To my recollection, China has NO good samaritan law. If you get involved in someone else's accidental injury, you can be sued and often are (no insurance network). The Communists utterly destroyed Confucianism and left only a vestige of interest in the self.

Next, the atheists will want to get married at St. Paul's cathedral and this case will be precedence...

and someone will want Good Samaritan hospital to do an abortion

etc

Reminds me of Margaret Thatcher's take on the good Samaritan story:
'The Samaritan had to be wealthy in order to help'

He's an axe-wielding hippie Samaritan...DUDE!

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On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: " `Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, `Love your neighbor as yourself.' " "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" In reply Jesus said:

"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. `Look after him,' he said, `and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'

"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

(Luke 10:25-37, NIV)

Little is more satisfying than a well executed "Good Samaritan" move! =oD

No, no, this "non-Samaritan" attitude goes back centuries. It has nothing to do with modern notions of liability.

The Chinese culture is very different from Western culture. "Saving face" isn't a light topic there. Suicide to save the family's honor has been part of their culture, hasn't it? I'm not that well versed in the differences of the various Asian cultures.

Hari kiri is the Japanese equivalent, yeah? The most honorable way to die is to disembowel yourself with no assistance. Most chose to have a trusted relative or friend behead them so they died quickly -- after stabbing themselves in the gut. I learned all this from Hollywood movies and novels -- so maybe it is all a load of crap.

So I"m sticking with my plausible interpretation that it is POSSIBLE that this was orchestrated by the government. Maybe it was just the government taking advantage of a true kind impulse on the part of the taxi driver -- but they do control the media still, yeah?

Cynical. That's me!




In reply to this comment by longde:
damn, you are cynical!!! It's sad that some of the bad infrastructure in china make this story perfectly plausible.

I think this attitude has to do with the ease of liability being assigned to the helper. In this case, there is no way any reasonable person would think the cab driver was responsible for the girl's injury. As opposed to a driver stopping for an injured pedestrian.>> ^bareboards2:

Here's another topic missed by this video --
Remember when that little girl got ran over by a truck and everyone walked by? The only person who went to help was a very poor woman?
Apparently there is a culture in China of NOT helping others. What I read at the time was if you help someone, then you become responsible for them. Which is why only the very poor woman went to help -- she had nothing to lose.
The Chinese government has been attempting to change that culture, in part by changing laws (I think. Didn't I read that somewhere?)
Here is how calloused I have become -- I thought for a moment (and I still sort of do) that this was a set up by the Government. A visual campaign to educate the public. They made the guy a hero, showed how the government has the services to help. The hole in the pavement was too weird, as noted here, people crowded around the hole with zero concern that more would give way. They didn't interview the girl at all, didn't show her face.
It's not a bad thing, to attempt to create a Good Samaritan culture in the face of thousands of years without one. I am just cynical about the feel-goodness of this clip.
Calloused. I am calloused.

damn, you are cynical!!! It's sad that some of the bad infrastructure in china make this story perfectly plausible.

I think this attitude has to do with the ease of liability being assigned to the helper. In this case, there is no way any reasonable person would think the cab driver was responsible for the girl's injury. As opposed to a driver stopping for an injured pedestrian.>> ^bareboards2:

Here's another topic missed by this video --
Remember when that little girl got ran over by a truck and everyone walked by? The only person who went to help was a very poor woman?
Apparently there is a culture in China of NOT helping others. What I read at the time was if you help someone, then you become responsible for them. Which is why only the very poor woman went to help -- she had nothing to lose.
The Chinese government has been attempting to change that culture, in part by changing laws (I think. Didn't I read that somewhere?)
Here is how calloused I have become -- I thought for a moment (and I still sort of do) that this was a set up by the Government. A visual campaign to educate the public. They made the guy a hero, showed how the government has the services to help. The hole in the pavement was too weird, as noted here, people crowded around the hole with zero concern that more would give way. They didn't interview the girl at all, didn't show her face.
It's not a bad thing, to attempt to create a Good Samaritan culture in the face of thousands of years without one. I am just cynical about the feel-goodness of this clip.
Calloused. I am calloused.

Here's another topic missed by this video --

Remember when that little girl got ran over by a truck and everyone walked by? The only person who went to help was a very poor woman?

Apparently there is a culture in China of NOT helping others. What I read at the time was if you help someone, then you become responsible for them. Which is why only the very poor woman went to help -- she had nothing to lose.

The Chinese government has been attempting to change that culture, in part by changing laws (I think. Didn't I read that somewhere?)

Here is how calloused I have become -- I thought for a moment (and I still sort of do) that this was a set up by the Government. A visual campaign to educate the public. They made the guy a hero, showed how the government has the services to help. The hole in the pavement was too weird, as noted here, people crowded around the hole with zero concern that more would give way. They didn't interview the girl at all, didn't show her face.

It's not a bad thing, to attempt to create a Good Samaritan culture in the face of thousands of years without one. I am just cynical about the feel-goodness of this clip.

Calloused. I am calloused.

We're missing something here - a good Samaritan did something heroic. All jokes aside, this man is a hero to this young girl.

Well done Mr. Taxi Driver!

actually, the good samaritan part happened IN taiwan. i have been living in the PRC and ROC for going on 20 years. of course, the roc is a better place to live... there's no question. it's simply that there are blatant similarities that make this particular video heartbreaking for all of us and symptomatic of chinese culture specifically.

there's universal health care (as you would assume), and then there's universal health care (which you might never suspect)... the latter is what taiwan has. i've commented on it here on the sift in the past, so i'll just link you to the the anecdote in question:

http://videosift.com/video/Healthcare-in-the-US-vs-Canada-Europe-and-Asia

>> ^mentality:

It has nothing to do with martial rule. China's repression is notorious, but only aimed at politically sensitive topics.


As a matter of fact, China's repression is notoriously aimed at everything that moves. Never heard of the countless stories of chicken thieves sentenced to death? Or of the citizens petitioning the local government over some company dumping stuff in the river, only to get harassed by the cops, because the CEO has connections with The Party?
In China, the police and Justice are famously ineffective and corrupt. To keep up the appearance of strength, they will come down hard on anyone they catch, regardless of their crime or even their guilt. If you are a regular folk, you have no money or connection so you'd better keep quiet if you don't want trouble. Basically if you're a crook, you have less chance to get in trouble than if you make your voice heard. And once again, I'm not saying this explains this specific story, I'm saying this doesn't make for a sane society.

People have this idea of China still being some sort of Stalinist state. It is not. It's the Wild West over there, and the robber barons are in charge.


>> ^mentality:


It is comforting to be in denial, to blame this on our differences. There must be something wrong with THEM; this could NEVER happen in OUR civilized society.


Mmm, maybe you're reading a bit too much in what I said? To the question "dictature or culture", I pretty much answered "not culture". For all you know, I could be Chinese. And that kind of thing could very well happen in an European society; case in point: the "whatever happens, walk by and pretend NOT to notice ANYTHING" attitude reminded me of Central/Western Europe under Communist rule more than anything else. This has left that kind of stigma there to this day (Russia: non-white baby stabbed in stroller in the middle of the street in broad daylight? Sorry, no witnesses!).

>> ^Diogenes:

i have seen and even experienced the same in taiwan, which is democratic. the culture simply puts less value on a human life and welfare than many westerners do... you can see it in their medical system (universal health care is not what you might think here)


Your story about the good Samaritan getting sued on the spot for helping, I do get (if you were talking about mainland China), because I've seen that kind of story several times in reports covering this news here (to explain why people would not stick their neck out).
However the part about Taiwan, care to back that up? Taiwan has the standard of living of Western Europe, and they in fact do have universal health care, something which cannot be said of the USA for example.

>> ^Yogi:

And the cameraman just sits there and watches! What a fucktard...can we sue him? Is there a way we can stop these horrible Penguin related crimes?! Fucking bastard that cameraman is.


I believe that falls under the "Good Samaritan Law" umbrella.