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发帖数: 25262 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 NewYork 讨论区 】
发信人: auo (aeiou), 信区: NewYork
标 题: New York Times -- 女童被碾事件 zz
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Thu Oct 20 11:58:18 2011, 美东)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/world/asia/toddlers-accident-
Bystanders’ Neglect of Injured Toddler Sets Off Soul-Searching on Web Sites
in China
By MICHAEL WINES
BEIJING — Last Thursday, a van navigating the narrow streets of a hardware
market in Foshan, in the southern province of Guangdong, struck and ran over
a 2-year-old girl. The driver paused, then drove away. A surveillance
camera showed that the toddler lay grievously injured for seven minutes,
ignored by at least 18 passers-by, while a second vehicle ran over the child
and drove on. A 57-year-old rag collector finally went to her aid.
The next day an apparently suicidal woman jumped into a lake in Hangzhou, a
city southwest of Shanghai, and began flailing helplessly. A woman widely
reported to be an American threw off her coat, swam the 65 feet to the
drowning woman and expertly hauled her to shore. And then, seeing she was
safe, the rescuer left without giving her name.
Neither episode is necessarily representative: many Chinese do help those in
dire straits, and, obviously, Americans do not always come to the rescue.
But thousands of microbloggers in China have used the juxtaposition of
callousness and heroism to fuel a wrenching debate over whether people in
their country lack compassion and, if so, why.
It is the sort of national conversation, increasingly common now, that did
not exist before in a land where the printed press and broadcast media
largely remain controlled by a Communist Party more interested in directing
public opinion than in reflecting on the national mood. “What kind of
nation is this?” asked one microblogger who called himself Patton Yu. “It
doesn’t matter if an individual’s nature is good or bad, it’s the system
that has made us deteriorate.”
Said one commentator about the Hangzhou rescue: “Yesterday Obama had a beer
with out-of-work construction workers. Today, I see a story about an
American tourist jumping into the water to save someone. I finally realized
why America is such a strong country and will continue to be one.”
By Tuesday, more than 9.3 million people had posted comments on the toddler
’s accident on Sina’s Weibo, the leading microblog, or Tencent Holdings’
QQ service. Chinese reports on Monday quoted doctors as saying that if the
child survived, she was likely to remain in a vegetative state for the
remainder of her life. Far fewer commented on the Hangzhou rescue — in the
scores of thousands — but those who did raised the same ethical concerns
about going — or not going — to the aid of a fellow Chinese.
In an unscientific online survey conducted by the Web site ifeng.com — an
arm of the independent Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television — some 170,000
respondents, who voted on their own initiative, judged by a wide margin that
the toddler’s case was proof that the Chinese people’s morals and mutual
trust were eroding under the pressures of modern society.
Yet the question of compassion in Chinese society is not a new one. In 1894,
an American missionary, Arthur H. Smith, wrote an influential book, “
Chinese Characteristics,” in which a chapter, “The Absence of Sympathy,”
raised similar questions.
“Unwillingness to give help to others, unless there is some special reason
for doing so, is a trait that runs through Chinese social relations in
multifold manifestations,” he wrote.
Mr. Smith offered only anecdotes to back his beliefs. But some current
observers in China say his views carry an element of truth, albeit for
different reasons.
More than a few blame the state of Chinese law, which they contend is too
subject to judges’ whims and hidden influences, for making people afraid to
help their neighbors.
Most cite the widely publicized case of Peng Yu, a Nanjing resident who in
2006 stopped to help a 65-year-old woman who had fallen, only to be accused
by the woman of causing her fall. A court ruled for the woman, using the
logic that Mr. Peng would never have assisted her had he not been
responsible for the fall in the first place. The decision angered many
Chinese, but it also may have made them more reluctant to act in others’
behalf.
Unlike some Western nations, China has no “good Samaritan” laws that
protect people who render emergency aid from prosecution.
Some also cite what they say is a skewed legal code that actively
discourages good Samaritans. News accounts of the Foshan case quoted one
driver who hit the toddler as saying, “If she is dead, I may pay only about
20,000 yuan,” or about $2,135. “But if she is injured, it may cost me
hundreds of thousands of yuan.”
While the account could not be independently verified, tapes of the driver’
s phone call to a journalist are widespread on the Web. (Chinese news
reports say that the drivers of both vehicles that struck the child have
been arrested, but offered no details.)
Dai Qing, a Beijing journalist and social activist, said the cases of the
toddler and the near drowning raised two issues: “The first one is that
China’s law has proved again and again that it cannot protect justice. The
second issue is a vacuum of beliefs.”
She added: “All the traditional values of Chinese society were thrown out
the window to make way for Mao and the rest of the party leadership. But
that died long ago, and there was nothing to replace it except a
materialistic hunger.”
In truth, everyone has empathy for his fellow citizens, said Lynn Hunt, a U.
C.L.A. historian whose 2007 book, “Inventing Human Rights: A History,”
charts the West’s development of the concept. But whereas a Westerner might
stress an individual’s ability to change the world with one good deed, the
Chinese worldview might center more on the duty to protect family members
and close friends.
Pu Zhiqiang, a Beijing lawyer frequently involved in civil rights cases,
recited the tale of a neighbor who recently fell on a concrete floor and
whose pleas for help were ignored by bystanders.
“The law is supposed to be the bottom line of a society,” he said. “
Anything above that line is not about the law. Above the bottom line, China
does not have any guideline for social behavior. There is no religion or
faith. There are no role models.”
That is one theory. But many Chinese clearly do care: just as Americans were
stirred to national outrage in 1964 after news reports (since disputed)
said that dozens of New Yorkers ignored the cries of a young woman, Kitty
Genovese, who was being stabbed to death, Chinese microblogs are filled with
outrage over the toddler’s fate.
“We do not want to be Chinese bystanders,” wrote one commentator who
called himself Zuoyunwangyadong. “Who you are makes who China is; how you
are makes how China is. If you are bright, then China is not in the dark;
but if you are indifferent, then China will be.”
Edy Yin and Mia Li contributed research. |
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