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Q: "Good deeds" in China: Ever see them done? Ever do them yourself?
I was on the subway last night during rush hour when I watched the following scene unfold:
A woman and her friend were sitting down chatting, and one of them got up to leave. I sat down in the empty spot next to her and sat there reading on my phone for a while. After 5 minutes or so, a guy that had been standing there the whole time, noticed a wallet and a pair of gloves on the ground, bent over to pick them up and addressed the woman, "excuse me, I think your friend dropped these". The woman recognized her friends gloves and says, "oh wow thanks!", and then calls her friend to tell her she's dropped her things.
For as much as I hear from expats and Chinese alike about "Chinese attitude towards strangers", it's small gestures like this that restore my faith in things here. Anyone else ever see something like this happen? Ever do it yourself, to be greeting with an incredibly appreciative (and surprised) "Thank you!!" from the person you helped?
Never seen it in China, but good to hear that it happens.
Personally I always hold doors, lifts etc for people if I am a reasonable amount of steps ahead of them, the favor has never been returned.
I would also try to find the owner of anything dropped on the ground, and possibly handing it to a police man if it was something like a wallet.
Yes I have and on many occasions. But this remains the strangest and most dichotomous aspect to the whole culture thing here. On the one hand, Chinese people can be the most generous and helpful race you could wish to meet but, on the other hand, it is almost as though there has to be an ulterior motive for for them doing anything.In all my time in China, I have not been able to get my head around this at all. It is too bipolar to contemplate.
