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What’s your secret spot in Beijing?
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Bus Mentality
Riding a bus in China is reasonably convenient and inexpensive, compared to other countries. They are frequent and cheap. This luxury comes with a price, however. Chinese do not understand the concept of Lines: although they are knowledgeable about the act of showing such manners. With a bus, there is a rapid change in mentality. “It’s about me; I have to get on the bus first and fast”. So begins the process of pushing, jostling others and cutting in line without regard to any one else around them. It makes no difference weather the bus is already full, which it most usually is or at a bus station where there is a waiting line to board an empty bus. Forget it. Just think of a swarming horde of ants heading for the same door at the same time and you get the idea. Then add on the barking bus driver ordering his passengers to push themselves further back as he boards yet another bus stop of passengers. Under these conditions, it is sometimes not even necessary to hold onto a stirrup or bar – the crowd will hold you in place as the driver jerks the bus around or slams on the brakes as he makes his way though an entanglement of traffic.
This is not to say that the Chinese are void of manners on a bus. To the contrary. Whenever an elderly or feeble person boards the bus, there is usually someone who will quickly give up his or her seat. (For the most part, there are very few buses that are equipped with disability lifts to aid disabled or wheelchair bound passengers). For the rest of the passengers, boarding a bus or moving to the door to exit is all an exercise in playing Chinese football – push and shove and don’t look back.
Can they change such behavior even when they are aware of what manners are? No. Grandparents, parents are seen hurling their children through a crowed bus stop, so naturally this is what they grow up believing how to deal with a bus. When the topic of such poor manners is broached with a Chinese, their standard reply is that “there are so many people”. A poor excuse for thinking. Look at the bus. It is already crowed so where will you sit after you have run over everyone else?
The concept of creative thinking is outside the Chinese mentality. Ideas such as complaining to authorities, boycotting bus companies or organizing campaigns for change in bus service are all met with feelings that they will reap nothing but personal reprisal from some authority somewhere. So the service remains the way it is and the people quietly complain to themselves but continue to believe they will find a seat through the use of poor manners.
This is not to say that the Chinese are void of manners on a bus. To the contrary. Whenever an elderly or feeble person boards the bus, there is usually someone who will quickly give up his or her seat. (For the most part, there are very few buses that are equipped with disability lifts to aid disabled or wheelchair bound passengers). For the rest of the passengers, boarding a bus or moving to the door to exit is all an exercise in playing Chinese football – push and shove and don’t look back.
Can they change such behavior even when they are aware of what manners are? No. Grandparents, parents are seen hurling their children through a crowed bus stop, so naturally this is what they grow up believing how to deal with a bus. When the topic of such poor manners is broached with a Chinese, their standard reply is that “there are so many people”. A poor excuse for thinking. Look at the bus. It is already crowed so where will you sit after you have run over everyone else?
The concept of creative thinking is outside the Chinese mentality. Ideas such as complaining to authorities, boycotting bus companies or organizing campaigns for change in bus service are all met with feelings that they will reap nothing but personal reprisal from some authority somewhere. So the service remains the way it is and the people quietly complain to themselves but continue to believe they will find a seat through the use of poor manners.
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