My Speech about Indifferent Chinese People

This is a video I taped in the starting phase of practicing my speech for the final presentation in yuedu class, so there's a few charming mistakes and hesitation. (You try speaking for ten minutes straight in Chinese!)

Below I've added the speech in writing with a very rough translation.

大家好

Hi, everyone

今天我的题目是跟中国文化有关系的，但是更突出得可能是跟中国社会还应该解决的问题有关系的一个事情。

My topic today is related to Chinese culture, but perhaps even more prominently it's related to a matter connected to problems in China's society that is still in need of being solved.

为了学习汉语，我来到北京。

I came to Beijing in order to study Chinese.

因为是我第一次在中国，我对中国社会和中国人的想法的了解还不多。

Since it was my first time in China, my understanding towards Chinese society and the mentality of Chinese people still wasn't that vast.

不过，不久以后中国人留给我的印象是，中国人爱聊天儿，开玩笑，而且，不怕在路上嚷嚷地吵架。

However, soon the impression that Chinese people left me was that they love to chat, crack jokes, and they're certainly not afraid of having loud arguments in the middle of the street.

我很享受北京的热闹和中国人有时候比较暴躁的性情和脾气。

I truly enjoy the "chaos" of Beijing, and the sometimes bad temper of Chinese people.

中国人很喜欢看热闹儿，相比之下在路上发生的意外会吸引很多人的注意。

Chinese people love to watch the commotion, particulary when something unexpected occurs in the streets, it will really attract a lot of people's attention. 

但是，在路上发生的一种事情却不寻常地会导致中国人的忽视。

However, a certain kind of "commotion" in the streets will strangely enough cause the ignoration of Chinese people.

来到中国两，三个星期以后，我已经遇到了我在中国的最难忘的经验。

Two, three weeks after arriving in China, I already encountered what I consider to be my most memorable "experience" in China.

当然，那时侯对我已经是一个难忘的经验，但是后来我会发现跟中国社会有关系的事情，让那个经验更难忘。

Of course, at that time it already felt like a memorable experience, but what I would discover later about the Chinese society would cause that particulary matter to become even more memorable.

一天，刚下课以后，我跟我的同屋骑自行车回家。

One day, having just finished class, me and my room mate were riding our bikes home.

她在我的前面骑着，但是突然停了。

She was riding in front of me, but suddenly she stopped.

”怎么了? 你把什么在路上丢了吗?”，我莫名其妙地问她。

"What's going on? Did you drop something?" I asked her.

她只说 ”我们应该帮她”。

But she just said "We should help her"

在道路的对面有一个开机动车的女人，刚跌倒了，现在伏在地上。

Across the street a lady driving an electrical moped had just fallen down, and she was now lying on the ground.

但是连一个人也没有管她，虽然在道路有很多人。

But no one seemed to care about her, even tough the street was full of people.

他们都只是匆忙地过去。

They all just busily hurried past.

我们俩赶忙地过了道路为了帮她的时候我在想着，”在这儿这么多人，为什么没有一个人帮她? 为什么需要我们两个外国人才管她?”

When we hurriedly crossed the street to help the lady, I thought to myself "There's so many people here, why is no one helping that woman? Why does it take us two foreigners before she gets any assistance?"

”您怎么样，受伤了吗?” 我们担心地问她。

"How are you, did you get hurt?" We worriedly asked her.

看到她的脸很明显她的心里一惊，因为她差一点不能说话，衣上都是泥土，她的手和腿都蹭破了皮，流着一些血。 

Seeing her face it was clear she was in shock, because she could hardly utter a word, her clothes was covered in dirt, and her hands and legs had bleeding scratchmarks.

好在她伤势不重。

Luckily her injuries wasn't that serious.

我还记得我和我的同屋讨论那个事情，觉得很奇怪因为没有人帮她。 

I still remember discussing that matter with my room mate, thinking that it was very strange that no one helped her.

”也许是一个偶然吧” 我只好这么安慰自己了，但是这个事情让我开始对中国的社会有疑问。 

"It was probably just a coincidence", I had no choice but to console myself in this way, but this matter would cause me to start having doubts about China's society.

我知道不能一概而论，不过说来惭愧，这样的经验不由得让我认为中国人没有人道。

I know I can't generalize,but shamefully I have to say that experiences like this would unavoidably cause me to think that Chinese people didn't have any sympathy.

三个月以后我看了在报纸上写的一篇文章说到一个二岁的女孩子在广东让两辆汽车给撞了。 

Three months later I read an article in the newspaper about a two-year-old girl in Guangdong province that had been run over by two vehicles.

还有个录像表露有好几个人走过她，但是没有一个人帮她。

There was also a video tape showing how so many people walked past her, but no one helped her.

还是小孩子哪！

And she was just a child!

后来我听说大概十年以前在中国有个老女人跌倒了，然后有一个人帮她，那个女人而说是那个帮她的人的不是，所以他必须付很多钱给她。

Later I heard about how approximately ten years ago in China this elderly lady had fallen down and a person helped her, however the old lady wound up blaming the person helping her, so that he was forced to pay her a lot of money.

本来是想帮一个人，结果是遭到嗔怪。

Your original wish was to help a person, but the result is you receive the blame.

好像中国人不愿意帮别人因为怕会受到不利的后果。

It seems like Chinese people are not willing to help other people, in fear of suffering unfavourable consequences.

但是那个在广东的故事，这是小朋友呢，怎么说也应该帮她！

But the story in Guangdong province, that was only a young child, no matter what, someone should have helped her!

看起来中国人宁可有一个小孩子会死，也不会帮急需帮助的人。

It looks like even if a child would die, Chinese people still won't help a person in need.

想到这样的事情让我很痛苦。 

Thinking about this would make me really troubled.

 我知道中国很大，中国人非常多。

I know China is very big and that there's so many Chinese people.

我听说在中国看病难，看病贵，中国人大多数好像也没有医疗保险，可能会让遭到失事的人没命地找个替死鬼。

I've also heard that getting medical care in China is both hard to come by and expensive, and that most Chinese people don't have medical insurance. This might cause people in a pickle to desperately search for a scapegoat to give the blame. 

我知道不是只是中国有这样的问题。

I know it's not just China that has problems like this.

但是，将来中国会越来越强大，还有可能会变成世界上最显要的国家。

But, in the future China will only grow stronger, and also might turn into the most influential and powerful nation in the world.

但是，中国还有很多非常严重的社会问题急需解决.

However, the Chinese society still have a lot of serious problems in great need of being solved.

谢谢

Thank you

Indifferent Chinese People

(Zhou has nothing to do with this rant,

she was just correcting my paper)

Today I met up with my speaking partner, Zhou, getting her to help me take a look at my qualification assignment for the exam we're having back home next semester. It's due in mid January, but I'd like to finish it before I leave China on Sunday.

The topic is "My most memorable experience in China", and I wound up writing about how the state of  today's society in China (in one of many ways) forces Chinese people to indifference.

Serious stuff, but hey, I figured since I'm going home soon anyway, there's no point for them throwing me out for being critical of the Chinese government.

The essay was only supposed to be approximately 

1000 characters, so it was very 

limited how in-depth I could go anyway

Zhou proof reading 

my essay

Since I have to give a final presentation for my yuedu class

on Friday, I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone 

and just perform my essay and show some graphic images

in honor of my beloved Yuedu teacher

One of the first few weeks in China, Lotte and I were riding our bikes home from school one day. 

Right at the spot not too far from our house where you have to cross the train tracks, a lady driving a motor bike had just fallen flat on her face and was laying in the middle of the lane, in the opposite direction of where we were heading. 

We immediately parked our bikes without locking them and rushed across the street. The time it took us to get off our bikes and cross the street at least 20 people had passed her; in trucks, in cars, on motor bikes or riding bisycles – they just past her, making a little turn to get past. 

She was clearly in shock, still sitting in the middle of the street, stressing to find out if her cell phone was alright. She was all dusty and had bruises and bleeding scratch marks full of dirt. We asked her if she was okay and if she needed to go to the hospital. We tried to clean out the scratches on her hands and knees a bit with some water from our bottles, and she was very shaky and wailed from pain in her leg when we helped her get back up, but she assured us she was alright and thanked us profoundly. 

Still no one else had stopped to ask if they could be of any assistance. 

That day I tried to console myself, telling myself that if we hadn’t stopped, surely someone else would have stopped seconds later. Right?

Then a few months later I read in a Norwegian newspaper online about this 2-year-old girl from Guangdong Province, who'd been run over twice, and that nearly 20 people passed by, completely ignoring her.

(Not my photo)

I even watched the very graphic video, but still my first reaction was a kind of amazed denial. 

I'd been feeling for a long time that whenever China was being brought up in Norwegian media, or Western media perhaps, most of the time it seemingly was to point out something worth ridicule or condescending criticism about Chinese people or Chinese culture, either telling about how they would fit 64 small school children into a van in order to drive them to school, or how Chinese people skin dogs alive in order to make winter coats, portraying Chinese people like uneducated, uncivilized savages. 

Yeah, I guess I felt somewhat protective, wanting to defend Chinese people and their ways in a kind of a social anthropological way, I don't know.

Naturally I was appalled by this horrific incident, yet somehow I was still desperate for someone to confirm that Western news seemed to be slightly unfairly critical of China, seemingly only reporting when something was worth critisism or ridicule. 

I was also desperate for some kind of explanation that would justify this despicable inhumanity. 

I discussed it with Lotte. 

But she just simply said, ”this is China, every man for himself” – as we earlier had made jokes about, when talking about jostling in the queue at the cafeteria at school, or on the Beijing subway. 

Surely this couldn’t be used in this way? Could Chinese people really be that apathetic, so indifferent and heartless? 

I felt so frustrated and was eager to ask my teacher about it the next day at school.

(Lol, the teachers at school must be so used to the foreign students considering them to be omniscient beings, constantly bombarding them with questions about issues we come across as foreigners living in China).

Right after a small break in between classes I called for the teacher's attention and said ”Teacher, I have a question which is kind of off-topic, but it is really important for me and my understanding of Chinese culture and society”, and the entire class fell silent. I suddently felt nervous, because I had so much I wanted to say, but so limited ways of expressing myself (in Chinese).

I explained about the story about the 2-year-old, which both she and most of my fellow class mates had heard about, and I was almost pleading for an explanation for how so many people could ignore a fellow human being so desperately in need of help like that.

Her face turned very serious and admitted that this was a problem in China’s society. Then she told us about a story from around ten years ago, where this lady had gotten in an accident, and the good samaritan that helped her to the hospital suddenly got all the blame for the woman's injuries and wound up having to pay a lot of money.  After that the so-called peng yu effect spread, 

resulting in people not being willing to help in fear of themselves getting pulled into trouble.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I thought this was only a myth often directed towards the US and Americans, seemingly being very fond of suing everyone at any possible chance; suing the man giving you life-saving CPR because he unfortunately broke a couple of your ribs performing the deed.

Besides, she was only a baby!

(Off topic - yet on topic, yet a complete other topic at the same time: in the video above, the lady picking up garbage that finally comes to young Yue Yuem's "rescue", pulls her up in a very violent manner, like she wants the kid to somehow stand up straight or something - after being run over be two trucks, that makes me think "first seriously injured, now most definitely paralyzed for life". God, Chinese people need to learn basic first aid.. )

When I rode my bike home from school that day, my heart was filled with sadness. 

Sadness and desperation for a society that could possibly be this apathetic and indifferent. How could someone refrain from helping a little baby in fear of themselves getting in trouble? What has this world come to? I could never live with myself after that if it was me.

Furthermore, what kind of society is this where people take advantage of the goodness of people’s hearts and try to scam them when helping them?

Later I learned that getting medical treatment in China is both hard to come by and expensive. Very few Chinese people have medical insurance, so if they get in an accident they would need to pay for the expenses out of their own pockets. This causes people in a pickle to desperately point out a scapegoat. Can't blame 'em, really.

China will only grow bigger and stronger, being one of the most influential and powerful nations in the world. But, boy, do the Chinese government have their work cut out for them, finding solutions for prominent problems in Chinese society, so that Chinese people won't be forced to put their inner "moral guidelines" aside, in order to survive.