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mindseye
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A Yankee living in Shanghai
Apr 1999
time: 13:36
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Young Chinese guys do indeed take their computer games very seriously, the local favorite here is Counter Strike. I was surprised by the ages of the guys involved in the story, computer gaming is biggest among boys in their late teens and early twenties. (Girls, incidentally, go in more for chatting via MSN).
Chinese sometimes go ballistic if they've been too brazenly cheated. Since the courts offer little recourse, you occasionally see public brawls break out over business transactions. About two months ago I witnessed a full-on chair-hurling brouhaha at a cellphone store. The month before that I saw a man shouting and struggling to drag another out of a cab.
In other public violence situations, romance seems to be involved. I watched what was apparently a married couple get into a shoving-shouting-slapping match on a crowded public bus. Another time a crying man ran by me, chased by his apparent wife. After she caught him, they rolled on the ground fighting. These incidents are not uncommon, even in Shanghai.
Since guns are tightly controlled, Chinese tend to favor knives when they really loose it, with poison and explosives also figuring high on the list of preferred tools of retribution. Just a few months ago some knife-wielding nut broke into a school and killed a number of kids.
The photo below was from a recent report in a Wenxue city newspaper story illustrating a big problem with the privatization of Chinese hospitals: emergency room staffs that refuse to lift a finger of assistance until they see some cash. If you can't put down a sizeable deposit, many hospitals will refuse to help you. In this situation, the father didn't have enough for a deposit, and the girl had to wait two hours with a knife protruding from her back (see photo) before the father persuaded the police to force the hospital to help. The public reaction is indignance and anger, but it's difficult to attack such a problem. An English language translation of the article is at EastSouthWestNorth , an excellent and thoughtful blog, by the way.
Anyway, this thread made me think of the photo for a different reason. I don't want to press the "face" thing as far as some do, but, when suffering a catastrophic face loss, some Chinese really do go berserk and exact crazy vengeances, such as dynamiting the entire apartment building of their estranged girlfriend, throwing acid in someone's face, or poisoning someone's entire family.
In this case the attack came when the girl informed her boyfriend that she wanted to break up. This struck me as one of these face-loss madness cases, which are always particularly ugly when they involve male-on-female violence. 
Usually these outbursts are related to women or money, but it looks like magic sword ownership can do it as well. 
 Attachment: knifed.jpg
This has been downloaded 107 time(s).
Last edited by mindseye on 31-03-2005 at 20:51
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Atahualpa
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Hawthrone
Mar 1999
time: 06:36
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quote:
Originally posted by mindseye
Young Chinese guys do indeed take their computer games very seriously, the local favorite here is Counter Strike. I was surprised by the ages of the guys involved in the story, computer gaming is biggest among boys in their late teens and early twenties. (Girls, incidentally, go in more for chatting via MSN).
Chinese sometimes go ballistic if they've been too brazenly cheated. Since the courts offer little recourse, you occasionally see public brawls break out over business transactions. About two months ago I witnessed a full-on chair-hurling brouhaha at a cellphone store. The month before that I saw a man shouting and struggling to drag another out of a cab.
In other public violence situations, romance seems to be involved. I watched what was apparently a married couple get into a shoving-shouting-slapping match on a crowded public bus. Another time a crying man ran by me, chased by his apparent wife. After she caught him, they rolled on the ground fighting. These incidents are not uncommon, even in Shanghai.
Since guns are tightly controlled, Chinese tend to favor knives when they really loose it, with poison and explosives also figuring high on the list of preferred tools of retribution. Just a few months ago some knife-wielding nut broke into a school and killed a number of kids.
The photo below was from a recent report in a Wenxue city newspaper story illustrating a big problem with the privatization of Chinese hospitals: emergency room staffs that refuse to lift a finger of assistance until they see some cash. If you can't put down a sizeable deposit, many hospitals will refuse to help you. In this situation, the father didn't have enough for a deposit, and the girl had to wait two hours with a knife protruding from her back (see photo) before the father persuaded the police to force the hospital to help. The public reaction is indignance and anger, but it's difficult to attack such a problem. An English language translation of the article is at EastSouthWestNorth , an excellent and thoughtful blog, by the way.
Anyway, this thread made me think of the photo for a different reason. I don't want to press the "face" thing as far as some do, but, when suffering a catastrophic face loss, some Chinese really do go berserk and exact crazy vengeances, such as dynamiting the entire apartment building of their estranged girlfriend, throwing acid in someone's face, or poisoning someone's entire family.
In this case the attack came when the girl informed her boyfriend that she wanted to break up. This struck me as one of these face-loss madness cases, which are always particularly ugly when they involve male-on-female violence.
Usually these outbursts are related to women or money, but it looks like magic sword ownership can do it as well. |
Well men going made at break-ups is not really special to china and that they attack their once beloved ones is neither unique to china.
Ofc I guess it's not so common in Europe, but it happens often enough.
The hospitals are state run or private run?
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31-03-2005 08:15
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