those young showed no mercy because this old woman was a beggar, what she wants is money, not a seat.

September 11, 2006 @ 6:15 pm | Comment

yeah, I’m actually pretty sure i recognize her as a beggar from metro line 2.

September 11, 2006 @ 7:49 pm | Comment

Don’t know about Shanghai but on the No 13 bus in BJ the locals are usually very considerate towards old people [and blind/disabled passengers], and will not only offer them a seat but help them on and off the bus too.

September 11, 2006 @ 9:45 pm | Comment

In Beijing I see people give up their seats to the elderly all the time. And not just to the elderly — I saw one father was holding his sleeping son on his arm, and someone else gave up his seat for him.

Some of those comments are idiotic though. How can you judge a whole country on the basis of these photographs? I’ve been to Japan twice, and both times on the Tokyo subway I’ve seen the elderly left standing — but it would be ridiculous for me to generalize to the whole of Japan.

And you can just read the original Chinese site to see that Chinese are not happy with these photos either.

September 11, 2006 @ 10:12 pm | Comment

Who was judging the whole country based on those photos?

September 12, 2006 @ 1:46 am | Comment

I’m talking about the comments on Bingfeng’s site. “shame on chinese [sic], shame on shanghai.” And the poster below that: “Shame for my identity, because i am chinese too.”

Not to mention the obvious implications in the other remarks — that something like this couldn’t occur in other countries.

September 12, 2006 @ 2:17 am | Comment

I stated forthrightly in BF’s comments that I saw similar things in Hong Kong, but never in Taiwan. I’m sure you’d see it in many countries.

September 12, 2006 @ 2:45 am | Comment

I ride the Shanghai subway almost every day, often four times a day. I can tell you quite confidently that the woman is a BEGGAR.

It’s highly unusual for a woman that age and fragility to ride the subway alone, and her attire and hair style are clear tip-offs. She’s leaning against the pole as the train accellerates, in the next minute she’ll be pan-handling her way down the car. This is quite a common sight.

In Shanghai, in the subway and on buses (I ride them, too), somebody will almost always give up their seat for an old person, mother with baby, pregnant woman, and often even for a child under ten. Occasionally you see situations to the contrary, but I can tell you from years of first-hand observation, it’s pretty unusual for a person in one of those categories to be left standing on the subway or on a bus in Shanghai.

September 12, 2006 @ 9:53 am | Comment

Slim is spot on. The women is clearly a beggar. Which of course brings up another issue: How do people deal with beggars in China? It’s a persistent and omnipresent fact of life in the Chinese city. How do others handle this?

September 12, 2006 @ 11:10 am | Comment

And yes, I meant to say “woman,” that’s the problem with hanging in Bordeaux…酒后写字=bad idea.

September 12, 2006 @ 11:51 am | Comment

Well, she’s definitely a beggar, in my opinion. But that doesn’t mean that I’ve seen people give up their seats for the elderly or pregnant.
Just twenty minutes ago I watched an amazingly pregnant lady stand for an entire fifteen-minute subway ride.

September 12, 2006 @ 7:54 pm | Comment

I saw it in Taiwan, in Japan, in many countries.

I saw it in PRC mainland as well, a lot more some years ago, but much less now.

September 12, 2006 @ 9:38 pm | Comment