The front page of the Changjiang Daily (长江日报) from Wuhan in Hubei province today features an illustrated account of what should be an everyday act of kindness yet in China is by no means guaranteed: helping someone on the street.
When a middle aged man crashed his bicycle on a street in Wuhan, falling on his face in the road in a spatter of blood, a journalist and photographer happened to be close by, and they recorded what happened next. A young man went to crouch next to the middle-aged man, asking if he was hit by a car and whether he was able to see the car’s license plate, before proceeding to call emergency services. The middle-aged man did not reply, but the young man helped him to lie down by the side of the road.
A worker at a pharmacy nearby and a sanitation worker had by now joined a small throng, and they inspected the man’s bike and found no signs of a collision. When after 20 minutes the emergency services had still not arrived, another young man wearing sunglasses took the middle-aged man’s phone and contacted some of his relatives. About ten minutes later, an ambulance arrived, yet all the while the middle-aged man said nothing. A doctor’s initial assessment at the scene concluded that he had suffered flesh wounds to his mouth and nose.
When the middle-aged man was safely taken away in the ambulance, about 30 people stayed loitering about and talking to the journalist. Some of them were saying that in other places in China if a person falls in the street, no-one will dare help them, but clearly Wuhan is different! Indeed, they concluded, Wuhan is a city that has love!
Links and sources
Changjiang Daily (中年男倒地流血 众帅哥出手相救)
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