A father and daughter were riding the subway.
They got on at Xinzhuang, the starting station. There were not many passengers, but as soon as the doors opened, everyone still swarmed in impatiently to grab seats.
The father and daughter were talking. The daughter, who was in junior high, was having trouble with a composition assignment. The teacher wanted them to write by observing things around them. The daughter said that every day was just going to school, coming home, eating, doing homework, and sleeping—what was there to write about?
The father thought to himself that she did have a point; he couldn't come up with any idea right away either.
While he was mulling it over, the subway arrived at the second stop. The passengers on the platform charged into the carriage with Olympic spirit, heading straight for the empty seats.
The father said to his daughter, the topic for your writing is right in front of you.
“Writing about grabbing seats?” the daughter asked.
“Exactly!” “What is there to write about? It's like this every day.”
It wasn't like this every day in the past.
The father said that Lu Xun once wrote an essay about what he saw while riding a train. Lu Xun said the train was about to leave, but a group of passengers were still bowing and making polite gestures, each yielding to the other, none willing to sit first. As a result, once the train started, “five or six people fell over in an instant.” At the time, Lu Xun disliked the Chinese people's pedantry and cumbersome formalities, feeling they were out of step with the rapid development of modern civilization, so he wrote an article to mock them. If Lu Xun were still alive and saw what Chinese people are like today, what would the old gentleman think?
Lu Xun was only 1.58 meters tall, and after suffering from lung disease for many, many years, he weighed less than 70 jin. If he came to ride the train, one light shove and he'd be sent staggering several meters away. The old gentleman had a terrible temper. After climbing back up, unable to outcurse others and unable to beat them in a fight, once he got home and picked up his pen, he would surely use the most venomous language to laugh at, satirize, and mock this ugly national character.
What would Lu Xun write? Back then he opposed the old code of propriety so fiercely; now that things have turned into this, would he still oppose it?
The father spoke fluently to his daughter.
The father said that there was probably nowhere else in the world where people ignored order as much as the Chinese, were this rude and impolite, this barbaric. The father said that we think people in the world look down on us because we're poor. Actually, the main reason Chinese people are looked down on is that we have no manners and lack the most basic moral conduct. The people who speak loudly in public are Chinese; the people who casually throw garbage around are Chinese; the people who love cutting in line are Chinese; and as for grabbing seats, that's even more like everyday fare for Chinese people. Even in elevators, where there are no seats at all, Chinese people still want to be the first to rush ahead.
While the daughter was listening intently to her father scolding the Chinese, a passenger squeezed his way into a bench that already had six people sitting on it. The father pulled his daughter up and gave up the seat.
The father said that when the Germans designed and built subway carriages for China, they based the length and width of the seats on the average height, build, and weight of Chinese people. One bench was made to seat six people, with even a little room to spare, leaving about three inches of space between passengers. On the one hand, this design took heavier people into account; on the other, it also took passengers' dignity into account, giving each person a bit of space so they would not have to press too tightly against one another. But this design, which considered human dignity, became in China precisely something that destroyed human dignity.
The daughter said, some people have had a hard day at work; if seven people can sit there, why not squeeze in a bit?
The father said that if the six people who were already seated would voluntarily squeeze together a little more and make room for one more person to let someone standing sit down, then our society would be far too beautiful. That would show that a spirit of mutual care had already become a widespread social habit. But the situation now is the opposite: the people already seated have no intention of making another space, while the standing person, seeing that little bit of room, feels cheated if he doesn't occupy it, and insists on squeezing in.
You say that after a whole day at work, people are tired and really want to sit down. But the great majority of people in the world have to work for a living, and working abroad is much harder than it is at home—during those eight hours they can't slack off at all. So why don't they have this seat-squeezing phenomenon there? This involves respect for others and respect for oneself. Look at that man who just forced himself in: when he pushed apart the passengers on both sides, was he treating other people with respect? He clearly knew people were rolling their eyes at him, but he pretended not to see it; he didn't care about their contempt. To him, getting a seat for a short while was more practical than avoiding other people's scorn. If you had to describe this phenomenon with one idiom, which one would you use? Without thinking, the daughter said, “shameless and devoid of honor.” That's right. The father continued, sitting in a seat for a while only makes your body comfortable for a moment. For the sake of a moment's bodily comfort, you'd rather rudely violate others and rather be looked down on. This mentality is both low and frightening. If for the sake of one trivial seat someone can be this shameless, what will happen when something involving greater benefit comes along? It's simply hard to imagine. You must never make friends with this kind of person, whether now or in the future—never make friends with this kind of person, understand? The daughter nodded.
The father went on, when the doors opened just now, among the people crazily grabbing seats there were also some young ladies and women dressed fashionably and smartly, and some of them even looked quite nice. Seeing them disregard all poise and grace like that really made me uncomfortable. If I were an alien coming to Earth for the first time and saw a scene like this, I would immediately draw one conclusion: the people in this place only know how to pursue material enjoyment; they understand nothing at all about human elegance, bearing, temperament, or dignity. This is a barbaric people whose civilization has not yet developed. If I told the alien, you're wrong. This land was once called a land of propriety and etiquette in history; it's just that people now don't value such things, thinking they're empty and worthless, not as valuable as a butt, and so they would rather sacrifice them. The alien would surely find it even more unbelievable and would say, then the people in this place must have gone mad. Don't they know that if everyone becomes ugly beyond measure, then no matter how much material wealth they have, what use is it, wouldn't it still be (garbled text) The father and daughter got off when they reached their stop, but the father still wasn't finished.
The father and daughter got off when they reached their stop, but the father still wasn't finished.
He said indignantly that the Chinese people's inferiority complex and morbid self-esteem, this habit of neither respecting others nor respecting themselves, was beaten into them more than a hundred years ago by foreign guns and cannons, but now it is being produced by our own people. Yet we still haven't realized our own problem, and always think that others are deliberately discriminating against us.
The father sighed to his daughter that when he was little, he had still lived through a wonderful period when women did not join in grabbing seats. In those days, it was all men who fought for seats on public transport, while female passengers only watched from the side. Among those watching women, some looked at those rude and barbaric men with contempt, while others waited for their boyfriend or husband to grab a seat for them. Gradually, those contemptuous looks dimmed and went numb, and before anyone knew it, women had begun risking themselves just like men to grab seats too. The first time I saw a woman grab a seat, I was so shocked I just stared, and when I got home I even told it as if it were news: today I saw one really fierce woman grabbing seats just like the men.
The father seemed to be talking to himself as he said that, looking back now, the appearance of that phenomenon had actually already foreshadowed the beginning of an even greater moral collapse.
He leaned close to his daughter's ear and asked: have you ever seen a woman insist on squeezing into a six-person subway seat?
The daughter shook her head and said, how could that be possible? Women at least care a bit about face.
Hmph, said the father, when I was little I also never imagined that women would grab seats just like men, but by your generation, you don't even know that women once had a history of not grabbing seats.
Perhaps realizing that he shouldn't let an innocent child face dark realities too early, the father comforted her again, saying: I hope the present situation is like a stock that plunges after a market crash—now it has already hit bottom, and from here on it should start rising again. When I see how well-mannered and polite you are, it makes me very happy. I believe that when your generation grows up, it will certainly be a generation with great civility and refinement.
Receiving her father's praise and encouragement, the daughter smiled proudly.
They got on at Xinzhuang, the starting station. There were not many passengers, but as soon as the doors opened, everyone still swarmed in impatiently to grab seats.
The father and daughter were talking. The daughter, who was in junior high, was having trouble with a composition assignment. The teacher wanted them to write by observing things around them. The daughter said that every day was just going to school, coming home, eating, doing homework, and sleeping—what was there to write about?
The father thought to himself that she did have a point; he couldn't come up with any idea right away either.
While he was mulling it over, the subway arrived at the second stop. The passengers on the platform charged into the carriage with Olympic spirit, heading straight for the empty seats.
The father said to his daughter, the topic for your writing is right in front of you.
“Writing about grabbing seats?” the daughter asked.
“Exactly!” “What is there to write about? It's like this every day.”
It wasn't like this every day in the past.
The father said that Lu Xun once wrote an essay about what he saw while riding a train. Lu Xun said the train was about to leave, but a group of passengers were still bowing and making polite gestures, each yielding to the other, none willing to sit first. As a result, once the train started, “five or six people fell over in an instant.” At the time, Lu Xun disliked the Chinese people's pedantry and cumbersome formalities, feeling they were out of step with the rapid development of modern civilization, so he wrote an article to mock them. If Lu Xun were still alive and saw what Chinese people are like today, what would the old gentleman think?
Lu Xun was only 1.58 meters tall, and after suffering from lung disease for many, many years, he weighed less than 70 jin. If he came to ride the train, one light shove and he'd be sent staggering several meters away. The old gentleman had a terrible temper. After climbing back up, unable to outcurse others and unable to beat them in a fight, once he got home and picked up his pen, he would surely use the most venomous language to laugh at, satirize, and mock this ugly national character.
What would Lu Xun write? Back then he opposed the old code of propriety so fiercely; now that things have turned into this, would he still oppose it?
The father spoke fluently to his daughter.
The father said that there was probably nowhere else in the world where people ignored order as much as the Chinese, were this rude and impolite, this barbaric. The father said that we think people in the world look down on us because we're poor. Actually, the main reason Chinese people are looked down on is that we have no manners and lack the most basic moral conduct. The people who speak loudly in public are Chinese; the people who casually throw garbage around are Chinese; the people who love cutting in line are Chinese; and as for grabbing seats, that's even more like everyday fare for Chinese people. Even in elevators, where there are no seats at all, Chinese people still want to be the first to rush ahead.
While the daughter was listening intently to her father scolding the Chinese, a passenger squeezed his way into a bench that already had six people sitting on it. The father pulled his daughter up and gave up the seat.
The father said that when the Germans designed and built subway carriages for China, they based the length and width of the seats on the average height, build, and weight of Chinese people. One bench was made to seat six people, with even a little room to spare, leaving about three inches of space between passengers. On the one hand, this design took heavier people into account; on the other, it also took passengers' dignity into account, giving each person a bit of space so they would not have to press too tightly against one another. But this design, which considered human dignity, became in China precisely something that destroyed human dignity.
The daughter said, some people have had a hard day at work; if seven people can sit there, why not squeeze in a bit?
The father said that if the six people who were already seated would voluntarily squeeze together a little more and make room for one more person to let someone standing sit down, then our society would be far too beautiful. That would show that a spirit of mutual care had already become a widespread social habit. But the situation now is the opposite: the people already seated have no intention of making another space, while the standing person, seeing that little bit of room, feels cheated if he doesn't occupy it, and insists on squeezing in.
You say that after a whole day at work, people are tired and really want to sit down. But the great majority of people in the world have to work for a living, and working abroad is much harder than it is at home—during those eight hours they can't slack off at all. So why don't they have this seat-squeezing phenomenon there? This involves respect for others and respect for oneself. Look at that man who just forced himself in: when he pushed apart the passengers on both sides, was he treating other people with respect? He clearly knew people were rolling their eyes at him, but he pretended not to see it; he didn't care about their contempt. To him, getting a seat for a short while was more practical than avoiding other people's scorn. If you had to describe this phenomenon with one idiom, which one would you use? Without thinking, the daughter said, “shameless and devoid of honor.” That's right. The father continued, sitting in a seat for a while only makes your body comfortable for a moment. For the sake of a moment's bodily comfort, you'd rather rudely violate others and rather be looked down on. This mentality is both low and frightening. If for the sake of one trivial seat someone can be this shameless, what will happen when something involving greater benefit comes along? It's simply hard to imagine. You must never make friends with this kind of person, whether now or in the future—never make friends with this kind of person, understand? The daughter nodded.
The father went on, when the doors opened just now, among the people crazily grabbing seats there were also some young ladies and women dressed fashionably and smartly, and some of them even looked quite nice. Seeing them disregard all poise and grace like that really made me uncomfortable. If I were an alien coming to Earth for the first time and saw a scene like this, I would immediately draw one conclusion: the people in this place only know how to pursue material enjoyment; they understand nothing at all about human elegance, bearing, temperament, or dignity. This is a barbaric people whose civilization has not yet developed. If I told the alien, you're wrong. This land was once called a land of propriety and etiquette in history; it's just that people now don't value such things, thinking they're empty and worthless, not as valuable as a butt, and so they would rather sacrifice them. The alien would surely find it even more unbelievable and would say, then the people in this place must have gone mad. Don't they know that if everyone becomes ugly beyond measure, then no matter how much material wealth they have, what use is it, wouldn't it still be (garbled text) The father and daughter got off when they reached their stop, but the father still wasn't finished.
The father and daughter got off when they reached their stop, but the father still wasn't finished.
He said indignantly that the Chinese people's inferiority complex and morbid self-esteem, this habit of neither respecting others nor respecting themselves, was beaten into them more than a hundred years ago by foreign guns and cannons, but now it is being produced by our own people. Yet we still haven't realized our own problem, and always think that others are deliberately discriminating against us.
The father sighed to his daughter that when he was little, he had still lived through a wonderful period when women did not join in grabbing seats. In those days, it was all men who fought for seats on public transport, while female passengers only watched from the side. Among those watching women, some looked at those rude and barbaric men with contempt, while others waited for their boyfriend or husband to grab a seat for them. Gradually, those contemptuous looks dimmed and went numb, and before anyone knew it, women had begun risking themselves just like men to grab seats too. The first time I saw a woman grab a seat, I was so shocked I just stared, and when I got home I even told it as if it were news: today I saw one really fierce woman grabbing seats just like the men.
The father seemed to be talking to himself as he said that, looking back now, the appearance of that phenomenon had actually already foreshadowed the beginning of an even greater moral collapse.
He leaned close to his daughter's ear and asked: have you ever seen a woman insist on squeezing into a six-person subway seat?
The daughter shook her head and said, how could that be possible? Women at least care a bit about face.
Hmph, said the father, when I was little I also never imagined that women would grab seats just like men, but by your generation, you don't even know that women once had a history of not grabbing seats.
Perhaps realizing that he shouldn't let an innocent child face dark realities too early, the father comforted her again, saying: I hope the present situation is like a stock that plunges after a market crash—now it has already hit bottom, and from here on it should start rising again. When I see how well-mannered and polite you are, it makes me very happy. I believe that when your generation grows up, it will certainly be a generation with great civility and refinement.
Receiving her father's praise and encouragement, the daughter smiled proudly.
ko20010214
=================================
大功告成，打个Kiss!
ko20010214@MSN.com
神州优雅Q300C
Intel CeleronM 370处理器 | 256MbDDR内存
40G硬盘 | USB2.0 | IEEE 1394
13.3 ' WXGA 宽屏(16:10) | COMBO光驱
10/100M网卡 | 四合一读卡器
=================================
大功告成，打个Kiss!
ko20010214@MSN.com
神州优雅Q300C
Intel CeleronM 370处理器 | 256MbDDR内存
40G硬盘 | USB2.0 | IEEE 1394
13.3 ' WXGA 宽屏(16:10) | COMBO光驱
10/100M网卡 | 四合一读卡器
