Boy helps injured boy - adults just sit back - social media hot topic

[Wippen (inactive)]

One recent hot topic on social media was the story of a seven-year old boy who seemed to be the only person having the courage to  save another child who had been run over. 
The debate that  subsequently went on was related to the 扶不扶 topc. The latter is the scam in recent years which is typically an older person, a child or a person pretending to be injured. A passer-by will offer to help and then that person will be accused of having pushed the injured person.

 

The story last month about the seven year old boy was about a boy who came to the rescue of another boy who had been hit by a motorist that had also failed to stop. Passser-by  and cars ignored the injured boy, instead choosing to observe the action. The author in this article talks about the lessons we can learn from the fact it is a child that has to take action. The article talks about the moral responsibility. The parallel to the emeperor's new clothes is also  drawn.

 

http://opinion.people.com.cn/n1/2017/1214/c1003-29707595.html

As it was hot on social media, it can serve as a topic for conversation.

 

vocabulary include

站得住脚  hold water (as in argument)

顾虑 apprehension

理直气壮 be in the right

袖手旁观 just sit back and watch (negative)

踌躇 hold back

出手时就出手 strike at the right time

[艾墨本]

First of all, thanks for posting an interesting read. It can be a pain finding stuff like this in Chinese. So many of the articles are bleh.

 

Not sure if there is much room for conversation on this one. Or rather, I can say it's obvious who's in the right and who is in the wrong from my perspective. In my opinion, the problems and solutions suggested in the article are spot on. That said, I don't think anything will change until people trust their legal system. But when prosecution has a >99% win rate and judges are directed more by the party's hand than the constitution, it's hard to trust.

 

As for vocabulary... woah did they like their 成语 and 固定短语 and 俗语!!! Took a lot of dictionary work for this one as it was clear both people wanted to convey a tone of authority and did so with high-level vocabulary. I like your idea of pointing on useful vocabulary, I went the route of anything I had to look-up to better understand what they were saying.

 

"怕被讹" 讹: erroneous/blackmail

轻重缓急: relative importance (I like this one)

虚伪: sham （Edit: imron: in this context it's more 'pretentiousnes')

肇事: to create a disturbance

搅浑: to stir up and muddy

撑腰鼓劲：seems to be a synonym to 撑腰打气？

遏制: to contain

崎岖: bumpy (of paths an roads)

搀扶: to help sb by the arm

[imron]

4 hours ago, 艾墨本 said:

虚伪: sham

This is not 'sham', in this context it's more 'pretentiousness'.

[DavyJonesLocker]

8 hours ago, 艾墨本 said:

That said, I don't think anything will change until people trust their legal system. But when prosecution has a >99% win rate and judges are directed more by the party's hand than the constitution, it's hard to trust.

 

 

Really? Surely that can't be right.

I would have thought that the party would try promote good social behavior and punish those who try to intentionally illicit assistance from strangers on the pretence of  needing help.

[abcdefg]

This fall I was walking down the street one mid-morning not far from my home in Kunming when I saw an elderly lady stumble on the sidewalk and tumble to the ground, landing very hard. I sped up to go help, but before I could reach her, two young women stopped to render aid. One was a hospital nurse on her day off. The other was already on her phone, summoning an ambulance. 

 

Another man and I arrived at about the same time, both of us willing to get involved if necessary. I asked the young woman who was in de facto charge if they needed another pair of hands. Thankfully, she said "No, we've got it under control." I walked on towards my bus stop. 

 

But it made me think how difficult it would be to ask the right questions and do the right things in such a situation if I were first on scene some other time. One could try to stop obvious bleeding or administer CPR if indicated. One could ask, "What happened?" or "Where do you hurt?" But anything much beyond that in the way of an emergency "field" diagnostic or treatment processes could be easily misconstrued as improper or offensive. 

 

Could I rock the old lady's pelvis and pat down her thighs to check for a fractured hip without her hollering "rape, rape, what are you doing to me, go away"? Could I do much beyond check a pulse in the way of a quick, streetside physical exam without being perceived as invasive? Could I explain quickly to other arriving bystanders who might be willing to help what I had found thus far or done thus far so as to intelligently ask them to assist? Would I be willing to give my name, phone number and address to the ambulance crew and the police when they eventually arrived?  

 

A large part of what I actually did in such situations during thirty-plus years of medical practice in the US was to keep well-meaning civilians from doing somethings stupid in the heat of the moment. It's often difficult to slow the scene down, to interrupt it's frantic pace and transform it into an orderly, less dramatic process. It's often difficult to remember the importance of "first, doing no harm." 

 

One example: Came upon a man having a seizure in a shopping mall. Surrounded by half a dozen volunteers, kneeling. One carrying on about the guy "swallowing his tongue" and whipping out his pocket knife to do a field tracheotomy.  Obviously, I prevented such madness. Could I calm things down as effectively in China and prevent iatrogenic damage? Might be difficult. 

 

The whole business makes me uneasy. The whole issue is food for thought. But of course, I would still do what I could in a pinch, and damn the torpedoes. 

[Lu]

3 minutes ago, abcdefg said:

Could I rock the old lady's pelvis and pat down her thighs to check for a fractured hip without her hollering "rape, rape, what are you doing to me, go away"?

Probably not, but as you note, more important is to calm everyone down and call an ambulance (or have someone call an ambulance). I don't know how good your Chinese is, but that must be a lot easier than to a physical exam, explain to the ambulance folk what you've found so far, etc. And yes, you could probably be more helpful around people who spoke your language, but that's just how it is. You just do what you can, and sometimes you can do more than other times.

[Wippen (inactive)]

On ‎23‎.‎02‎.‎2018 at 4:06 AM, 艾墨本 said:

It can be a pain finding stuff like this in Chinese. So many of the articles are bleh.

I set out to identify the main social topics in China, so that I would be able to converse about these in discussions. I am hoping this will add more vocabulary and also give me more subjects to discuss with the right words. This topic was identified by the tutor who went out of her to find many such topics. I plan to post each of them.

 

On ‎23‎.‎02‎.‎2018 at 4:06 AM, 艾墨本 said:

Not sure if there is much room for conversation on this one

I thought it was interesting they used a western story ie the emperor's new clothes. That expression is obviously then known in China and it is useful to know that that will be understood. (I use that in English for any number of political scenarios)

 

On ‎23‎.‎02‎.‎2018 at 4:06 AM, 艾墨本 said:

"怕被讹" 讹: erroneous/blackmail

轻重缓急: relative importance (I like this one)

虚伪: sham （Edit: imron: in this context it's more 'pretentiousnes')

肇事: to create a disturbance

搅浑: to stir up and muddy

撑腰鼓劲：seems to be a synonym to 撑腰打气？

遏制: to contain

崎岖: bumpy (of paths an roads)

搀扶: to help sb by the arm

Really appreciate you listing these additional words. I have added some comments to them below.

 

怕被讹" 讹: is literally fear of a blackmail scam. This  has been a high-frequency word in China for the last two years.

轻重缓急 - Another good translation is priorities. For example工作和生活中的 轻重缓急

虚伪: in this concext "Illusion" is best. The sentence means to shatter ilusions of´..which then also makes the verb 戳破
mean "shatter" ..那个说真话的小孩戳破了所有大人的虚伪

肇事 culprit would probably be a better word here, ie meaning someone who caused the accident.
and this particular phrase肇事...逃走 means "hit and run" or flee the accident

搅浑: to stir up and muddy - if we include the word "water" as in the article, the whole phrase to muddy the water 搅浑水

撑腰鼓劲：seems to be a synonym to 撑腰打气？ The construct is 为。。。(者)。。撑腰鼓劲， 撑腰鼓劲 may be used in more political and moral contexts, what do you think?

遏制: to contain  Perhaps a better translation would e to "curb"  or if we use contain better add the word that is being contained (a crisis for example).

The full sentence was

人性是复杂的，对它拔高或者贬损，都不符合它的本来面目。我们需要做的是，想方设法调动人性的积极一面，遏制减少它的消极一面。

崎岖: bumpy (of paths an roads) Here it is not used in its literal sense, rugged path of life, maybe here would be better . Full sentence

使崎岖的人生道路不缺少互助与搀扶。

搀扶: to help sb by the arm  In this context this is not literal, what do you think? But the author probably chose this particular word, at it contained the meaning of "support by the arm" as this was exactly what the little boy had literally done.. See full sentence above.

[imron]

2 hours ago, Tøsen said:

in this concext "Illusion" is best.

I'm not sure I'd agree because I don't think they are under any illusion at all (the adults all know what's up) and I don't think it means to shatter their illusion, rather 戳破 here means to expose or lay bare [the absurdity of the adults going along with the situation].  The adults are held back by their fear of losing face, and the child shows them up.

 

I don't think there's a single one word that captures this appropriately and if I was translating it I'd rearrange the structure of the sentence rather than trying to find one word to fit in here.  Vanity might be a good choice because the adults are too proud of their reputation to risk stating the truth, but it's not close enough to the meaning of 虚伪, and I was really just wanting to point out that 'sham' was not the best interpretation of this word, and so I chose pretentiousness because the adults are all going along with the pretense that the emperor is wearing clothes, and the meaning is a closer fit of sorts to 虚伪.

[abcdefg]

4 hours ago, Tøsen said:

I set out to identify the main social topics in China, so that I would be able to converse about these in discussions. I am hoping this will add more vocabulary and also give me more subjects to discuss with the right words. This topic was identified by the tutor who went out of her to find many such topics. I plan to post each of them.

 

I find this very helpful. Thanks for doing it. Look forward to future similar "finds."

[Wippen (inactive)]

19 minutes ago, abcdefg said:

Look forward to future similar "finds."

I posted  one that may interest you because it happened in Kunming.  It was about the "frost flower" boy, a 留守儿童 that walked for miles to go to school. There are many issues in that story. I will post the vocab later.

 

https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/55925-frost-flower-boy-hot-social-topic/