Emperor Cuckoo: Human interest in China

(熊猫血 xióngmáo xuè)

An extremely rare blood type among Asians, Rh negative has always been called by the Chinese "Panda blood" -- like pandas, it is hard to find  由于十分稀缺，RH阴性血一直被称为“熊猫血 Yóuyú shífēn xī-quē，RH yīnxìng xuè yīzhí bèi chēngwéi “xióngmāo xuè” ...
...
According to the English wiki, Rh negative blood types are much less in proportion of Asian populations (0.3%) than they are in White (15%), while the Chinese wiki says that among the majority Chinese Han population, Rh negative AB is particularly rare ... 在汉族人群中寻找AB型Rh（-）同型人的机会不到万分之三，十分罕见。在白种人中的比例较高，约百分之十五 Zài Hànzú rénqún zhōng xúnzhǎo AB xíng Rh（-）tóng xíng rén de jīhuì bùdào wànfēn zhī sān，shífēn hǎnjiàn. Zài báizhǒngrén zhòng de bǐlì jiào gāo，yuē bǎifēn zhī shíwǔ ...

As a case in point, last January it was reported that a young girl, Li Nuo, diagnosed with leukemia, unfortunately had Panda blood (Rh negative B) ... Her family said they searched all over, but it was so difficult to find that blood type, they had no choice but to appeal for help on the Internet  “这种血型太稀少了，我们四处寻找很难找到。”李娜家人难为坏了。无奈，他们通过网络寻求帮助。 “Zhèzhǒng xuèxíng tài xīshǎo le，wǒmen sìchù xúnzhǎo hěn nán zhǎo dào.  Lǐ Nuó jiārén nánwéi huài le. Wúnài，tāmen tōngguò wǎngluò xúnqiú bāngzhù."

Many blood centers across China often put out emergency calls for donors of Rh negative  ... When supplies grow critically low,  a "red light" warning is issued, and when supplies have been restored, a "green light" ... Just this month, the Daily News, a popular newspaper in Tianjin, a large metropolitan area of some 12.5 million people, reported that the city was forced to raise a "red light" for Panda blood 《每日新报》20110913 “本市“熊猫血”库存“亮红灯” 《Měi rì xīn bào》20110913 “Běn shì 'xióngmāo xuè' kùcún 'liàng hóngdēng'”...  

But the chances of finding Panda blood in Tianjin are so low, the city employs mobile blood centers to travel about and search out suitable donors ... According to hospital officials, even this aggressive method is less than ideal, and on average they find only one donor every two days 这种“被动出击”的收效却并不理想。“平均下来，每两天才能遇到一个RH阴性血的人。” Zhèzhǒng“bèidòng chūjī”de shōuxiào què bìngbù lǐxiǎng. “Píngjūn xiàlai，měi liǎngtiān cáinéng yùdào yī gè RH yīnxìng xuè de rén. ” 

Sources: 《每日新报》20110913 “本市“熊猫血”库存“亮红灯” ; e-paper.tianjinwe;  English wiki;  血型 wiki 

(“穿越女” “Chuānyuè nǚ” Time-travelling woman)

This past summer, a young woman mysteriously appeared at an entrance to the #2 subway line in Shanghai dressed in traditional costume ... She sat on the ground and displayed a cardboard sign on which were handwritten the words: "I am from Qing Yuan village, I don't know how I got here, I'm penniless, I ask for travel money to return to my home, I will repay your kindness" [photo] ... 奴家本是清源村人士，无故穿越於此，身无长物，求盘缠回乡，来日报恩。”  Nújiā běn shì qīng yuán cūnrén shì，wúgù chuānyuè yúcǐ，shēnwúchángwù，qiú pánchan huíxiāng, láirì bào'ēn ... 

She was there at rush hour and attracted a large crowd of on-lookers ... When a man asked where Qing Yuan village was, she calmly answered, "Here, five hundred years ago" 一男乘客问道：“清源村是哪啊？”女子淡定而答：“在此500年前。” Yī nán chéngkè wèn dào：“Qīng Yuán cūn shì nǎ a？” nǚzǐ dàn dìng ér dá：“zàicǐ 500 nián qián"

He challenged her:  "If I lend you the travel expenses today, how will you repay me?"  “我今天借你盘缠你怎么还我啊？Wǒ jīntiān jiè nǐ pánchan nǐ zěnme huán wǒ a?”  She replied in rather formal language that if he showed her kindness, she would one day return to repay him “公子有恩，可小女子近日思乡心切，等他日归来之时，小女子必报公子之恩。”Gōngzǐ yǒu ēn，kě xiǎonǚzi jìnrì sīxiāng xīnqiè，děng tārì guīlái zhī shí，xiǎonǚzi bì bào gōngzǐ zhī ēn ... 

Still unconvinced, the man asked how he would be able to find her ... She then took a "pledge" booklet (包养证 bāo yǎng zhèng) from a bag and showed it to him as "proof" she would pledge herself to be someone's mistress (她在找人包养她成情妇 tā zài zhǎorén bāo yǎng tā chéng qíngfù) ... 

All the while, she spoke to him in gracious, courteous language, but when the man continued to press her and express disbelief, she abruptly changed her tone, pulled out an iPhone4 and asked for his phone number ... 该女子口气不再“优雅”，更是掏出iPhone4，索要手机号码  gāi nǚzǐ kǒuqì bùzài “yōuyǎ”，gèng shì tāo chū iPhone4，suǒyào shǒujī hàomǎ ...

This caused some people in the crowd to think that this was a promotion for the iPhone 4 
如此行为，有现场围观者认为可能是iPhone4在做宣传  Rúcǐ xíngwéi，yǒu xiànchǎng wéiguān zhě rènwéi kěnéng shì iPhone4 zài zuò xuānchuán...

Others who were familiar with internet gaming pointed out that the "pledge" booklet had the logo of a famous internet gaming company, so people began to speculate that this was a way for the company to attract attention  也有熟悉游戏的人认出，“穿越女”拿出的“包养证”上印有某游戏公司的LOGO，估计是为网游做的炒作 Yě yǒu shúxī yóuxì de rén rènchū，“chuānyuè nǚ”náchū de“bāo yǎng zhèng”shàng yìn yǒu mǒu yóuxì gōngsī de LOGO，gūjì shìwéi wǎng yóu zuò de chǎozuò...

Then someone who works for the subway system said that a week ago a young woman dressed as an ancient Greek goddess from Athens (雅典娜 Yǎdiǎn nuó) had appeared at the entrance to the #9 subway, and he suggested that since this is the middle of July, maybe these women are college performance artists 可能是大学城学生们的“艺术”行为 kěnéng shì dàxuéchéng xuésheng men de “yìshù” xíngwéi ...

Another said it could be a form of role-playing (角色扮演 juésè bànyǎn) or CosPlay (a popular form of entertainment for young Japanese women, who dress up in their favorite costumes) ... 

As all this was going on, a railway official announced, "If this kind of behavior interrupts normal railroad operations, according to "Shanghai railway management operations policy," we will have to put an end to it"  对此，上海地铁运管中心相关负责人表示：“如果某些个人行为对地铁正常运营秩序造成影响，我们将按照《上海市轨道交通管理条例》予以制止。”Duì cǐ，Shànghǎi dìtiě yùn guǎn zhōngxīn xiāngguān fùzérén biǎoshì：“rúguǒ mǒuxiē gèrén xíngwéi duì dìtiě zhèngcháng yùnyíng zhìxù zàochéng yǐngxiǎng，wǒmen jiāng ànzhào《Shànghǎi shì guǐdào jiāotōng guǎnlǐ tiáolì》yǔyǐ zhìzhǐ...

Sources:  http://news.longhoo.net/2011-07/21/content_6495151.htm  and http://roll.sohu.com/20110722/n314246334.shtml

 
(看到荒山穿上绿衣 Kàndào huāngshān chuānshang lǜyī  Seeing Desolate Mountain clothed in green)

In 2003, a 69-year-old woman, 王桂申 Wang Guishen, took frequent walks on Huang Mountain (荒山 Huāng Shān -- the name means "Desolate Mountain") in her native Hebei province ... One day she decided to ask one of the locals why "such a good mountain doesn't have any trees" "这么好的山, 咋没有树啊 Zhème hǎo de shān, zǎ méiyǒu shù a," and was told that "nobody manages the trees on the mountain, year after year there is planting, year after year nothing grows"山上的树没人管, 年年种年年没 Shān shàng de shù méi rén guǎn, niánnián zhǒng niánnián méi...

She refused to believe that if trees were planted, they wouldn't grow: "我就不信种不出树来 Wǒ jiù bù xìn zhòng bù chū shù lái"... So in April of that year, she signed a contract with the local authorities to develop 800 acres of land at her own expense ... She gave up her business and home in Hebei's capital city, moved to a village near the mountain, had 30,000 saplings transported to the area, hired more than a hundred villagers, and began the hard work [photo] of reforesting the mountains : "I wanted to see with my own eyes these mountains clothed in green" "我要亲眼看到荒山穿上绿衣 Wǒ yào qīn yǎn kàndào huāngshān chuānshang lǜ yī"...

For eight years, she and the workers planted batch after batch of saplings, "the sweat of their brow sprinkled" over the earth ... Today, at age 77, having invested more than one million RMB ($150,000.00), she can see the entire mountain covered with peach, date and walnut trees ...

Wang Guishen's 王桂申's accomplishment has stirred compassion, and people come from all over to help her ... "In recent years, we've had tens of thousands of volunteers.  Many hands make light work. There are more and more green trees on the mountain."   She is filled with hope for the future.

“近年来，来的志愿者能有几万名。众人拾柴火焰高，山上的绿树会越来越多。”王桂申对未来充满希望。Jìnniánlái，lái de zhìyuàn zhě néng yǒu jǐ wàn míng. Zhòngrén shíchái huǒyàn gāo，shān shàng de lǜshù huì yuèláiyuè duō. ” Wáng Guìshēn duì wèilái chōngmǎn xīwàng."

Source: 《渤海早报》 20110315第8版, "77岁城里老太8年荒山造林“

(Who's crazy? 谁疯了? shéi fěng le? )
A recent newspaper article has republished a post to the popular Chinese BBS my399.com by babylovegirl, the mother of a 3-year-old who is required to take extracurricular classes ... It seems these classes are of dubious value and expensive, and are a heavy burden on the family ...  The child takes eight different kinds of "special skills classes"  特长班  tècháng bān, and the cost (per 4-month semester) is roughly 2,560 RMB (or $400.00) ... For this reason, babylovegirl titled her BBS post “The pain of extracurricular classes" “课外班之痛” Kèwài bān zhī tòng  ...  The New Evening Post 《新晚报》ran the story, and added the headline, "Who's crazy?" "谁疯了? shéi fěngle?" ...

Among the required extracurricular activities for the three-year-old are:  Improving English 英语提高 yīngyǔ tígāo; Speaking skills 口才 kǒucái ; Handicrafts 手工 shǒugōng , Montessori math 蒙氏数学 méng shì shùxué ... babylovegirl writes that when other educational fees are added, the total comes to 3,385 RMB (about $535.00), "which is just about an average family's monthly income"   "再加上必须交的书费就是3385元，普通家庭一个月的收入也就这么多吧  Zài jiā shàng bìxū jiāo de shū fèi jiù shì 3385 yuán，pǔtōng jiātíng yī ge yuè de shōurù yě jiù zhème duō ba,"   and she ends by remarking that bringing up a child is a heavy responsibility   "培养一个孩子的负担好重啊 péiyǎng yī ge háizi de fùdān hǎo zhòng a" ... 

The BBS post prompted people to reply with outrage about the costs and skepticism about the value of the extra training the three-year-old is receiving ... One reader commented, "At three years old, she hardly can speak Chinese, let alone English!  Improvement classes?  Speaking skills?  My 3-year-old just has begun to speak in sentences, and this doesn't make any difference in the child's life ... Really can't imagine what evil the child did in a previous life to have to suffer such torments!"    "3岁，连中国话都说不好呢, 还英语？还提高班？还口才？我3岁刚能连成句子说话，也不影响现在的生活。实在想不出孩子前世做了什么孽，要遭受这么多的荼毒。3 suì，lián zhōngguóhuà dōu shuōbuhǎo ne, hái Yīngyǔ？Hái tígāo bān？huánkǒu cái？wǒ 3 suì gāng néng liánchéng jùzi shuōhuà, yě bù yǐngxiǎng xiànzài de shēnghuó. shízai xiǎngbuchū háizi qiánshì zuò le shénme niè, yào zāoshòu zhème duō de túdú...  "

Sources: 《新晚报》20110926 第40版， "3岁娃上8个 ‘班’ 学费超3000元， 谁疯了？”  and http://bbs.my399.com/thread-1300135-1-3.html

(妙招 miàozhāo）
What to do when you wake up one morning and find that the manhole covers in your neighborhood have gone missing?  You could suffer in silence, you could call the local police, you could write letters of complaint to the government, or you could do what this residential area in the city of Harbin did: They figured out an inexpensive way to secure the manhole covers, and with that "clever move" 妙招 miàozhāo, have outwitted the thieves ...

In recent years, more than one hundred manhole covers in this neighborhood have disappeared ... According to local resident Lú Wěipíng 芦伟萍, earlier this month six had been stolen in a single night, then another three, then another two, all within a week ... The situation was becoming urgent: "Once a manhole cover has gone missing, residents returning home after dark have to be very, very careful," she said. “井盖一丢，居民傍晚出行都小心翼翼。”她说。"Jǐng gài yī diū，jūmín bàngwǎn chūxíng dōu xiǎoxīnyìyì. ”tā shuō.

[Note: the writer of this blog has a personal interest in missing manhole covers in China, having once fallen into an open manhole that had been concealed by a thin cover of cardboard ... Through the ordeal, which involved a trip to a local clinic, no one mentioned alerting authorities, suing, or fixing the problem -- but everyone involved showed genuine concern about  the injuries (some stitching of a gaping wound on the shin was required) ... Many weeks after the incident, the writer noticed the manhole cover had not been replaced, but the cardboard cover had been refreshed]...

The "inventor" (发明人 fāmíng rén) of the manhole cover lock, Lǐ Dōng 李东 , happens to be the residential property manager ... Of his invention, he said he had no choice but to act “这也是无奈之举” "Zhè yě shì wúnài zhī jǔ", since replacing each manhole cover costs more than 300 RMB (about $50), and the property management had already spent more than 30,000 RMB (almost $5,000) to replace missing covers ...

As the photo shows, the solution is ingenious -- and it is relatively inexpensive; the property manager had the idea of passing a thick steel cable 钢丝绳 gāngsīshéng through the cover's airhole, and drilling into the ground to attach the cable, this method cost 10,000 RMB (about $1600) to lock more than 170 manhole covers in the area ... Note: The solution seems to be modeled on the concept of a bicycle lock
-- stealing manhole covers no doubt is more profitable than stealing bicycles, another rampant problem in China's major cities  ... 

"At the beginning of this month, our residential area continually was losing manhole covers, but since the property management put in the 'locks', no more covers have been stolen," Lú Wěipíng said. “月初，我们小区连连丢井盖，自从物业给上了"锁"，井盖一个都没再丢。” "Yuèchū，wǒmen xiǎoqū liánlián diū jǐng gài，zìcóng wù yè gěi shàng le"suǒ"，jǐng gài yī ge dōu méi zài diū." 

She called the newspaper's hotline in the hope that the news would be spread of this "clever move" 妙招 miàozhāo ...

Source: 《新晚报》20110924 第10版， “脑筋一转 井盖上锁防盗了”

(15 岁小童工   雇佣他因为可怜他？ 15 suì xiǎotóng gōng   Gùyōng tā yīnwèi kělián tā?)

The headline for this article, which appeared on April 12th in one of Tianjin's leading daily newspapers, frames underage hiring as a question, suggesting that there may well have been mitigating circumstances, but at the same time hinting that the employer used "pity" as an excuse to exploit the young man: 15岁童工   雇用他因为可怜他15 suì tónggōng   gùyòng tā yīnwèi kělián tā?  15-year-old worker: Was he hired "out of pity"?

A synopsis of the story precedes the main article itself: A 15-year-old boy, who should be sitting in a classroom, instead is working for a small shop in Tianjin's Hebei district ... Every day before dawn he begins his workday, and is on duty straight through until about 9:00p [Note: his job is to change out seats in cabs] ...  He's been doing this hard labor for a little more than a month ... Most of his salary has been put into a "pledge" account by his employer.  With the help of officials from the city's Labor Board, the boy has been "rescued" from this disastrous situation.  原本应该坐在课堂内的15岁少年，却在河北区一家小店打工。每天清晨就要开始干活的他，一直要到21：00左右才能休息。辛苦干了一个多月，大半工资却被店主做了“押金”。在市区两级劳动监察部门的帮助下，这名少年终于“获救”.  Yuánběn yīnggāi zuòzài kètáng nèi de 15 suì shàonián，què zài Héběi qū yījiā xiǎodiàn dǎgōng. Měitiān qīngchén jiùyào kāishǐ gànhuó de tā，yīzhí yào dào 21:00 zuǒyòu cáinéng xiūxi. Xīnkǔ gànle yī ge duō yuè, dàbàn gōngzī què bèi diànzhǔ zuò le “yājīn”. Zài shìqū liǎng jí láodòng jiānchá bùmén de bāngzhù xià，zhè míng shàonián zhōngyú “huòjiù”...

The story came about because a cab driver, whose car the young man was servicing, thought the boy was "especially young-looking "特别‘面嫩'" tèbié‘miànnèn’  ... The cabby casually asked the boy his age, and figured out that he probably had just turned 15 years old ...  As a concerned citizen, he called the newspaper; when the reporter arrived on the scene and asked, the boy claimed he was "16 years old," but also, perhaps unwittingly, revealed his zodiac sign, the Year of the Rat  .少年说道：“16岁，属鼠的”  Shàonián shuōdao：“16 suì，shǔ shǔ de” ... The reporter seized on this, because given the boy's approximate age, he had to have been born in the 1996 Year of the Rat, which meant he could not yet be 16 years old 但属鼠的孩子应是1996年出生，并非16岁 Dàn shǔ shǔ de háizi yīngshì 1996 nián chūshēng，bìng fēi 16 suì ...

The Labor Board authorities were called in ... They established the boy was born in October 1996, that he had been promised a salary of 1,400 RMB/month (about $225/month), was working 14-hour days [Note: at 420 hours/month, his hourly wage would be about $.50] ... They learned that his mother had passed away, and his father was bed-ridden ... The shop owner said that the boy showed up one day looking for work; they listened to his story, took pity on him, and decided to help him out by employing him ... But the shop owner also admitted that he actually paid the boy only a fraction of what he'd earned, keeping the rest of the salary in a "pledge account," to be paid later ... So it's hard to see how the shop owner actually improved the boy's situation ... 

The authorities ordered the boy to stop working immediately, and set about reuniting him with his family ... They reminded the shop owner of the law ("National laws clearly state that no employer can employ anyone under the age of 16 国家明确规定，任何单位和个人都不得雇用16周岁以下的儿童 Guójiā míngquè guīdìng，rènhé dānwèi hé gèrén dōu bùdé gùyòng 16 zhōu suì yǐxià de értóng) ... The penalty for hiring underage workers is at least 5,000 RMB/month, and they explained to the shop owner that although they can accept that by hiring the boy he showed sympathy (雇用童工是出于同情这种说法在感情上可以接受 Gùyòng tónggōng shì chūyú tóngqíng zhèzhǒng shuōfa zài gǎnqíng shàng kěyǐ jiēshòu) , nevertheless, he had broken the law and would have to pay the fine, and admit to criminal behavior 店主不但要承担相应的赔偿责任，甚至还要承担刑事责任 Diànzhǔ bùdàn yào chéngdān xiāngyìng de péicháng zérèn，shènzhì háiyào chéngdān xíngshì zérèn...

Source: 《每日新报》 20110412 第B10版， “15 岁小童工   雇佣他因为可怜他？ 15 suì xiǎotóng gōng   Gùyōng tā yīnwèi kělián tā?”

 (高空抛物 gāokōng pāowù)

On September 16, New Culture Review 《新文化报》 Xīn wénhuà bào, a mainland China newspaper, carried a news item on the apparently widespread urban habit of throwing garbage out of building windows, a practice called in Chinese 高空抛物 gāokōng pāowù "from a high place throw things down"   ... The reporter claims "many people" he surveyed on the internet are "indignant" about the obvious danger to pedestrians who, as the cartoon suggests, sometimes get bonked on the head by falling debris ...

Of interest is the reporter's blend of logic, quasi-scientific evidence, academic theory and appeal to emotion, all intended to build a case for the gravity of the situation, while stimulating citizens to change individual behavior for the social good ... These elements are neatly captured in the article's headline: "Control garbage-throwing, don't wait until someone is hurt" 治理高空抛物，别等到伤害之后 Zhìlǐ gāokōng pāowù，bié děngdào shānghài zhīhòu...
...
The article has the feel of an op-ed; the reporter uses the first person, and has done a bit of background research: he's aware of the Broken Windows theory (社会学里有一种理论叫破窗理论 shèhuìxué lǐ yǒu yī zhǒng lǐlùn jiào pò chuāng lǐlùn) -- Mayor Giuliani of New York City famously relied on it to launch a war on petty crime; the idea is that low-level annoyances, such as broken windows or uncollected garbage on the streets, when neglected over time encourage the downward spiral of a neighborhood ... If you don't repair your broken window, so the theory goes, your neighbor will not repair his; and soon you will have a neighborhood of apartments with broken windows, and an environment that encourages crime ... 

As a means of preventing crime, the Broken Windows theory is not without detractors or controversy, but the New Culture Review ignores the crime aspect in favor of the theory's presumed power to predict social decay: "This theory tells us that the behavior of breaking rules and ruining the environment, if not handled quickly, will be imitated, and ultimately becomes a communal problem"   这个理论告诉我们, 某些破坏规则和环境的行为, 如果不及时加以控制的话, 就会被效仿, 最后变成公共问题  zhège lǐlùn gàosu wǒmen, mǒuxiē pòhuài guīzé hé huánjìng de xíngwéi, rúguǒ bùjí shí jiāyǐ kòngzhì dehuà, jiù huì bèi xiàofāng, zuìhòu biànchéng gōnggòng wèntí ...
 ...
The threat to the ordinary person in the street is reinforced by the reporter's reference to a related article in the same edition on a neighborhood in Changchun 长春 (capital of Jilin province, the area in northeast China that New Culture Review covers)  ... That article announces "garbage-throwing has been reduced, citizens call for a supervisory body" 长春净苑北区高空抛物减少 居民建议安装监控 Chángchūn jìng yuàn běi qū gāokōng pāowù jiǎnshǎo jūmín jiànyì ānzhuāng jiānkòng, and features a photo of how fresh eggs dropped from the fifth floor of a building can break glass ...
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If you still aren't convinced something has to be done, the reporter ups the emotional ante by drawing an analogy between garbage-throwing and drunk driving (我觉得和制止酒驾是一样的 Wǒ juéde hé zhìzhǐ jiǔ jià shì yīyàng de), presumably because the government has made the prevention of drunk driving a top priority, and the media have made sure that drunk driving has dominated local news headlines this past spring and summer ...
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And with what may be a rather large stick to beat readers, the reporter claims the Japanese have gone a long way to solving the problem by teaching children from an early age at home and in schools not to throw garbage, and the result is that cases of people being hurt or killed by garbage throwing [in Japan] are relatively rare 在日本，人们从小在家庭教育及学校教育中强调严禁乱扔垃圾，人为高空抛物致人伤害或死亡的事件极少 Zài Rìběn，rénmen cóngxiǎo zàijiā tíng jiàoyù jí xuéxiào jiàoyù zhōng qiángdiào yánjìn luàn rēng lājī，rénwéi gāokōng pāowù zhì rén shānghài huò sǐwáng de shìjiàn jí shǎo ...
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Throughout the article, the role of government and law is kept to a minimum; instead, it is assumed that raising each individual citizen's sense of responsibility will bring about the desired change collectively ... 
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Of course, change on a massive scale must be carefully controlled:  the writer ends with a call to action carefully balanced between emotion and reason:  "Above all, don't wait until someone is hurt before you realize that nothing here has been exaggerated just to frighten you"  千万不要等到伤了人才意识到，这不是在这里危言耸听 qiānwàn bùyào děngdào shāng le rén cái yìshi dào，zhè bù shì zài zhèlǐ wēiyán sǒngtīng ...
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Source: 《新文化报》20110916 第A06版：“治理高空抛物， 别等到伤害之后”

Save the baby!  
["dealing with each case on its own merits"  酌情处理  zhuóqíng chǔlǐ]

The headline for this news item is  "Cabby willingly accepts penalty in order to save a life"  的哥为救人甘愿受罚  Dīgē wèi jiùrén gānyuàn shòufá, and the story is a dramatic mix of the need to save an infant's life balanced against breaking the law ... 

On a recent morning at rush hour, a cabby was hailed by two women who were trying desperately to get a two-month-old child to the emergency room, it seems they'd given the baby sweet ginger water to treat diarrhea, and either the baby was having a reaction to the medicine, or else was choking on the water, but in any event he had gone into shock, and his face had already turned blue, the situation was critical 原来，两个月大的婴儿拉肚子，家人刚刚给他喂药时， 孩子呛了姜糖水，导致休克，脸色发紫， 十分危险。Yuánlái，liǎng ge yuèdà de yīng'ér lā dùzi，jiārén gānggāng gěi tā wèi yào shí， háizi qiāng le jiāng tángshuǐ，dǎozhì xiūkè，liǎnsè fāzǐ， shífēn wēixiǎn.

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The driver alerted the police, then "stepped on it" and got the baby to the hospital within 15 minutes, mainly by running all the red lights ... The baby's life was saved ... Afterwards, the cabby was cited for  running six red lights and fined 200 yuan (about $32.00) ... No doubt the cabby got off without much of a fine, though, because the reporter notes that the Traffic Bureau, having considered all the factors in the case, "dealt with this case on its own merits" (酌情处理 zhuóqíng chǔlǐ)...

The cabby said: "I am a father myself, the baby's life was the most important thing, and if I have to accept a fine in order to rescue someone, it's worth it!" : “我也是一名父亲，孩子的生命比啥都重要，为救人挨罚，值得！”  “Wǒ yěshì yī míng fùqin，háizi de shēngmìng bǐ shá dōu zhòngyào，wèi jiùrén áifá，zhíde!”

Source: 《新晚报》20110924 第A06版：“的哥为救人甘愿受罚”

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The Four Essences  (四种精神 sì zhǒng jīngshén)
It's possible that the above article about an ordinary cabby's readiness to save a life is meant to illustrate the city of Harbin's recent adoption of "the four essences" of an ideal community: loyalty, courage, self-sacrifice, and pragmatism  忠诚， 果敢， 牺牲， 务实 zhōngchéng, guǒgǎn, xīshēng, wùshí  ... These "essences" are reported in the same edition as the cabby story, which does seem to highlight self-sacrifice, since the cabby risked his own life by running traffic lights, and he knew he was breaking the law and would have to pay fines, but he ignored the risks and consequences in order to get the baby to the hospital as quickly as possible ...

Note: The formulation "four essences" may be modeled on the ancient writer’s traditional "four essentials": brush, ink, paper and ink stone 湖笔、徽墨、宣纸、端砚 Húbǐ, Huīmò, Xuānzhǐ, Duānyàn, that is, a brush made in Huzhou, ink produced in Huizhou, paper from Xuancheng (Anhui), and an inkstone from Duanyan, in Duanxi (Guangdong) ... The decline in interest in the traditional arts, especially writing by hand and calligraphy, prompted a reader to complain in a different newspaper that the writer’s "four essentials” are disappearing and are being replaced by "four new treasures": cell phone, copier, fax and computer  文房四宝”逐渐减少，取而代之新四宝: 手机, 复印, 传真和电脑 wénfángsìbǎo zhújiàn jiǎnshǎo，qǔ'érdàizhī xīn sì bǎo, shǒujī, fùyìn, chuánzhēn hé diànnǎo ...

Source: 《新晚报》20110924 第A03版：“弘扬四种精神提升城市软实力” 

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"Can't have that to go!"  (不让打包 Bù ràng dǎbāo)

Also reported in the same edition of the New Evening Post《新晚报》is a news item that appears to go directly against the spirit of the above-mentioned "four essences":  A customer in a local Harbin restaurant, having ordered the boiled fish in spicy oil soup, decided to take home what he could not finish eating ... But the waiter refused, saying he couldn't even sell the leftovers to the customer, because they are given to the staff as meals “你就是花钱也不能卖你，剩的油汤给我们服务员做伙食饭呢……”“Nǐ jiùshì huāqián yě bùnéng mài nǐ，shèng de yóu tāng gěi wǒmen fúwùyuán zuò huǒshi fàn ne ”  ... Astounded, the customer argued that he'd paid for the meal, so it was his ... But the waiter still refused,  so the customer notified his family and the newspaper, and the reporter contacted the Food Safety Bureau ... Then he and his family (armed with a video camera), the reporter and the authorities descended on the restaurant, where the manager confirmed that the customer had not been allowed to take home the leftovers for that particular dish ... The manager admitted that "preventing Mr. Sun [the customer] from taking the leftovers away was wrong" and he attributed the error to "inadequate training of the staff“ 承认服务员禁止孙先生将水煮鱼剩汤打包的做法不对，是酒店对服务员培训不到位。Chéngrèn fúwùyuán jìnzhǐ Sūn xiānsheng jiāng shuǐ zhǔ yú shèng tāng dǎbāo de zuòfǎ bùduì，shì jiǔdiàn duì fúwùyuán péixùn bù dàowèi... 
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On inspection, though, it was discovered that the restaurant is able to recycle the leftover oil for about 16 cents a pound ... 

Source:  《新晚报》20110924 第A08版：“‘沸腾鱼乡’忒霸道吃饭剩汤不让打包“


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