Going for a Bus Ride, to give it up or not.

[danb]

Recently I have seen several stories on the net about conflicts between the old and the young. About young people failing to give up their seats to the elderly. Here is the link to to one such story:

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-29348387

 

In the US this is not an issue but in China why is it? Is because of:

 

1. Filial Piety, slipping away from the young people?

2. 4-2-1 and the one child policy?

3. Spoiled Princes and Princesses?

3. Disillusionment of the the old Red Guard?

4. Stressed caused by the pursuit Confucianism scholarship ( being the best, getting high exam scores, winning those highly sought out government jobs).

5. or just a plain old case of Happy Tired Feet?

 

In the states this is probably not an issue. For one reason I don't think public transportation is used that as much in the US as in China. Perhaps if a bus ticket for transportation was only 12 or 24 cents that would change. Also these days I don't our youth have much respect for the elderly.

 

The list of possibilities that I came up. Funny and absurd or viable explanations? I thought the Red Guard on a bit far fetched. Which one do you all think is the reason for the elderly acting up on the bus? Danb

[danb]

I am a little disappointed that I got no replies. Maybe it is not that interesting of an issue to most. It was to me. Like I mentioned in the post above the Red Guard one was a bit far fetched. How old should those Reds be now? What were they about 15-19 in 1970. And that would make them about 65 or 70 today. I wonder how those guys really look at things today and of their participation in the C. Revolution. It wonder how the Chinese children of today see their elders. Were those kids spoiled rotten? Given everything they wanted. Being the only child one were think that may have been a possibility. I wonder how filial piety is taught if there is only one child in the family. Does the family put the old ones on a pedestal or does that only child get that spot. Does he grow up thinking that the world revolves around him or herself? And that he deserves that seat on that bus. I wonder. Danb

[Randy W]

To try to explain behaviors of a few in terms of generational forces would seem to be a futile task. Personally, I simply make a choice when I get on the bus - if it looks like there's going to be a crowd, I stand, even if it there are still a few seats available. If it looks like not many are riding on that particular round, then I'll sit down and stay there, unless someone gets on who seems to have a need. But I usually stay one way or the other for the duration.

 

For me personally, the worst aspect of life in China would be raising a child. I get to see that first hand with our grandson, but this is someone else's child, so I don't concern myself about his upbringing as much as I would want to if it were my own. In fact, I think that with children, living in the U.S. would have been a far better choice. Chenxi lives, at various times during the week, with four different mothers, making it real easy to just plop him down in front of the TV or stimulate his imagination with what I think of as junky toys or cell phone games. Don't get me wrong - he seems like a healthy kid with a good outlook, but comparing him with an American kid at the same age - because of chopsticks (and mothers who like to feed him food off of their own plates), it took him a MUCH longer time to learn to feed himself. Because of having to learn Chinese characters, there are STILL no books in sight for him to read himself - although his mothers do read to him in Chinese, and I'll occasionally read to him in English (or watch an English-language movie with him - Monsters, Inc. is one of his favorites).

 

Still, his day care is first rate, even by American standards and is (I think) providing an excellent pre-school education.

 

It seems to me that in EITHER culture, mothers foster a level of dependence that I'm not comfortable with. That would just be more difficult to deal with in China.

[Mick]

Dan, I didn't see your post until this morning. Sorry for the delayed response. In terms of the reasons for the phenomenon you describe, I think it is difficult to attribute one cause that will cover all cases. Often, it just boils down to the fact that some folks are a-holes to the core and other people are seen not as human, but as objects that are existing solely to meet their needs. I lived in China for five years or so and saw the beginnings of this change begin to manifest itself. When I first arrived in China (1997-98), this sort of refusal was virtually unheard of. Yet by the time I left (2003), it was happening more often. I witnessed several episodes on busses that were truly despicable. I think one of the main factors may indeed by the little emporer syndrome that manifested due to the one child policy. When you take that reality and couple it with how competitive Chinese society has become it is easy to see how people grow to be increasingly self-absorbed and socially retarded. Add to it that the society is changing at such a rapid pace and it become even more clear that young people see the elderly as being from another world and another time. I suspect that this trend will continue to worsen until there is a huge social backlash, and the pendulum will swing in the opposite direction. From a sociological perspective, this is how things seem to work.