Scuffles a daily affair on Beijing trains.
WHEN I was on board a subway train during peak hours one afternoon, an ugly incident happened again.
Two passengers were pushed out of the train and a woman screamed loudly. The two young men entered into a violent quarrel and soon the scuffle ended with punches and kicks flying.
A few women, who were apparently accompanying them, tried to advise and stop them from fighting but to avail. The two men bled but they showed no signs of calming down.
Violent behaviour: A photo grab from a video clip posted on the Internet that shows three men involved in a scuffle on board a subway train in Beijing. It was the second scuffle within a month that I saw on the Beijing subway train. Both incidents were caused by the hustling in the crowded train.
When a person is pushed by the other passengers behind him and if he doesn’t like it, a fight looms.
The young people in this fast-paced city seem to lose their patience easily. For whatever reasons that may have caused repression and mental stress in their lives, they should not behave violently.
Search fight and subway on the Internet and you will find dozens of stories and video clips of similar incidents that happened in the Chinese capital.
In a video clip posted in June, two women pulled each other’s hair on the subway while the other commuters simply watched without trying to break up the fight or offer them advice.
In another more violent clip posted in August, three men exchanged punches and hurled each other onto the ground on the subway after a squabble over a seat.
Many commuters were seen moving away from the three men while others looked helpless and could only tell the men to stop fighting during the incident which lasted for about two minutes.
A netizen joked that one would need to have brawns and brains to survive in Beijing.
On the Beijing subway Line No 1, incidents of fighting happen almost every other day. I am already used to it. If you do not have some martial art skills, it will be hard for you to board a train, another man commented.
Another netizen quipped: What else can I say. My beloved country! Some said that it was a shame that such incidents happened on the subway line which is used by five million commuters a day.
Last month, Beijing Evening News reported that a 25-year-old man was stabbed with a knife by another man during a scuffle. The injured man who bled profusely was rushed to the hospital.
Soon after the incident, a witness by the name of Cui Na tweeted on the incident: “I was just a few people away from the two fighting men. I was too scared and moved further inside the carriage. After we arrived at the Guomao station, I quickly ran out of the train,” she said.
Other netizens lamented over the lax security at subway stations and wondered how the man could bring in his knife despite the security checks at the entrances of the stations.
In the wake of these incidents, the Beijing subway authorities urged commuters not to rush while boarding trains to ensure its train services would not be delayed.
According to a survey, about 160 million people in China have mental disorder and the numbers are expected to increase tremendously by 2020. Those aged 18 and above made up about 16%.
Psychologists and experts said that the fast-paced lifestyle, lack of leisure time and increasing pressure in society had resulted in the people developing anxiety and depression and losing sleep.
They said economic reforms that swept China over the past two decades had improved the people’s lives in the material sense but many could not cope with the pace of development and subsequently developed mental problems.
Many young people who sought counselling said they felt tremendous pressure at work and dreaded their current work life.
They added that they would get annoyed when they saw people who were walking in a hurry on the streets. The end result — they became ill-tempered and pessimistic about life.
What is the use of having a more prosperous country when its people are actually weak mentally and facing major problems handling pressure.
Although generally Chinese people are still well-behaved and have good manners, it is a matter of time before the volcano exploded in them.
Experts said one of the most effective ways for the people to reduce stress was to slow down their pace of life and take it easy at work.
They should maintain their own pace and not be affected by others. Only then China will have a calm and cultured society, said the experts.
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