On Jan. 28, when a foreign man passed out and collapsed at a subway station in the Chinese capital, enthusiastic local passengers immediately flocked around to help him. A boy removed his jacket and draped it over the man to keep him warm while a young woman called for emergency care. A middle-aged lady applied her knowledge of Chinese medicine by massaging his acupuncture points. The state-run Economic Daily reported that emergency response staff had arrived within five minutes.
All the attentiveness caught the attention of Chinese. Last August, the contrast could not be greater when an elderly Chinese man lost balance and fell when riding a scooter in Zhengzhou, northern China. No one lifted a finger to help him, even though he lay in ankle-deep water. According to the state-run Henan Television Network, the man eventually died where he lay of “unknown causes.”
