have seen many cases in northern parts of china where people were helped by complete strangers. I can't generalize to southern china, though, as this sometimes seems like a completely different country with its own social norms. In one case in Beijing, my fiancee (I was not there at the time) fainted, and many people came to try to help her walk to a place where she could sit down. On subways, when blind or handicapped people walk through requesting money, I see many people helping them out.

[Yuanyang]

Speaking of Lack of Compassion ... NFL Player Ticketed While Mother-in-Law Dies

There was another guy whose mother died in the car of respiratory disease sitting in the back seat behind him, because some deputy couldn't wait to write the ticket until the guy had delivered her to the emergency room. All for an expired plate.

 

Hell of a way to go, sitting in the back seat of your sons car choking your life out, while he gets a ticket written. No excuses, medical emergencies trump expired plates every time.

Severe action should have been taken against that law officer. Has this story been followed up?

 

Then there was the American that was in Beijing that was having a heart attack and the cab driver took the long route to the hospital (20 additional minutes) so that he could a bigger fair. The American later died. He had a english/Chinese speaking person with him that finally concluded what was going on and told the cab driver if he didn't get the man to the hospital quickly he was going to kick his ass.

 

Larry

The Dallas cop quit today. Good riddance!