Offering your bus seat (rang zuo) to someone in need seems to be the right thing to do regardless of geography, culture or economic status. A recent backlash proves that not everyone takes it as such.
Earlier this year, Zhengzhou in central China installed an incentive scheme for rang zuo. That set off an online debate.
"Why should I give my seat to an elderly person? It's the young who need it more because they take off in the early morning while not fully awake and drag themselves home after a day of exhausting work," wrote one blogger.
The author further noted that senior citizens already enjoy benefits such as free rides. This treatment should be suspended during the rush hours to relieve bus congestion, he suggested.
I thought I was blas about outrageous opinions in the cyberspace, but this really jolted me. What's more frightening is that the author enjoyed wide support from about 60 per cent of the online population who participated in the debate on who's more worthy of a bus seat, according to one analyst.
What is wrong with these people? Aren't they going to get old someday and what will they think when a youth sitting in a bus seat turns a blind eye to them standing nearby?
Obviously it is too early for them to conjure up this scenario.
Most buses in Chinese cities are plastered with signs that read: "Please rang zuo to the elderly, the handicapped, the pregnant and women with young children." There are usually a few seats marked for this purpose.
The online outpouring of dissension is perplexing because it contradicts what I've observed in the real world of human interaction. In Beijing and Guangzhou, where I take the bus frequently, I've rarely seen a case of the four types of "needy" passengers getting the cold treatment.
On the contrary, when a person who looks older than 60 steps in, someone nearby will immediate vacate his or her seat. Occasionally the ticket seller will yell: "Who will rang zuo to this grandma?"
