Gruesome death a reflection of China’s apathy
Beijing, June 11: A speeding taxi knocks the pedestrian off her feet, sending her hurtling through the air. Dozens of people stand gawking or walk past, as if the young woman sprawled in the busy intersection simply doesn’t exist. A full minute passes, and another speeding vehicle, this time an SUV, tramples the prone woman. Her unconscious body churns under its large wheels like a sack.
After a grainy video of a traffic accident in the city of Zhumadian surfaced on Chinese social media this past week, the initial reaction was one of outrage directed at the more than 40 pedestrians and drivers who passed within meters of the woman, all failing to offer help.
But for many Chinese, the video was something more — a 94-second reminder of their society’s deep rot.
Even as China presents itself outwardly as a prosperous rising power, around kitchen tables and in private WeChat groups, Chinese citizens routinely grumble about a nation that’s gone bankrupt when it comes to two qualities — “suzhi” or “personal character” and “dixian”, literally “bottom line” or a basic, inviolable sense of right and wrong.
Here, is an unmoored country where manufacturers knowingly sell toxic baby formula and fraudulent children’s vaccines. Restaurants cook with recycled “gutter oil” and grocery stores peddle fake eggs, fake fruit, even fake rice.
Many Chinese say they avoid helping people on the street because of stories about extortionists, who seek help from passers-by, feign injuries and demand compensation.
“It’s a problem with the entire country — our moral bottom line has fallen so low,” Tian You, a novelist based in the southeastern city of Shenzhen, said by phone. “If I’m truly honest, I wonder, would I myself have dared to help the woman?”
After the video surfaced this week, garnering more than 5 million views in its first 24 hours before being censored, police were forced to disclose that the accident took place on April 21. The woman, surnamed Ma, died, while the two drivers who hit her were held under investigation, police said.