Voices
Apologies, tips on auto attack
(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-04 08:08
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Imagine the pedestrian is your mother
I feel really sorry about what the Chinese car driver did to you and your girlfriend. Sorry. I am a Chinese person who has returned from France. My true feeling is that only when you have a opportunity to compare China with other countries do you notice what's wrong with our nation.
During the three years I spent in France, the most impressive phenomenon was I hardly ever needed to worry about whether there would be a car driving fast when I was crossing the zebra line. Drivers would always wait for me until they saw I managed to cross the road. It is such a shame to see Chinese drivers' behavior. It is hard to see any cars slowing down in front of crosswalks. Maybe they are just decoration!
I am 35 and still capable of crossing the road. However, if there was a pregnant lady, senior citizen or a child crossing the road, who can imagine the horrible consequences of a speeding driver? I wonder if China has issued any rules about the speed drivers should observe when approaching crosswalks. This is a modern city and this is a busy world. Everybody is in a hurry to go home and do business.
But dear Chinese drivers, please think about what would happen if one day your pregnant wife, child or beloved parent is trying to cross the road in front of you, instead of strangers. You might want drivers to slow down. Our culture always teaches us to respect senior people. What is wrong with our nation's drivers?
Maybe the fierce competition forces us to forget our virtues. Changing behavior on the road is not only an individual event, it is related to our whole nation's morality. I am so proud of my country, especially the self-giving virtue toward our elderly parents. But I think it is not enough to only show our respect and love to our families and not to others. We should show it to the whole society because we live in the same world and it will only become more beautiful with our joint efforts.
Tina
You should have demanded your lawyer
I agree. Next time, just act as if you were hit by the car. That was the thud they heard. The more dramatic, the better. Screaming in pain, thrashing about, demanding to call the embassy and your foreign lawyer when the cops arrive. It could be a great show for the Chinese who are watching and maybe even hit the TV news. But just remember, you are not going to change much by random acts of violence in China. It just re-enforces a stereotype that Chinese have about the more violent nature of foreigners. Most Chinese drivers are not violent, just like the people as a whole. Since the Song Dynasty, public displays of violence have been considered uncivilized. Very few times, if ever, in more than 18 years here, have I seen people come to blows over traffic incidents - either in the old days when bikes collided, or nowadays with cars. So even though you are angry, you should learn how to express it differently until you return to your own country where violence may be a more acceptable method of social control. Peace!
Yutou
If only London parks were so noisy!
Originally born in Beijing myself, one of the highlights of coming back to Beijing on holiday to visit my birthplace is to go to the city's parks to listen to the delightful music that old Beijingers make. In London, where I currently live, parks are places where people are segregated from each other physically and emotionally. They are lonely places. This is why I love the parks in Beijing. It is an absolute joy to be able to hear the choirs sing old songs that remind me of my childhood, play traditional instruments with such passion that it is infectious to those passing by and they stop to join in the singing.
I find more tranquility in listening to beautiful the erhu being played skillfully at the top of the Jingshan Park pagoda than I can find in the silence of Hyde Park in London. And I wholeheartedly support communities of people getting together and doing something they enjoy. This is the way of life for old people in Beijing, and we should not take that away from them. I only hope such things can exist here in the UK. Instead, old people are usually forgotten, ignored and neglected socially from society. I hope this legislation does not go ahead. It will be a real shame for another part of the Old Beijing culture to disappear.
Amanda
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