From KDS:
[2008] December 24, around 11:20am, in Fuzhou City on Guangda Road in front of the Duoli building materials market, a middle-aged woman was lay next to a crosswalk, her lips opening and closing, about to die. Before her eyes were only her mother, her mother-in-law, and her other loved ones’ faint silohettes. Her child has not yet gotten there.
Just 20 minutes earlier, while riding her electrical moped passing by the front of the building materials market, a cement mixing truck with the license plate “闽A21397″ suddenly made a right turn and collided with her, running her over, dragging her 5-6 meters. The rescue nurse present said her vertebrae had been crushed, her body broken into two pieces, and she cannot remain alive for long. However, lying underneath the vehicle’s wheel, having lost much blood, she already cannot hear this. She is only 35-years-old, and has one child. She did not want to go, and stayed alive for close to an hour.
Her work unit recently opened a new branch, and told her to go register. After completing the procedures, it was almost 11, she alone rode that out-dated electrical moped, planning to go through Guangda Road. Her home was just across the street, and she would have been home in just another 2-3 minutes.
Eyewitness Ms. Zhang was standing across the street at the time, and after turning her head hearing the commotion, the traffic accident had already happened. Ms. Zhang dialed 120 [emergency telephone number for ambulance] and then ran to the concrete mixing truck, the horrific scene before her made her tremble: A middle-aged female’s bottom half was still underneath the vehicle’s wheel, and she was struggling to get the mobile phone from her pocket, wanting to call her husband.
Ms. Zhang said, at the time, she looked at her watch, it was 11:02. “She said a few sentences, but she was almost without voice. I said, let me call for you. She said, thank you then.” Ms. Zhang helped her dial, told her husband, “your wife has been in a traffic accident, on Guangda Road, hurry and come.” “I did not dare say more.” While Ms. Zhang recounted these things to the reporter, she could not stop herself from crying. “At the time, her lips still had the color of blood. I asked her if there was anything else she wanted to say,” Ms. Zhang continued, “and her expression was still alert, but she was unable to speak, only mumbling ‘her very stuffed, body very hot’.”
Just two minutes later, her lips became deathly pale. Only after the traffic police had the concrete mixing truck driver reverse a little did her body be revealed. 11:10am, her mother-in-law arrived, and afterwards, her loved ones arrived one by one. A male wearing a blue jacket was so desperate he became numb. He was the woman’s husband.
Loved ones surrounded her, saying things. A person who could not bear it cried aloud but was immediately pulled aside. The victim was about to depart, do not add more grief to the atmosphere for her. Probably thinking it was too cold lying on the road, her mother-in-law took off her satchel and wanted to place it underneath her head. A person brought a pillow, but the husband still thought it was too cold, so he bent his arm and placed it beneath her head. The doctors and nurses were also busy, and outside the police was carefully directing traffic, no one wanting to go disturb this soon-to-be parted family.
The mother-in-law said she was holding on because she also has a child, and under the care of the doctors and nurses, she kept holding on. Her face was becoming more and more pale until it was sallow and waxen. Struggling to stay alive, she has already held on for 50 minutes. The man squatted beside her, pressing his ear beside her mouth, “what did you say? what did you say?” Nobody heard what she actually said, and after a few more minutes, the man finally lifted his head, his face covered with tears. The loved ones nearby, mother-in-law, mother, and sisters-in-law, all began crying.
As she was being covered with a white sheet, the man and another elder knelt beside her, continuously caressing her eyelashes, her forehead, and her hair. The time was 12:00 noon. In just a few hours, it would have been everyone’s happy Christmas Eve. But for this family, it was weeping hoarse beside a concrete mixing truck.
Comments from Mop:
“Her home was just across the street, and she would have been home in just another 2-3 minutes.”
Home…
In life’s itinerary, there are no announcements of the end,
Tomorrow’s path, no one knows.
Cherish, cherish, and cherish again…
Sigh…
This is love, love is great.
Once again I feel a mother’s greatness.
Rest in peace!
My eyes are all wet.
Tears all over my face…
I pray that there will be no more human tragedies…
Life is great…but also that fragile…
A human tragedy, yet another concrete mixing truck. I am especially disgusted by these large vehicles driving both hurriedly and recklessly.
May you have a happy Spring Festival there alone~
[to the woman, referring to her being alone in heaven]
May God bless you, hope you will be happy in heaven.
TMD what kind of driving was that…
Rest in peace…
To those drivers who drive such large vehicles, I beg you to please drive a little slower and pay attention to pedestrians when driving in busy commercial areas. Yet another human life, yet another mother-less child!!!
Sigh~~~
No matter who it is, I think in one’s final moments, everyone wants to see their loved ones one more time! Rest in peace…
Comments from KDS:
A football truck again~~
I do not understand why these uncivilized vehicles are not regulated.
[The back of a concrete mixing truck looks like the American football.]
LZ, do not post these kinds of topics again in the future. As a big man, my eyes are all red from reading this…
A vehicle driven by a “hard disk person“, uncivilized, it would be right to crash into and kill the driver’s wife.
So dreadful…I also want to cry.
Only after becoming a father can you understand just how great a mother’s love is…really!
Must cherish every day, every person before us.
I cannot stop my tears…
If it was a child underneath the car, for who would the child hold onto life for over an hour? This is something worth reflecting upon. Parents will always have their child in their hearts, but what about the child?
No matter what this person’s life was like before, just this person’s love towards her family will let her enter heaven.
Why did the report having to be so moving…dammit…
What a shame! I almost cried out loud! It is almost the new year!
I logged on just to cry, also mourning for my uncle who died in a car accident on December 17.
See Also:
- Chongqing Woman Dragged To Death By Porsche For Car Key
- Young Schoolgirl Beaten, Thrown To Her Death By Teacher
- School Starts in Shanghai, 4 Students Commit Suicide
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Spoiled Child Slaps & Chokes Mother In Public For Toy 
Chinese Truck Runs Over Man On Scooter 
Mother Chops Off 8-Year-Old Son’s Hands, Throws In Toilet 
Truck Drivers Use Horns To Wish China Happy Birthday 
Truck Driver Repeatedly Blocks Police Car 
I cried….
So touched….
Dear mother, I love you!
May you rest in peace for eternity poor lady…
I’m not sure if you should post such graphic content on our site. It made me cry…
A lot…
:(
Yeah, very moving, seeing a woman drenched in her blood and torn apart surrounded by a bunch of low-lifes, who have nothing better to do, than watching a woman slowly snuff it to fulfill their sensational needs. And among the journalists there was probably a competition going on, seeing who gets the goriest shot.
Of course the cops won’t do anything about it. I mean, what’s the point? It’s just an accident and the people have a right to see that, correct? They’re probably busy themselves trying to get a look on the chick’s half dead body. You don’t see that every day, right?
To be honest, I shed tears, too. However not about the tragedy of a woman getting killed by some nongmin-truckdriver, who obviously is an advocate of ‘Traffic-Darwinism’ (survival of the guy with biggest car), but about the irreverence and lack of respect of the bystanders and other people involved. They were not at scene, because they had pity for that poor woman, but because they wanted to satisfy their own curiosity; i.e. they wanted to see gore and blood.
And then there’re the media. The mass media in China is restricted and regulated in every way imaginable, but obviously there aren’t rules, that protect human dignity.
They writing this heart-warming story about a mother struggling to survive, not wanting to part her beloved ones just to fill their columns. Geez, how pathetic is that!? Well okay, that’s what the mob wants to hear, and it apparently works: sobbing and crying everywhere!
But to what end? Imo, it’s not the task of the media to emotionalize and write tragic stories, but to report facts! They should focus on why such tragedies are bound to happen so frequently, discussing the flaws in the system (i.e. people completely ignoring the rules of traffic and having absolutely no awareness of danger whatsoever!) and how such accidents can be prevented. But that would grossly reduce the viewer/ reader quota…
I forgot to add one thing: Where the fuck are the paramedics? Aren’t we supposed to save a life here? 50-60 minutes? And no paramedics? Let’s just her go, this is faith and very sad… I mean, even If you end up cut in half somewhere, people will still try to CPR you somehow… Am I being just too naive here ?
I second Gao.
FYI, this is not the whole journalist report by Strait Metropolitan. Read the full one here (Chinese):
http://news.ifeng.com/photo/society/200812/1229_1400_944486.shtml
The selected is only the first part. The second part is journalist’s investigation of the accident. After its publication, the reporter wrote another article questioning the terrible traffic safety of the whole city and who’s responsible for the accident. The link is (Chinese):
http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2008-12-30/024014955608s.shtml
About the paramedics: there were doctors and nurses on the spot rescuing but I doubt there were much they could do when someone’s half body is off and vertebrae crushed. The victim was supposed to die immediately but struggled for an hour to see her relatives for the last time. However I’m not sure b/c I’m not an expert and I don’t know what equipments they have on the ambulance.
Any paramedic can tell what to do in such situation?
It’s good that she was at least able to say goodbye, though it’s very sad.
I just prayed for blessings and peace for her and her family. I know what it’s like to lose your mother tragically…
i thought this was an internet post, not the media?
TMD this stupid driver is just a result of the substandard traffic laws and re-enforcement by the authorities. Not enough traffic police, not enough traffic tickets given out, numerous drivers running red lights, pedestrians don’t pay attention and flirt with death, so this shit happens. Who can you blame?
But rest in peace. She’s in a better place.
That’s what you get for riding one of those stupid electric bicycles.
People on these things absolutely ignore traffic laws, red lights, etc, and just fly right through like they have the total right of way.
I see accidents caused by these electric bike fools everyday.
Being on an electric bicycle does not make you superhuman! Slow down! Look where you are going! Do not fly through red lights as though everyone must yield to you!
Anyone who has spent anytime in Beijing has seen these fools, weaving in and out of the bicycle lane on their whims. No shoulder checking, no caution, and no helmets.
Maybe this will cause at least SOME PEOPLE to start using some common sense.
I have noticed one thing here in China, ” Chinese people are fuckin’ careless about others… especially the illiterate ones.”
Right now an entire reflex of neurons has risen into my body….. huh!
And a question for some who said ” may she rest in peace” So to whom you are saying, her body or her soul? If her soul, then you must be religious, so do you know what soul is??? Anybody…. knows the history of souls?
@loopylawaii
It’s ridiculous to single out one type of driver as more reckless and irresponsible than another. Doesn’t matter what they drive, most people here just do not pay attention at all. It somehow works most of the time, as traffic becomes one sort of big unconscious mind with all the parts working together, somehow knowing what each other is doing.
I remember seeing a guy on his bicycle (not electric), with a kid on the back, come bolting out of a alley on to a major street without even so much as a glance in either direction to see what was happening.
I also remember seeing a guy in a car pull out from a perpendicular street right in front of a speeding bus, and to do it he crossed a lane with another car heading towards him and less than 20 meters away.
I could keep telling you stories until my fingers bleed, about people in a wide variety of different vehicles acting like idiots. Very few people here seem to understand just how dangerous moving vehicles are.
When will the authorities start to look into regulating these trucks and drivers ? How many more lifes is going to be lost before some one do something !! Perhaps maybe the next time it should be the wife and or children of some high level officials before something gets done !!! The officials concern should be sent to jail together with the truck driver for neglecting his / her duty.
So investigate before imparting blames. My heart goes to the mother, but she might be the one who was negligent or contributorily negligent in this accident. Just eveyone knows that every time an accident occurs, bad law is the last thing in the world to be responsible.
Most of my life I’ve lived in The UK and for a few years in Japan. In all that time I have not known anyone or known of anyone who knows anyone close who was killed in a traffic accident. In 5 years of living in China I know of 6 deaths on the road to family members of friends or close friends of friends.
@ Fuller
‘I could keep telling you stories until my fingers bleed’, yes me too.
Once crossing the road near Gou Mao intersection I saw a woman step into the road about 50 metres upstream from one of those carefully planned nest of bus stops. Needless to say she was looking down stream and obviously hadn’t bothered to check what might be coming with the flow of traffic. Smack, straight under the front of a bus. Tragic as it was, was I found really tragic was the bus driver getting out of his cab head in hands and then kneeling next to the mangled woman weeping and shaking his head in disbelief and shock. That poor guy has to live with that for the rest of his life and he was, to my mind, in no way to blame at all.
A second instance, when luckily no-one was hurt, took place at an intersection in the early hours of the morning when I was riding home on my motorbike. The lights turned red and I stopped in the outside lane, waiting to make a right turn. I noticed lights in my mirror approaching very fast in the middle lane next to me and seconds later a cement truck thundered past me at speed and straight through the red lights leaving a fog of dust and exhaust behind. A taxi coming the other way and through the green lights almost skidded to a 90º stop in order to avoid being hit. The taxi had at least 5 people in it.
This kind of behaviour has always baffled me. When discussed with friends the consensus is usually lack of education about road behaviour and motor vehicles and massive urbanisation being a relatively new aspect of life in China. But does anyone really need training to appreciate that traffic flows in a certain way and being hit by 20+ tonnes of moving steel is going to do serious damage? Or that if you hit someone with your 40 tonne truck at speed you’ve almost certainly taken their life?
Is there some other reason? Is it that everyone is just so wrapped up in their own agenda that they simply do not care to register the dangers around them?
To me the worst and most puzzling example was when living in Guangzhou some years ago I continually saw father, mother and child all on one small motorbike. Father and mother (seemingly aware of some safety requirements) wearing crash helmets and the child perched on the back without and form of protection at all — and that in a country with a one child policy.
What if anything goes on in these minds?
As an aside, a foreign acquaintance of mine once hit a pedestrian who stepped out in front of his motor bike (BJ sidecar) and broke her leg. He got off to comfort her and soon a crowd appeared which would have prevented him from leaving the scene had he wished to — and it did cross his mind as he didn’t have a license and his bike registration had expired. It seem like an eternity of waiting before the police and ambulance arrived and he was then taken (sweating and shaking) aside by the police to be questioned.
After about 5 minutes he was actually thanked and told he was free to go. They didn’t once ask to see his license or documents but seemed more concerned with what had happened and the girl. Eventually he was told basically that the girl he had hit was a migrant worker with no permission to be in Beijing in the first place and a record of petty crime in her home town, so in effect he’d done them a favour by placing her in their hands, so to speak.
Oh China.
@ Someone
Oh, for Christ’s sake, you know perfectly well there’d be people stopping to look and reporters taking pictures in any country on earth. Welcome to being a human; although Chinese people do love to 看热闹 I really don’t think you can blame this one on China. If you’re American, you know there’s always traffic issues with car crashes because everyone wants to slow down so they can have a look as they drive by; I’m sure there are comparable situations in almost every other country…
And as for the traffic issues and media responsibility…this is a post someone made on the internet, not a People’s Daily article (as I understand it, anyway). Even if it is a news article, it’s the media’s responsibility to report what happens, not to be the moral police or Driver’s Ed. Do you really think people would start driving more safely because some newspaper article told them to? I highly doubt it.
People in China will start driving more safely when police start enforcing traffic laws and getting a driver’s license becomes less of a joke. If American police stopped enforcing traffic laws and started selling drivers licenses they way they do in China, my guess is that within a decade or so American roads would look just like the roads here. At the end of the day, there are always going to be selfish people who just want to get where they’re going and don’t care who is in the way; those people aren’t going to be stopped by some chastising newspaper article. They’re only going to stop after they get pulled over by the cops a few times and realize that it’s easier to just obey the laws and not have to pay fines, etc.
Sorry, I meant “@ Gao Bowen”
@Charlie
It was not just ’someone’, it was ME you commented on. :)
I didn’t blame anything on China. You got me wrong there. I was merely pointing out the fact, that there’s a lack of ethics here. When there’s anything extraordinary to see, there’ll always be spectators craving for blood, not matter where it happens. I agree. Therefore, I’m not ranting at chinese people gaping, but I’m disgusted with PEOPLE in general having no respect towards victims of an accident. Here it happend to happen in China. So your comparing argument is obsolete.
The only thing, which seems to be country specific is, that the police failed to isolate the victim protecting its right for dignity and privacy. Maybe those last two concepts are ideas of western moral and I’m just to indoctrinated by Christian thought to think otherwise, but I just cannot imagine relatives wanting to have their beloved ones be gawped at by a pack of blood slavering freaks.
I don’t know, where this article originated, but it doesn’t really matter. If you watch local TV, there are tons of similar stories on the news. Best example was the Wenchuan earthquake a couple of month back. Regardless of the fact, that this tragedy was used for the sole purpose of manipulating the general audience, in order to create a stronger sense of national consciousness (in _some_ way similar to 9/11), the whole press coverage exhausted itself in depicting mangled bodies, making be feel watching some cheap horror flick.
With the state in total control of the mass media, shouldn’t it be possible to add a touch of moral sensitivity?
Yeah, I know, in the West nothing is holy for the media, everything goes, but that’s not the point. China’s state media have a unique, albeit ethically questionable, opportunity to correct the ‘flaws’ of a ‘free’ press.
I bet, some of my statements are gonna make feelings run high. Have fun, boys!
@ Gao Bowen:
I think you have to acknowledge that your first comment came off far stronger in singling out “the Chinese” than you mitigate in your second comment. While I empathize with your feelings, I feel you missed a few details in the article about the bystanders having at least some modicum of respect for the dying:
While people were still around watching, I think they did keep their distance, and at least in one reported instance, people were sensitive enough to usher a crying bystander away so her bawling wouldn’t negatively affect the dying mother’s last moments. If you look at the first picture, it seems the crowd was all a distance away from the victim, truck, family, and ambulance crew. It reads to me that they knew she didn’t have much time, and they did what they could to afford her and her family their remaining moments together.
Westerners love remarking about the crowds that seemingly gather around tragedies in China. To a degree, the criticism that people congregate to rubberneck and gawk is true, but the sheer amount of people in China compared to most other places does exaggerate that impression. In the above article, the witness Ms. Zhang immediately called 120 and rushed over to help in any way she could. I think that’s admirable. Furthermore, I suspect a lot of Westerners with the same Christian sensibilities you have would find it absolutely atrocious and objectionable if the surrounding Chinese just went on with their business, ignoring the heart-rending crushed and dying woman in her final moments.
My point is to not assume they’re all there to satisfy some morbid curiosity. Imagine, if you will, that they’re there because they possess a very human emotion known as empathy, stuck there and shocked by the tragedy before their eyes, identifying with just how sad this is, reminded of their own mortality, and reminded in the rawest way to cherish their own loved ones. This crowd wasn’t there to jeer or laugh, not a few of them cried. Sure, they may have been drawn there by the initial crowd, but how many humans do you know wouldn’t be locked in their place after finding out why there is a crowd, perhaps hoping in their heart, wishing, praying that this woman can see her child, that this woman and her surrounding loved ones can say to each other their last words?
Don’t always assume the worst of people, especially in situations like these. As for the media, I think you’re assuming the worst about how the media conducted itself in this incident. Moreover, the media often has human interest stories and I wouldn’t categorically assert that “human interest stories” are “flaws” of the “free” press.
loopylaowai… you are a fuckin prick.
That is a very sad story… I couldn’t read all of it.
I’d like to say though that I’d have read more if you had less pictures. Good writing. Bad judgment in using the pictures, in my view.
sucked in, should of spoken louder woman, or just hurry up and die,wasting ur hubby’s time like that, such an ungrateful wife, jeeze.
@ Gao Bowen
So which is it? Is it the job of the media “to report facts…focus on why such tragedies are bound to happen so frequently, discussing the flaws in the system …and how such accidents can be prevented” (your first post)?
Or is the job of the media to “add a touch of moral sensitivity” (your second post)?
Because those seem like pretty different goals. It wouldn’t be very sensitive, for example, to put a lecture about unsafe driving in an article about a woman who was killed by a traffic accident…
So I genuinely don’t understand. What would the article you WISH the press had written about this accident say (or not say)?
Bravo, Kai!
Thanks for the good ol’ polarization of the Chinese versus the rest of the world. Where did I in any word ’single out the Chinese’ people specifically characterizing THEM as guilty of ‘morbid curiosity’? Where, I ask you? I merely mentioned chinese media as another bad example of media in general, in spite of possessing the power of control.
“Westerners love remarking…”
Puh-lease, every time I read such unreflected generalizations, besides the fact, that I, as a so-called ‘Westerner’, haven’t even said anything concerning that specific topic, my system of reasoning automatically shuts down.
Having read a couple of your previous posts, I gonna have to ask you, why you’re so desperately trying to make a difference between US and THEM, trying to find solutions to your self-generated problems?
Your moralizing mambo jumbo, in order to vindicate this bifurcation, is testimony to your naïvety.
People are selfish assholes. If you think for a second the majority of the people out there are good-hearted and compassionate individuals, you’re either incredibly naive or incredibly ignorant. It is thereby irrelevant, whether they’re crying in compassion or laughing in malicious pleasure. These are indispensable emotions for the mindless automaton rushing like a lemming to their potential source. So thank you very much for your menciusian lecture on human nature, but I won’t relinquish my hold on my own reality.
One more thing. You said, I assume “the worst about how the media conducted itself in this incident”. Yes, indeed, I do. As do I about every incident the media reports on. They do not cover human interest stories, because they are honestly interested in human affairs, they do cover such stories, because they sell; because the people in charge a capitalist pigs, living off the misery, suffering and grief of common people. It seems to be a win-win-situation. The pigs get their quota and the lemmings, not realizing getting mind-fucked, can indulge themselves in their petty emotions.
’surrounded by a bunch of low-lifes, who have nothing better to do, than watching a woman slowly snuff it to fulfill their sensational needs’
I think in context of the photograph, yes you do mean the Chinese.
‘However not about the tragedy of a woman getting killed by some nongmin-truckdriver, who obviously is an advocate of ‘Traffic-Darwinism’ (survival of the guy with biggest car), but about the irreverence and lack of respect of the bystanders and other people involved’.
Further, you use ‘nongmin’ and ‘Traffic-Darwinism’ (compliments, a brillaint analogy of what goes on in China). In context again, this cannot be read other than to point the finger at the Chinese, specifically in the photograph.
‘The mass media in China is restricted and regulated in every way imaginable, but obviously there aren’t rules, that protect human dignity’
And again in the context of the discussions relating to the photographs, yes you do single out China.
I don’t have any beef with you Gao, but think about it before you cry wolf.
its a shame really, since gao’s the only one who actually said anything intelligent about this post so far…but had to ruin it with snobbery.
“People are selfish assholes. If you think for a second the majority of the people out there are good-hearted and compassionate individuals, you’re either incredibly naive or incredibly ignorant. It is thereby irrelevant, whether they’re crying in compassion or laughing in malicious pleasure. These are indispensable emotions for the mindless automaton rushing like a lemming to their potential source. So thank you very much for your menciusian lecture on human nature, but I won’t relinquish my hold on my own reality.”
This paragraph has lots of large words, but doesn’t actually make any sense at all. Observe:
“People are selfish assholes. If you think for a second the majority of the people out there are good-hearted and compassionate individuals, you’re either incredibly naive or incredibly ignorant. It is thereby irrelevant, whether they’re crying in compassion or laughing in malicious pleasure.”
Why does the so-called “fact” that people are selfish render their emotions irrelevant? If it’s irrelevant whether people are laughing or crying over the dying woman, aren’t you essentially arguing that all sympathy/empathy is ultimately meaningless and ought to be done away with? Because whether or not you believe that at the bottom of people’s hearts sympathy is genuine, that sympathy–even if it’s ultimately faked–can still have a positive impact on others. So why, pray tell, are their emotions irrelevant? You use “thereby” but fail to actually give that assertion any real support.
“These [compassion and pleasure] are indispensable emotions for the mindless automaton rushing like a lemming to their potential source.”
What? How so? Without further explication, this makes no sense. And what the hell do you mean by “potential source”? Whose potential source, the “automatons” or the emotions?
“So thank you very much for your menciusian lecture on human nature, but I won’t relinquish my hold on my own reality.”
It’s “Mencian”. Also, why are you trying to start a flame war here? Kai was perfectly civil; he certainly didn’t come off half as pedantic as you do. Stop tilting at windmills, there are much better sites on the internet for that.
(Note to the lovely folks at ChinaSMACK: I mean there are better places on the internet for people to have stupid flamewars and argue over nothing. ChinaSMACK is one of my favorite sites these days.)
@Charlie
Agreed.
@Charlie
First of all, let me clear up things for you, before I reply to your questions.
A flamewar is per definitionem a hostile exchange of non-constructive arguments.
I may be a bit aggressive in my argumentation, but I have no intention of personally ATTACKING Kai or any other person here. I think, you have to differentiate between ‘attack’ and ‘criticism’. Btw, you’re are the one who nullifies all my statements by calling them indirectly dull, and come down condescending and pedantic correcting some mistake I made in spelling.
If controversial statements are unwanted by the majority of this site, I’ll gladly withdraw my case.
“So which is it? Is it the job of the media “to report facts…focus on why such tragedies are bound to happen so frequently, discussing the flaws in the system …and how such accidents can be prevented” (your first post)?
Or is the job of the media to “add a touch of moral sensitivity” (your second post)?
Because those seem like pretty different goals. It wouldn’t be very sensitive, for example, to put a lecture about unsafe driving in an article about a woman who was killed by a traffic accident…
So I genuinely don’t understand. What would the article you WISH the press had written about this accident say (or not say)?”
With saying ‘add a touch of moral sensitivity’ I was referring to the open depiction of dead bodies in the media in general, which in my opinion is a gross violation of ethics and moral.
So how are these different goals?
…
““People are selfish assholes. If you think for a second the majority of the people out there are good-hearted and compassionate individuals, you’re either incredibly naive or incredibly ignorant. It is thereby irrelevant, whether they’re crying in compassion or laughing in malicious pleasure.”
Why does the so-called “fact” that people are selfish render their emotions irrelevant? If it’s irrelevant whether people are laughing or crying over the dying woman, aren’t you essentially arguing that all sympathy/empathy is ultimately meaningless and ought to be done away with? Because whether or not you believe that at the bottom of people’s hearts sympathy is genuine, that sympathy–even if it’s ultimately faked–can still have a positive impact on others. So why, pray tell, are their emotions irrelevant? You use “thereby” but fail to actually give that assertion any real support.”
“These [compassion and pleasure] are indispensable emotions for the mindless automaton rushing like a lemming to their potential source.”
What? How so? Without further explication, this makes no sense. And what the hell do you mean by “potential source”? Whose potential source, the “automatons” or the emotions?”
Essentially I was saying, that it doesn’t matter, what kind of emotion (joy/ anger/ grief) it is, people are trying to express, they are always drawn to the source of a potential emotion, i.e. the loci, where emotions can be evoked (here: the site of the accident). Clearer?
@okura
So I was referring to those pictures and then generalized my opinion about them. So what? I never said this is China specific and could only happen in China.
Would ‘hillbilly trucker’ be more adequate then? Or do I insult the US in saying so? ‘Nongmin’ is just figure of speech FCS! Replace it by any derogatory term you like! How come everyone is so godamn touchy, when it comes to China and her people?
Concerning my statement about the media, yes, that was obviously China related. But did I ’single out’ the Chinese as nation, making a statement about chinese media? I don’t think so.
Why do foreigners discussing stuff with the Chinese (I know, you’re not Chinese; I’m generalizing again) always have to vindicate themselves to avoid being seen as a China critic (which in Chinese’s eyes ultimately means China basher)?
If I discussed things like that (same situation, another country) with, say, a Greek, there would never be a rant about ’singling out’ the Greeks or whatever.
@ Gao Bowen:
Calm down, calm down. Look:
On one hand you argue that people and the media should accord a certain respect towards the dying, but on the other hand you discard them all as being “selfish assholes.” Which do you want? Why are you so angry if you’re so already so certain and conclusive about human nature?
You also bring up your Christian background to imply a dichotomy between what you, as someone with a Christian background (and arguably by extension, “the West”), consider acceptable public behavior in such incidents and what is evident of the populace here in “this country” [China].
I won’t repeat the others that have already been stated. You can argue that all of your statements should be taken as disparate, and I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt but I’ll highlight one pair of thoughts I felt were connected and came across (whatever your intention) as finger-pointing China:
Emphases mine. Again, you can accuse me of reading too much into it and I’ll accept it if you say so. However, my reaction including “morbid curiosity” and my impression you were implicitly finger-pointing the Chinese despite a few disclaimers can be traced back to these quotes alone, much less the rest of your statements.
Come on, don’t gather your toys and threaten to go home just because people disagree with you or took issue with your comments. This is the nature of public discourse. If you really believe your statements and are secure in your beliefs, I’m sure you’ll be fine defending them, or NOT defending them if you so choose. Up to you.
You have your worldview on humanity. I have mine. While I never thought I was in the “man is inherently good, not evil” camp, I simply disagreed with your characterization of the bystanders and media in this incident. Moreover, while I don’t think my impression that you were singling out China and the Chinese came out of nowhere, again, I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.
Finally, I believe the media can cover human interest stories without disrespecting people’s dignity or privacy. Since you asserted that you felt the media was not respecting these people’s dignity and privacy, I said you were assuming the worst of their conduct in covering this story. Moreover, a human interest story is a human interest story. I never suggested “human interest story” implies that the journalist was genuinely “interested,” I just said what kind of story this article was. Off the top of my head, I believe a human interest story is simply defined as a news story about people that strikes an emotional cord with the viewer/reader.
@Adnan:
I don’t think there’s any country out there which does not have careless drivers. I’m in America, I have a very long commute (I drive 50 miles each way, or about 100 miles per day) and I deal with them constantly.
As for the question about souls, I find it odd that you would react that way to wishing someone well after they’ve been victims of a tragedy. Of course I’m religious, but I have no wish to drag this forum into a religious debate. If I have misread your intent and you truly wish to understand what a soul is, please consult this website. It should answer your question more thoroughly than I can:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14153a.htm
I should note that that website uses a lot of technical religious language that may be hard even for native speakers of English to understand. Feel free to ask me if you want further explanations of any of the unusual terms. “Vegetative activities” for example, have nothing whatsoever to do with vegetables you eat (it refers, instead, to people reduced to a “vegetative state”). In short, they’re saying that you can lose or damage your mind (for example, from brain damage), but the same is not true of your soul.
My countryman once said:
“Difference between Chinese people and western people is: when someone lays in blood on the street in China, bunch of Chinese people will stare at him; when someone lays in blood on the street on the west, people will pass-by”.
It is not quite true, but Chinese loves to stare. Lu Xun wrote about it. From other side, westerns used “not to put their noses” because it “isn’t their problem”, and there is lot of studies about “not my problem” behavior.
IMHO, we all have “voyeurism gene”. Even westerns. We all loves to peep in other peoples life, only westerns doesn’t want to be involved on any circumstances.
Once, my bike was broken. 20 Chinese men stared at me while I was fixing bike. No one offered help. I’m wasn’t angry. I don’t know Chinese, they don’t know Serbian or English.
On US and THEM. I hate stories that includes “us and them”. I already told about my Chinese friend that said to me “But you don’t understand China”. Even Chinese doesn’t understand them and are divided on Shanghaise an other, new riches and other,… But, you cannot avoid it. I’m aware that I always speaks in terms of “us and them”. It is natural. I am western (as much as East European can be) and I talk about “them”, Chinese people. There’s a differences between us. I have perception of “them” which is somewhat similar to other western people. What is bad with “us and them” is use of it. It often used in taunting way, to make artificial and “sterile” barriers to other group of people. To make “us” better.
Differences exists and must be recognized. They can enrich us or to divide us.
On journalists and ethics. Journalists are not known as champions of ethics. Their articles are reflections of their opinions or in way that will boost sale of their newspapers. Also, every story can have multiple sides, layers, views. It is very hard to cover all sides and to write balanced article. This journalist intentionally wrote this article to make readers feel pity. Everything is here: a child, a close home, a new job… Graphic pictures… I’m not sure that this article could go in this form in Europe (except in tabloids). Some of western journalists would say that this article hasn’t been written in ethical way.
Ethics in journalism is very sensitive theme. To deal with it, western media have codex’s and rules, although rules are often broken to follow current policies or to seek profits.
Third, on traffic regulations. Here, in Serbia, we have big problem with traffic. More than 10 000 people dies in traffic accidents. Whole new system must be developed. It is not about fines. It is about education, regulations, signs, etiquette,… I think that electrical mopeds are good thing. If I’m not wrong, they are forbidden in some Chinese cities, as a cause of great number of traffic accidents. But, problem is not in mopeds. Problem is in drivers. They are not educated enough to drive them. On other side, “Traffic-Darwinism” is a fact, judging by stories on this site. Person with bigger vehicle thinks to have more rights than others. There’s even a country song about tinny housewives that drives large SUV!
There’s a story about Danilo Ikodinovic, famous Serbian waterpolo player, one of the best in the world. He had accident while he was going home to his 2 year old daughter and wife (a beautiful and famous singer). 5 minutes from his home. He was in coma and doctors believes that he would never use his right hand again. Sad story.
But…
He left preparations of Serbian waterpolo representation to be with them, cause he missed them. Sad, isn’t it.
He left preparations month before Olympic games, and he didn’t played. Sad.
He left preparations by his demand. Sat on motorbike, drove 230km/h on local road to avoid police and run on car trying to pass tractor. Car was turned on roof.
Some journalists said: “Poor Danilo, poor his family”. Danilo sad: “If I cannot play, I would work with kids”. I doesn’t feel pity for him. I would forbid him to work with kids. He cannot be model to them. He should be sentenced. He had responsibilities to his family, to representation and ,as public figure, to society.
And I’ll contribute for Philip Larkin, seeing as he’s dead. For those who like poetry, enjoy:
Ambulances
Closed like confessionals, they thread
Loud noons of cities, giving back
None of the glances they absorb.
Light glossy grey, arms on a plaque,
They come to rest at any kerb:
All streets in time are visited.
Then children strewn on steps or road,
Or women coming from the shops
Past smells of different dinners, see
A wild white face that overtops
Red stretcher-blankets momently
As it is carried in and stowed,
And sense the solving emptiness
That lies just under all we do,
And for a second get it whole,
So permanent and blank and true.
The fastened doors recede. Poor soul,
They whisper at their own distress;
For borne away in deadened air
May go the sudden shut of loss
Round something nearly at an end,
And what cohered in it across
The years, the unique random blend
Of families and fashions, there
At last begin to loosen. Far
From the exchange of love to lie
Unreachable insided a room
The trafic parts to let go by
Brings closer what is left to come,
And dulls to distance all we are.
(disclaimer: all ‘deep’ content, themes or messages of poem that are or aren’t present in your’s or anyone else’s interpretation of the poem or of the poem’s true form itself (whatever that is), has nothing to do with me, why I posted the poem or what I think of it in relation to ‘this’, your’s, or anyone else’s opinion of this poem in the context of the original posted story or the wider world in general and my, or anyone elses place within it, regardless of nationality etc, etc,) It’s here to be enjoyed ;)
Holy crap, some of you guys are long-winded bastards.
Make your point without writing ten boring paragraphs.
And poem guy? Please don’t do that again, I’m actually embarrassed for you.
Awww. C’mon, you don’t like poetry?
We aren’t too different, you and I. You protest against “long-winded bastards” with casual swear words. Whereas I casually throw a harmless poem into the fray. If people are going to speculate about human nature, they might as well do it through poetry, no? Their views may not be objectively defensible, but at least it’s fun to read, right, right?
@loopylaowai
Just do not read.
I swear, traffic in China is like some kind of underhanded population control measure. If you don’t get killed by it, you’re lucky. Everyone goes every which way, and even if you’re at a crosswalk you better try to mind every direction and only cross in the middle of a crowd (human shields!)
The authorities aren’t going to do anything about it because when people die, there’s still plenty more where that came from. And besides, there’s so much corruption, the government have to deal with shoddy construction that kills entire schools of schoolchildren first, long before they’d deal with traffic that kills relatively few people at a time (and so is easier to ignore).
And like Joe #2 mentioned, there is indeed a lot of crazy traffic in many parts of the world besides China, even in the good old US of A. Of course, I don’t think it’s good to just be all like “oh well, everyone else is doing it, so let the crazy traffic continue”, but that’s likely how the authorities would think.
“Father and mother (seemingly aware of some safety requirements) wearing crash helmets and the child perched on the back without and form of protection at all — and that in a country with a one child policy.
What if anything goes on in these minds?”
Was it a girl-child? Maybe they were trying for a post-natal abortion. That or they couldn’t find a helmet that small.
They should execute bad drivers and leave them by the roadside then execute any familiy members that try to collect the bodies. Infinite human suffering would be spared.
i should execute dave
The mother is great!
I just wish the last minute of that poor woman’s life wasn’t depicted on websites or some asshole broadcasting a running commentary on it.
Its true, in China, people would just come and stare in accidents or whatever shit is happening. Some people are just dumb as a dipstick and won’t even try to help or just move on. They wanna see and talk about it like if its a fucking university seminar.
Give the poor woman some privacy and just move on…
1. posting graphic images of the dying woman is an insult to the family, shame on those who posted the images, shame on those who took the pictures.
2. Chinese people should wake up. I’ve seen so many accidents in my 6
years here and the callous, cold behavior of Chinese to each other is shocking. Nobody lifts a finger to help each other, most of the time, they just come to look at the victim and laugh at them. You are animals, learn some respect and civility.
3. Chinese people should learn how to drive. Not just the cyclists with no brakes on their bikes, not just the scooter riders who turn without signaling or looking, not just the cement truck drivers who divest all responsibility and assume that because they have the bigger vehicle everyone will scatter out of the way, all you Chinese people should learn how to drive properly. You weave constantly in traffic and do not know how to drive in reverse or parallel park. Ask your government to introduce a proper licensing program based on Western standards. For the Love of God!
4. My deepest sympathies to the family for your loss, this is a senseless tragedy and should never have happened
Just saw this over at EastSouthWestNorth: A Matter Of Taste Or Tastelessness.
Warning: More media coverage that includes photographs of a traffic accident, probably not suitable for all of the “privacy and dignity” folk here. Also, definitely not suitable for the squeamish.
However, I think Soong has made a good case for the more tabloidy nature of Hong Kong media with ESWN over time. Just thought it was an interesting parallel to this post.
@ Stephen Larose:
Re: #2.
Are you serious? Most of the time they just come and laugh at people who are seriously injured or dying?
poem guy hahahahaha, i cant stop laughing
also some of you guys really need to get a life, why so many long-winded it was weekend and new year holiday, please find yourself a girl or sth
Oh what a constructive and wholly appropriate response.
Care to add anything to the discussion regarding the story?
Thought not.
You are not Chinese by any chance?
Tragically, yes, I’m totally serious. 6 years, laughing at the victims. No joke. I could recount to you a few stories of mine, but they make me too freaking angry and I’m already racist enough as it is.