A bit of a "positive" side to this tragedy: at least, people -not only Chinese, but all over the world- are questioning themselves over the need to help in such cases:
Neither episode is necessarily representative: many Chinese do help those in dire straits, and, obviously, Americans do not always come to the rescue. But thousands of microbloggers in China have used the juxtaposition of callousness and heroism to fuel a wrenching debate over whether people in their country lack compassion and, if so, why.
It is the sort of national conversation, increasingly common now, that did not exist before in a land where the printed press and broadcast media largely remain controlled by a Communist Party more interested in directing public opinion than in reflecting on the national mood. “What kind of nation is this?” asked one microblogger who called himself Patton Yu. “It doesn’t matter if an individual’s nature is good or bad, it’s the system that has made us deteriorate.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/world ... rld&src=meThis bit applies to my birth country just as well:
“The law is supposed to be the bottom line of a society,” he said. “Anything above that line is not about the law. Above the bottom line, China does not have any guideline for social behavior. There is no religion or faith. There are no role models.”
The woman who stopped to help the child is now being criticized as "doing it for fame". To help is not considered a positive trait, hence the backfire. Until it does, then those incidents can't be prevented from happening again and again.
