NEW ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT DIGEST | 新能源与环保参考

The web is abuzz over news of a toddler who, after being a victim of a hit-and-run in Guangdong, China last week, was left for dead by at least 18 passers-by. This is an unsurprising tale to people who have lived in China and witnessed public indifference towards suffering strangers.

Whenever I have brought this disturbing facet of life up to Chinese people, it has typically been brushed off with feeble excuses for such behavior that inevitably have something to do with China’s stage of development. Not so this time. Perhaps because the entire event was caught on video, or because it went viral immediately, or because the victim was a defenseless child — or some combination of these and other factors — the incident has incited considerable debate online and offline over what netizens are calling China’s decayed moral state.

Some attribute lacking help for those in distress to a spate of scams in recent years, whereby strangers who helped injured elderly or other persons were eventually sued (!) or even charged with assault (!!!) once the victim recovered, despite not having any involvement with the original cause of injury. Others posit there’s an underlying and fundamental reason for the disturbing apathy, and have issued rally cries to start living in a more virtuous manner.

We at NEEDigest find one of this story’s less widely reported details to be the most compelling. The person who finally came to the toddler’s aid was Chen Xianmei, an illiterate scrap peddler.

According to a Christian Science Monitor article, Chen remarked of her surroundings at the time of the incident “I dragged her to the side of the road and shouted for help…. But nobody showed up.”

China’s scrap peddlers, often referred to as scavengers, are widely considered a blight on city streets. Thought to be dirty and possibly diseased, and believed to exhibit criminal behavior, you’d be hard pressed to find a municipal official or resident in China’s cities with a positive thing to say about scrap peddlers. I have been warned more than once, during the course of my research, not to touch them or any of their equipment, lest I put my own health at risk.

As a result of these common, though often unfounded preconceived notions, and the pressure many officials feel to clean up their city’s image and deliver the “Better City, Better Life” brand of a more livable environment, several city governments are actively trying to eliminate the informal waste sector. When I have asked officials whether alternative methods have been considered or tested first — such as developing a permit or registration system that would bring scrap peddlers out from the shadows and provide them with protection, but also require of them more strict conformity to local laws and regulations — they have replied with derision and a dismissive tone. The apparent implication being that persons with such a low social standing could never reasonably be expected to follow rules and contribute meaningfully to society.

And yet, currently, scrap peddlers are the unappreciated footsoldiers of China’s recycling sector, responsible for diverting between 20-30% of municipal solid waste away from landfills.

And now, at least one is a member of China’s admittedly small population of Good Samaritans.

So, it turns out not everyone in China is morally bankrupt. And those most suspected of being civic liabilities and public health hazards may be the strongest moral element China has going for it.

Since the rescuer’s identity has come to light, and Chen has been commended for her act and given a monetary reward from the city government, netizens have reacted with swift cynicism, explaining her good intentions as veiled opportunism. Clearly, there are still untold chapters to this saga.

We at NEEDigest, having had countless positive and meaningful interactions with Chinese scrap peddlers, hope more people will see that, like the innocent child she tried to save, Chen needs the very thing in shortest supply in China: compassion from a stranger.