also the cushions burn, smoking is not allowed but like all ignorant chinese, they smoke on the bus.

non interference of “nature’ is entrenched in Buddhist thinking,

Stephen gibbered,”psycho-social development”.

Is that not culture?

I am a moron. My wife mentions it daily.

@Joel ‘Culture’ can be an ambiguous term but its meaning here was contextualized by nedzer as an adherent and integrated behavior within a specific society. The reason I say culture doesn’t fit here is because if you took the current Chinese population and deposited them into a more just and fair and developed society they would after a generation or two become as responsible as the Canadian Good Samaritan in your example.

The fact of the matter is, the Canadian comes from a more advanced society. 400 years ago that same Canadian Samaritan’s ancestors wouldn’t have been as altruistic as he. But does that mean that the Canadians of todays are prone to raping and pillaging aboriginal peoples? Certainly not.
Not every Canadian’s ancestor participated in such atrocities and neither do all of todays Chinese participate in rubbernecking/inaction in the face of human suffering. We are not dealing with an integrated behavioral pattern, but a learned reaction to contemporary China’s unique sociological conditions.

Lets take another example. Lets take the United States. When the US was 30 years into its development, Americans during that time certainly weren’t as (ahem) considerate and civil as they are today. Does that mean that its part of every Americans intrinsic behavioral pattern to be racist? No.

How about Japan. The Japanese some 50 years ago were ruthlessly raping and murdering people from nearly every culture around them. Does that mean that Japanese today maintain the idea that raping and murdering civilians is an acceptable practice while at war? No.

What about Germany?

The list goes on and on until finally you realize this is a “human” issues pertaining to psycho-social development, and not specific to any one culture.

China is in the midst of development. If things are still rough around the edges, it should be understandable given what has transpired here over the past 50 years.

It’s a sister department to the i-died-in-an-accident-because-no-one-helped-rubbernecking-department-of-China but they don’t get much statistics.

I’ll mail them on to your address. Where is your bubble located?

Last thing, I’d argue that the stupid influences of Confucius and Mencius are but a part of a system that has held this country back in every walk of life, for those principles restrict the true ability of a Chinese to develop him or herself freely and emotionaly. Look at the education system here. Did Confucius teach students to be independent and think independently, yet still observe the principles of filial piety? NOPE
Confcukdup himself did’nt pursue lines of questioning, and so (the usual) teacher centered learning in China has resulted in students rarely answering questions. The Confcukian system is accredited with the principles of rote learning and an extreme avoidance of helping strangers from a simple politeness of holding a door open to helping a stranger in an accident.