WARNING: THIS ARTICLE IS A CROSS-CULTURAL LESSON,
NOT AN ATTACK ON CHINESE CULTURE. READ CAREFULLY
TWO BRIDGES – TWO CULTURES
This is a story of two bridges on opposite sides of the world, one in China, one in California It is also a story of the difference between Chinese culture and American culture.
These two bridges are dissimilar in not only size, (one rather large, and the other one very small) and aesthetics; they also share no similarity in design or capacity. Even the distance from the bridge to the water below is radically different.
Although dissimilar in size, design, construction and capacity, they share more than the commonality of being bridges; they are both preferred by people who have decided to take their own lives through suicide. Mentally disturbed people, who have come to believe that the pain of living far outweighs the fear of dying, decide to climb the structures and jump to their deaths. With eight attempted suicides per month the Haizhu Bridge has earned the nickname “Suicide Bridge.”
HAIZHU BRIDGE
(PICTURE CHANGED DUE TO STUDENTS’ COMMENTS)
Every time someone climbs the bridge to jump, it disrupts traffic because the lookie-loos, rubber-neckers and gawkers slow to observe the spectacle of death. Government officials have tried posting guards on the bridge and posting signs, both to no avail. As a last resort the bridge has been greased to inhibit climbing the superstructure. The language of the signs is very telling about the different cultural approaches to the identical problem found on opposite sides of the globe. The sign on Haizhu Bridge translates to DO NOT DISRUPT TRAFFIC. FIND SOMEPLACE ELSE TO KILL YOURSELF.
In 2009 a would be jumper received a helping hand from a senior citizen. The senior stated that he pushed the jumper over the edge because he was frustrated with the selfishness and attention seeking of the jumper. Two bridges, two cultures, one problem, similar solution with one major cultural difference – in San Francisco the primary cultural concern is on saving lives. In Gunagzhou, the primary cultural concern is on maintaining proper traffic flow. (If you have ever experienced rush hour in Guangzhou you may be able to appreciate this better.) A Guangzhou Government official was asked why the City did not provide psychological counseling to would be jumpers and to take other measures to prevent suicides. The answer was clear and simplistic. A person who has decided to commit suicide has already determined that their life is worthless so why should the Government invest any money in saving a worthless life? In San Francisco bridge workers risk their lives to save the life of a mentally ill person intent on ending their life. In Guangzhou it is preferred that you kill yourself in a less public location, at least one that will not disrupt traffic.
GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE
The Golden Gate Bridge is not only the most popular place to commit suicide in the United States but the most popular in the entire world. The deck is approximately 245 feet (75 m) above the water. After a fall of approximately four seconds, jumpers hit the water at some 76 miles per hour (122 km/h). At such a speed, water has proven to take on properties similar to concrete. Because of this, most jumpers die on their immediate contact with the water. The few who survive the initial impact generally drown or die of hypothermia in the cold water.
An official suicide count was kept, sorted according to which of the bridge’s 128 lamp posts the jumper was nearest when he or she jumped. By 2005, this count exceeded 1,200 and new suicides were averaging one every two weeks. For comparison, the reported second-most-popular place to commit suicide in the world, Aokigahara Forest in Japan, has a record of 78 bodies, found within the forest in 2002, with an average of 30 a year.There were 34 bridge-jump suicides in 2006 whose bodies were recovered, in addition to four jumps that were witnessed but whose bodies were never recovered, and several bodies recovered suspected to be from bridge jumps. The California Highway Patrol removed 70 apparently suicidal people from the bridge that year.
There is no accurate figure on the number of suicides or successful jumps since 1937, because many were not witnessed. People have been known to travel to San Francisco specifically to jump off the bridge, and may take a bus or cab to the site; police sometimes find abandoned rental cars in the parking lot. Currents beneath the bridge are very strong, and some jumpers have undoubtedly been washed out to sea without ever being seen. The water may be as cold as 47 °F (8 °C).
The fatality rate of jumping is roughly 98%. As of 2006, only 26 people are known to have survived the jump. Those who do survive strike the water feet-first and at a slight angle, although individuals may still sustain broken bones or internal injuries. One young man survived a jump in 1979, swam to shore, and drove himself to a hospital. The impact cracked several of his vertebrae.
Engineering professor Natalie Jeremijenko, as part of her Bureau of Inverse Technology art collective, created a “Despondency Index” by correlating the Dow Jones Industrial Average with the number of jumpers detected by “Suicide Boxes” containing motion-detecting cameras, which she claimed to have set up under the bridge. The boxes purportedly recorded 17 jumps in three months, far greater than the official count. The Whitney Museum, although questioning whether Jeremijenko’s suicide-detection technology actually existed, nevertheless included her project in its prestigious Whitney Biennial.
Various methods have been proposed and implemented to reduce the number of suicides. The bridge is fitted with suicide hotline telephones, and staff patrol the bridge in carts, looking for people who appear to be planning to jump. Iron workers on the bridge also volunteer their time to prevent suicides by talking or wrestling down suicidal people.The bridge is now closed to pedestrians at night. Cyclists are still permitted across at night, but must be buzzed in and out through the remotely controlled security gates.Attempts to introduce a suicide barrier had been thwarted by engineering difficulties, high costs, and public opposition. One recurring proposal had been to build a barrier to replace or augment the low railing, a component of the bridge’s original architectural design. New barriers have eliminated suicides at other landmarks around the world, but were opposed for the Golden Gate Bridge for reasons of cost, aesthetics, and safety (the load from a poorly designed barrier could significantly affect the bridge’s structural integrity during a strong windstorm).
Strong appeals for a suicide barrier, fence, or other preventive measures were raised once again by a well-organized vocal minority of psychiatry professionals, suicide barrier consultants, and families of jumpers after the release of the controversial 2006 documentary film The Bridge, in which filmmaker Eric Steel and his production crew spent one year (2004) filming the bridge from several vantage points, in order to film actual suicide jumps. The film caught 23 jumps, most notably that of Gene Sprague as well as a handful of thwarted attempts. The film also contained interviews with surviving family members of those who jumped; interviews with witnesses; and, in one segment, an interview with Kevin Hines who, as a 19-year-old in 2000, survived a suicide plunge from the span and is now a vocal advocate for some type of bridge barrier or net to prevent such incidents from occurring.
On October 10, 2008, the Golden Gate Bridge Board of Directors voted 14 to 1 to install a plastic-covered stainless-steel net below the bridge as a suicide deterrent. The net will extend 20 feet (6 m) on either side of the bridge and is expected to cost $40–50 million to complete. However, lack of funding could delay the net’s construction.
The above is quoted from Wikipedia
I have not payed attention to the sign on Haizhu Bridge until now though I have been to there so many times. Maybe China has a larger populution than America, so the government doesn’t have enough energy to take care of everyone. But I really don’t want to think about it like this. I think everyone should treasure their lives as to be alive in the world is so wonderful. Frankly speaking, I have never been to Golden Gate Bridge, but I enjoy looking down the Pearl River on Haizhu Bridge so much. I consider is as a pleasure to me given by the nature. So it’s difficult for me to comprehend the jumpers on the Haizhu Bridge.
But I have tried to guess how the different cultrue leads to the difference between the two bridges. And I also like to suppose that Chinese government also concerns the life of everyone at first. The psychology of the people is different in different country. The same person may bear different stress in different environment. So maybe Chinese government official considers that he can’t help the jumpers solve their problems though he can save their lives at the moment they want to jump, so he doesn’t invest money in saving them. What’s more, he wishes that the jumpers don’t bring any trouble to him. I’m not sure the condition in America, but I really think Chinese government has to consummate itself and help her nation to develop quickly and become much stronger. Only people live comfortly then they may avoid to committing suicide. At last, I still want to emphasize that life is important and great.
I partly agree with the opinion in this article.
suicide is big problem which is often talked by ethicists and sociologists.could people determine their lives or death ? this is a common soclal problem,many reasons can be found, but no one is the best.as the article told,China and the US has the same problem,but different solutions ,peope in two countries have different attitudes to the man who want to take suicide.but i think the Guangzhou government will not consider that the most trouble taken by suicide is the traffic problem,which is some people’s private opinion.and there is another important thing the article neglected is that many people want to get other people‘s attention from suicide,so their act is very hateful，and then some people has the attitude to them ,which is just a humorous statement，which can’t be seen as the difference of two cultures.
To be or not to be, it’s a question. I believe everybody could understand the meaning of this sentence. But do you really understand the anxiety of some guys who have been forced to face a dilemma? At that time, they don’t know what to do. Maybe both of the choices are really perfect, maybe each of them is totally bad to this poor guy. If this is your problem, what will you do? I’m not sure about your answer; the only thing I can say is that you have your reason to make this decision. Different choices because different culture and different people, everyone have their own way to live in this world, just like the different body language in different countries and different associations. Many countries in Europe make the associated suicide legally, because the people have been deadly already. So, to the same reason, someone, most of them have a serious mental problem, was eager to die, why should you stop him? Because you can help him to solve the problem, are you serious? Even Gold can not do this.
I read the news about Haiyin Qiao last year. In my opinion , life is so precious. No matter people commit suicide for what reason and by what mean ,if possible, we should try our best to save them. After all, commit suicide is just an implulsive thinking. However , commit suicide is a stupid behavior. Though sometimes we may suffer great setback, we should believe in hope. Only life is there , can we overcome difficulty.
These two solutions show the different view about life of Chinese and American. In ancient China, suicide is not a bad thing. However it even connected to sublime. People died for glory, for loyalty, and for love. To a certain degreed, it is praised by the living ones. Suicide shows one’s brave. Of course, there were contrary examples. Some kill themselve because of shame and ignominy. But no matter what the reason is, it is not blamed.
So what about America. America is an Christian/Protestant country, in these religion, suicide is a crime. That’s why they say some COMMIT SUICIDE.
This is the one of the reasons that cause the difference. Of course, it also shows that when is concerns to OTHERS live, we Chinese is kind of a little cold. but we should know that some who try to suicide on Haizhu Bridge was not really intend to kill themselves, the true problem is that they were treated fairly and properly. Psychological counseling doesn’t hit the point, it is the society itself need reflection.
This article is very impressive. I was touched by the Americans’ volunteer activities to save the people trying to suicide, and shocked by the ice-cold words on the signs posted by Chinese officials. Why is there so obvious difference? I think it’s still the attitude toward the life and humanity. During the 2000 years history, Chinese people have developed a view from the Confucianism that single person is less important than the whole group or community. Even at present, in the modern life, most people have lost their own consciousness in the group. Luckily, more and more people have realized this problem, who are paying more attention to person, who are calling on the society and the government to attach importance to humanity. In my opinion, as the economy and culture develop further, this problem will be solved in China.
It’s known to all that there is very huge difference between Chinese culture and American culture. Besides the difference in culture, the difference in national condition could also contribute to the phenomenon mentioned above. The author of this article may hold that people in China do not care about lives, instead they place much more importance on the effectiveness of the society. This is not true. From my prospective, China is a developing country. There is no doubt that her economical level is far behind America. Some areas of China are still facing the problem of food and clothing which could be used to maintain alive, let alone the social security system which aims to improve people’s life. With the enhancement of economical level, the government could pour the spare money and energy into the construction of the social security system. But we could learn from America since they have done such a good job in this field.
find myself in complete agree with the argument stated in this article. In China, the value of lives has always been ignored. The phenomenon reflected above is only a striking one; however, there are some cases that have not caught the public attention. Numerous of worker in the private mine enterprise die every year in China, and although the government reiterate the command that small mine owners should protect the health and life of workers, the accidents still happen frequently and seriously. The owners of private mine only turn a deaf ear to these warnings, unwilling to take the responsibility of ensuring the safety of workers. I think that this inhumanity rooted in Chinese should make responsible for the state of underdeveloped of China. If we continue to disregard this vulnerability of character of Chinese, China will be still far from strong and civilized.
There is one more thing that shows the dissimilarity. To me, it’s seems that the would be jumpers on the Golden Gate Bridge have had their mind made up before they would carry it out, but the jumpers on Haizhu Bridge were more likely to be an attempt to attract the public attention.It’s been proved to be an effective way to solve their own problems, for with such a great pressure from the public it may caused, the administrator would take their problems, such as the arrears of wages for workers, seriously.
However, it doesn’t mean that the jumper’s attempt to suicide can be neglect, we still need to learn to value a person’s life, the author really has an eye for the problems within our society.
As a local in Guangdong, I think there are something more than just culture differences for this phenomenon. First of all, many of the people who go to the Haizhu Bridge to “suicide” do not really want to end their lives. What they want is a way to attract the attention from our society to help them solve the problems like salary delay. In fact, there are too few ways in our country to help the social vulnerable group. Secondly, life is not respected enough in our society. People sometimes pay more attention to fortune and money because the society really regards this as successful. However, I am glad to see that this is gradually changing as more attentions are paid to this aspect.
Isn’t it really two bridges-two cultures?
To be honest, two bridges (the Haizhu Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge) are different and have different culture background. However, as to the governments to deal with the question of suicide, are they really related to the cultures?
In my opinion, two bridges are located in different countries and each country has different national conditions. To a certain extent, it is reasonable for each country to take the corresponding policies according to their own national conditions. Maybe the decisions-making of two governments are right. The key to the problem is that we should proceed from reality, explore the feasibility plan together and reference good measures each other.
Unfortunately,I don’t agree with some oppinions in this article.
In fact,Most people who determined to commit suicide from Haizhu Bridge are losers in life,they didn’t really want to jump from the bridge ,they only needed others to pay more attention on them.
Two different bridge-two different cultures,two different countries,so many different things,so, if we want know more about a country,know more about its culture,we should know more about the people,know their really thoughts.
I don’t think that it is “two bridges ,two cultures”.The two things have no relations.There are many people who suicide in every country.People suicide for kinds of reasons.Culture maybe one of these reasons,but not the most important one.Frankly speaking,psychological doctors are really few in China,and two many people may need their help.But this case is not caused by our culture.I think what can be recognized as culture is good,such as respecting the old and cherishing the young.So decreasing suiciding shouldn’y by changing cultures,but by making people see that their living is important to all people around them,and to the society.
I am not sure whether the goverment had given the answer about the suicide or not, and i haven’t paid attention to the sign on Haizhu brige. From cultural aspect, China is a country that emphasizes collectivism more than individualism. Those who don’t obey the group rules are criticized as the mouse that spoiled the whole pot of soup. Those who suicie are looked down upon.
while on the other hand, i think the goverment now emphasizes on the economic development overly, never realizing that only economic development can’t bring the citizens happiness. To solve this kind of things , much need to do and there is a long way to go.
To be honest,we should learn something from this article.There are a lot of unharmonious factors in our society such as unequal treating,indifference,money worship,bureaucracy and so on. I have ever asked myself why this could happen and I really have a mixed feeling of it.There is no doubt that some of these “would be jumpers” want people and government to pay attention on them,but,to think it more carefully,why did they risk their lives to do this?
Also,the government workers should be aware of their attitude,when dealing with these business.The quality of the executor should be improve.
I think not all people who suicides on Haizhu Bridge really want to end their precious life. Some people may meet very difficult problems, and they do not know who they can turn to for help, or they have asked for help but no one even the government did not give their hands to them. So they have to choose this very method. They think in this way people will care about them.
Those who blame suicides for disrupting traffic should really reflect themselves. So does our government. Why we cannot stop those suicides before they climb up that bridge? Why our society becomes so cold that we don’t care about others’ life?
A helping system need to be built. But the most important, people should care each other more and put life in the first place even those who are in big trouble are not our family or friends.
In China,people mostly use one thing to judge one’s value—money.What’s the meaning we take college education,or what’s the meaning we live,to most people,is earning money,money is very important in China.Of course,you can’t condemn Chinese money value after all China is still a developing country and many Chinese are living in a poor life,also the social insurances still are not availale to many people.Living in China people always accompany with insecurity,losing a job,lacking of money,to most Chinese ,means losing everything,they can’t control their job,their life,even their destiny.Accompanying with such insecurity,how could we condemn people’s ignoration to others life?So,insecurity cause ignoration,to sovle that,we have a long way to go.
To tell the truth,I couldn’t completely agree with this article. Chinese human rights usually become developped countries’ attack target. However,why they can’t see the changes in China? A culture match an economic level,once China gain ability to create enough productivity, the people rights will be respected even serious than every country in this world. With the growth of GDP, the government in China have already done so many to pay back the common people, like the free middle and primary school education now. Maybe the bridge culture really reflect some differences between two countries, and the behaviour of Guangzhou on Haizhu Bridge is really not reasonable enough, necessary to make some adjustments and improvements. However it’s only a aspect of the government, of Guangzhou, of China. We can not take a part for the whole, right? I still believe life is the most important things, and I ascertain the government also agree to it！Or they will not do so much , contribute so much to improve national lives.Tomorrow in China will be better, I am sure!
EDITOR’S NOTE: GOOGLE THIS AND YOU WILL LEARN MORE. THE EDITOR NEVER SAW THE SIGN AND DOES NOT KNOW IF IT IS STILL THERE BUT IT WAS REPORTED IN THE NEWS.
When I read this article, the pictures firstly drew my attention. There were two bridges with well photographed, which were located on opposite sides of the world, one in China, one in California. Both of them shared the same nickname:”Suicide Bridge”. Comparing with the two famous “Suicide Bridges”, the author presented two attitudes between the two different cultures to suicide. The main point of the differences was, in San Francisco, people did something to prevent someone of suicide; while in Guangzhou, people pay more attention on the suicide people not to disrupt traffic. I didn’t think about such culture differences before. Actually, I am not quite sure about the note on the Haizhu Bridge. Does it really seem to be so cold? I would like to visit the bridge, and watch the note myself.
I have heard about the suicides on Haizhu Bridge from the local newspapers.I was deeply impressed by a story about a old man who was in cautious pushed a suicider into the river. And many discussions about the story in the newspaper.Howerver, it shows that most of the people support the old man’s activity.On the contrary,I remember in the American serial “Friends”,there is a time Pheobe take measures to prevent a stranger’s suicide.Maybe it’s the huge difference between Chinese culture and American culture.
Relax , people in China will not scorn life like this. Without a doubt,China has huge amounts of opulation.The traffic jam has been a fash problem. So, we should comprehend the complicated mood of the traffic controller. Of course, they value the lifes .As a result of a social transformation,people in China has been puzzled by a lot of substantial elements.This influence the way we show concern about others,lacking of mental attention.So, maybe the humour which approximates cruelty would give some courage to those people.In the final analysis,who will find another place really? Relax.
EDITOR’S NOTE: THE OSTRICH OACH SUGGESTED BY THIS STUDENT IS EXACTLY WHAT SEPARATES PEOPLES, CAUSES MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND RESULTS IN WARS. THERE IS EVERY REASON TO LEARN ABOUT EACH OTHERS’ CULTURES.
This topic is a sensitive issue that involves in not only just culture, but also the system of a country. There is no meaning to compare different cultures between different countries, because people from different regions have extremely distinct values about the culture, the life and the world. In China, people still live in such a low level that the major of people feed up themselves only with so little salary. Most of graduates can not afford so much high price of house, even worse, hundreds of graduates can’t find a job. Karl Marx once said, superstructure is based on economic. I believe in the theory deeply, so it is common that we have different value of culture with the west, our country is still called underdeveloped country.
What I also want to say is that, it is reasonable for each country to take the corresponding value according to their own national conditions. In our country, this situation is called Chinese characteristics. There is no necessity to compare it with others, to make comments on it. Just take it easy!
Maybe the stories which happened on the two bridges just reflect the differences of two cultures. In China, there is a very bad phenomenon. When something happened like accident or quarrels, there are always a lot of people staying around and craning their necks to have a look. Sometimes they even make the things worse. But I think this phenomenon can be changed with the time fly. We can change our thoughts when we see something inappropriate happening. We may first consider stopping the bad things instead of just watching them with fun.
From this article , we know that it is very different between Chinese culture and American culture. I think there are many reasons for this. Firstly, these tow countries have different history. China is an old country, it has all kinds of traditions, but America is a young country, it is modern. Secondly, these two countries have different political system. For the behalf of the people, the two governments will make different policies and do different choices. The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco California and the Haizhu Bridge in Guangzhou reflect different cultures. Through the two bridges, we can study to each other.
Afterr reading this article, I really thought a lot about the culture difference and misunderstandings because of it. As we all know, there is a huge difference between Chinese and American culture. The American prefer freedom, and we prefer family and so on. But for the issue mentioned in this article, I think we should post our comments after we get more information. As what I know, our government have implemented some measures to try to solve this problem. They want to both save the lives of those people and not affect the traffic. It is not that bad as what said in this article.(That old man thing was just a exception.) It is quite true that there is a difference between western countries and china in human rights, but, it is also quite true that there is a great improvement in china. We recognize the gap, but we also don’t like some western countries attack our country in this issue on purpose
I really hope we can build a bridge on this gap!
EDITOR’S NOTE: PERSONAL ATTACKS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED. IT IS ILL ADVISED TO SUGGEST ANYONE IS STUPID, PARTICULARLY YOUR PROFESSOR WHO IS ATTEMPTING TO EXPAND YOUR WORLD VIEW.
The Chinese government serves the people wholeheartedly. For the suicides,.feel that choose to commit suicide, choose to survive, are human rights. If you want to commit suicide ,some people advised you , it expressed somebody concerned about you . In around me, I understand that whether government or schools, pay attention to the phenomenon of suicides . The Government has a lot of contingency measures, the school sends teachers to do psychological counseling. Treatment is relatively successful. Need to treasure life, others do not have the right to dominate.
As a student from Philosophy department, I have to say that I am not sure about what is the answer to this question: if death is worse than life?
Suicide is the most serious philosophical problem, it pushes us to confront the hash question: if the life is worth to live?
Of course, no one has the right to deprive the life of other people. But in a suicide, death reveals itself as a personal choice.
So I don’t agree the senior who pushed the jumper over the Haizhu Bridge, I think he was committing a murder.
The American people try to install a net below the bridge as a suicide deterrent; and the Haizhu Bridge has been greased to inhibit climbing the superstructure. The former try to save people who have already jumped down, and the latter try to prevent people from jumping, I don’t think there is essential difference. May be the most obvious difference is that the American people pay much more money.
In my opinion, since China is still a developing country, we are facing a lot of problem such as medical service. So, I think we should pay that money to improve the medical service to save people who are struggling with diseases, since they are willing to live very much.
I have heard of many pieces of news about poor people attemped to commit suicide on Haizhu Bridge. This kind of news always make me feel sad and powerless. I can do nothing to help them. I know it clearly that their purpose is not to kill themselves but to draw official attention. I feel they are poor not because they are mentally ill or committing suicide but because they meet some very big problem and they have nothing else to de but to use their lives as a hostage to draw official attention and help them. And very often situation is taht the problems they met are related to social fare or individual’s benefit. So I want to say it is not their fault. However, their are many people in China are facing with these kind of problems and they will copy behaviors of others, so the “commit suicide show” appears more and more, which has run out of the government’s capacity to treat them well. I think their is no sinner in this phenomenon. It is a problem caused by big population and disordered administration in China.
The different readings do reflect different culture. However there is no absolutely good or bad of a culture. Every culture grows in different background. It must be reasonable of its existence. We cannot judge a culture without considering about the background.
In these bridges reading case, different readings reflect different concern of the government. In San Francisco, the reading cares about people’s lives directly, while the Chinese reading cares about the efficiency of the society. Since China has a large population, efficiency of the society is very important. Maybe a delay of the traffic will kill more than one person. So we need to balance between the suicide one and the whole society. Hence a stern warning can work out, and it is adopted to solve the problem. From this aspect Chinese reading is reasonable. This just is the culture difference, do take it.
I never walked through Haizhu Bridge and didn’t notice the sign, either. Does it really mean to ask people intent on ending their lives to go somewhere else for suicide just for keeping traffic order? It sounds really unbelievable. I doubt whether it is a kind of humor sent by the designer, as the interesting sign near highway “Do not drive too fast. There’s no hospital nearby.” No one would try to find out weather there’s any hospital nearby, but they all will smile and remember it. The sign is thought to be useful and interesting. Is it somewhat the same with the sign on Haizhu Bridge? As a person grown up in the Chinese culture and still strongly disagree with ignoring one’s life in face of traffic, I just keep my opinion about it. And what’s more, I can’t agree with the saying “A person who has decided to commit suicide has already determined that their life is worthless so why should the Government invest any money in saving a worthless life?” I believe everyone’s life is worth saving, even though he/she doesn’t think much of his/her own life. We all have the experience of being extremely frustrated and desperate. People tend to look oneself down at that tough time, but could be happy and vigorous again after that. All they need is a hand to pull them out of the swamp. Then they’ll probably gain a new life.
It is a really big shock for me there is a so much cultural difference about lives. I have heard of the affairs about Haizhu Bridge since a long time ago. As far as I know, most of the attempted suicides are farmer-workers coming from the poor rural places. They struggle to earn money in Guangzhou city but however, their employers delay to pay them wages and even don’t pay any money. This provokes their anger and sadness. They have nothing to do it but to climb up to bridge structure wanting to finish their lives. In my opinions, maybe they are not going to commit suicide but to be paid more attentions so that the government will help them to deal with their problems. Regardless of which the reason of committing suicide is, the government should take actions to help these poor people. Although I really feel pity for them, but I am ashamed to say that is none of my business and I don’t want to put a hand in it in order to avoid trouble. Just like the thing we don’t dare to help the aged when they are knocked down by the traffic on the road because sometime if you help them, they will affirm that it is you who has knocked them down and just ask you for money. It is due to the government to handle this problem. I believe that most persons will think as I do, so there is symptom that people just concern their smooth driving on Haizhu Bridge. Besides, I think such a cultural difference has much to do with the religious belief, we are lack of belief not like the western countries and the religion will always spread goodness among believers. The culture of helping the need has changed a lot during these days, and I think there are many things to do to right our people’s notions, such as regulating the traffic collision mentioned, developing the law court for people to ask for their right, more charities being set up to spread goodness and so on.
After reading the article “TWO BRIDGES-TWO CULTURES”, I was lost in thought for quiet a while. There is nothing to do with patriotism or nationalism that I really appreciate what the San Francisco government has done to prevent suicides and save lives as many as possible, and in the other hand, disagreed with Chinese government officials’ attitude towards suicide. It sounds a little cold-blooded and unreasonable that what the Chinese government officials really concern about is the traffic order rather than people’s safety and life. One of the reasons to explain this culture difference is that Chinese people have been educated to be collectivists since childhood and usually have to look at the big picture instead of considering individual demand, while most western countries value individual and personality much more than China does. It is a great honor to sacrifice someone’s life for the sake of country’s stable order in China, which can partly explain why Chinese officials treat traffic order more important than a person’s life. That doesn’t mean I appreciate what the officials do. What I am trying to say is maybe collectivism was necessary and honorable in war times, but in recent China it goes to extreme and incurs too little attention on civil rights. Whether we admit it or not, it deserves deep reflection.
In my opinion, one reason for the two completely different solutions is that the population of China is much larger than America. Of course, it doesn’t mean that life in china is with less value. I just want to point out that with larger population we aren’t able to think about one life but not the traffic for much more people. For example, maybe someone in the traffic jam is trying to hurry up to rescue others and possibly there is a fire engine to help the people who fall in fire, and so on. So sometimes we regard the people who try to sursice on Haizhu Bridge as selfish ones .
Exactly I believe when the population is decreased, and the people who try to suicide aren’t as many as today on the Haizhu Bridge, In addition, the traffic isn’t as crowded as now. Maybe govement officials would prevent suicides by all of means more frequently, instead of putting a sign “DO NOT DISRUPT TRAFFIC. FIND SOMEPLACE ELSE TO KILL YOURSELF” there.
It’s a complicated question about suicide, which always makes me confused. Life is precious . To everyone , life is only once. Should we be selfish to end our lives not caring about others’ feelings? My answer is no. Sometimes I’m wondering how much courage it would take to kill oneself. I’m even scared to make myself hurt.
There are many difference between China and America. I can’t tell exactly which is better. But I do admire westerners’ value of life. They take life highly and enjoy their lives. Just take house for example. Many Chinese spend most of life on making money to buy a house. So they feel pressure. On the contrary, Americans rent house all their lives. And they are much happier. And many Chinese work for surviving , otherwise Americans work for interests.
Every time read about the ice-cold words about others suicide when reading papers, I fell angry. However, It has long-oriented. I hope this situation will change in the future.
I first really paid attention to the Haizhu Suicide Bridge because one day I went to Beijing Road. The bus driver told another there someone want to suicide in Haizhu Bridge again, they must change the road because of the traffic. They didn’t care about the suicide person accaucully, that’s very impressive.
Before long, the reporter said that a jumper be pushed over the edge by a person who always try to help the suicide person because he was frustrated with the selfishness and attention seeking of the jumper.
That’s very shock.But; seriously, if someone didn’t care about his life.How can he make someone else care about another’s life. Maybe a lot of them didn’t want to kill them, they just want the government pay more attention to them.But, suicide is a wrong solution. They could apply for an audience with the higher authorities to appeal for help. You have only one life. If you lost it, you will regret forever.
At the same time, we should actually pay attention to the high risk group; they live in a terrible condition. They always meet amount of problem in their daily life. We should impress that we care about them, make them felt the love.
Maybe there are so many different in the two country and two culture. But I’m sure that we live life, we love each other. We have so much solution to take to avoid the suicide. So let’s start from here.
Two different bridges stand on opposite sides of the world, with a common nickname but two different cultures. In Guangzhou, the officials’ primary concern is on maintaining traffic flow. While in San Francisco, the main concern is on saving lives. I heard such reports quite a lot also. In my opinion, most of the people who climb the Haizhu Bridge do not mean to commit suicide. What they need is just attention, the whole society’s attention. Many of them are the lowest level of the society, and their legal rights are infringed. They have no option but to make such an unwise move. So, if their rights are well protected, and they can resort to the government or the law when their rights are infringed, the number of the suicides on the Haizhu Bridge will decrease. The practice what the officials in San Francisco take is quite expensive for China, and they may not bother to devote so much energy and money to deal with it, which they think is quite useless.
Believe or not, I used to try to commit suicide myself. It was just one simple thought that I want to end my pain and the only way to do it were be suicide. Many people would think it’s just selfish and unreasonable, but if they were at their shoes they would understand the problem better. They need help but most of all they need hope, which is hard for them to gain. We can see that no matter in America or in China the numbers of people who wants to kill themselvies are enormous. You may do many things trying to stop people jump the bridge, but the question is if it really help?
Haizhu Qiao “suicide “incident has aroused the concern of the majority of the people. At the same time, it is a reflection of People’s livelihood. I am not sure that Guangzhou government has really taken that measure. In any case, this article reflects the fact: these “suicide” incidents reflect some government officials are careless and neglect their duty. In short, a civilized society is full of warmth and inclusive society, and at any place, life is the first one. I believe that the government has paid much attention to the “suicide” incident.
This article really reflects two different cultures. We cannot say which one is more reasonable. The western culture seems more care about every single person; meanwhile, the Chinese culture seems talk more about the community spirit. Although we are on the same earth, we do have different life style. We have different history, different ancestor, different background, and so on. China has a large population. For every single person, we do want to get more attention from others; we do not want to be forgotten by the society. However, for such a large population, it may be so difficult. Therefore, in this article, some actions seem to be reasonable. Nevertheless, for my personal opinion, I want to have a warm country rather than an efficient country.
I was always attracted by the beautiful scenery when I passed the Haizhu Bridge by bus. Sometimes I may met Serious traffic congestion, there would be a lot of time for me to have a look at the Haizhu Bridge but I never know it has a nickname “Suicide Bridge”. Why people choose it as the place of jumping to their deaths?
Refer to the famous building – Golden Gate Bridge, frankly speaking, I just can get some information of it from internet. It is the second longest suspension bridge, and has become an internationally recognized symbol of San Francisco and California. However, I’m not familiar with the background of builting it and the culture implied in it.
Comparing two bridges, comparing two cultres can be good for understanding the people from another country more deeply. The things what San Francisco bridge workers done was so lovely that make me feel so warm. And the way which chinese government chose to deal with suicide is also acceptable, their have their duty and concerns.
Observeing life and comprehending life is so great!
I am just coming to tell you that the first picture is not Haizhu Bridge, but Haiyin Bridge. Internet makes mistakes sometimes. Here is the Haizhu Bridge:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/05/25/article-1187274-05150ACC000005DC-967_634x310.jpg
http://www.pcauto.com.cn/playcar/rcgs/0511/pic/051112_gzq_15.jpg
First of all I think this article is thought-provoking. In this regard the policy of California is humane, and Guangdong’s is objective. Although the example the authors cites cannot represent the whole of China, it shows that there are problems in China.
I grew up in the North, and not know much about the South. In Hebei Province, there is such a thing. Some people, for some reason to commit suicide, or have committed suicide in the form of the government’s attention. Regardless of their purpose, there will be a lot of people in their efforts to save them, even if they are aimed solely at the government’s attention. I think everyone’s heart is good, if you think they are good they are good people.
In the final I would like to say there is a phenomenon in China that those bad things only in the news, good thing is the less likely. A woman asked her husband why the contents of newspapers are committing suicide, war, divorce, etc. Is human nature so bad? Her husband told her that if a newspaper is a good thing that it would not be news.
I did not concerned about similar things before I read this article.I can’t say who is right and who is wrong,I just feel a profound difference between American and China. We are different countries, so we have different culture,background, values and different attitude.
Frankly speaking,there are many bad phenomenons in China,“commit suicide show”is only one of them. With economy and culture developing, people’s pressure is also growing. Real dilemma give them the courage to commit suicide When people need help but nobody to help them .Whether in China or in San Francisco, what we need to focus on is the causes of suicide. If not, all the actions to prevent suicide are only stopgap measures. It won’t solve the problem fundamentally .
Actually,I have no idea about the different cultures which are reflected in the two bridges.I have never heard of the Golden Gate Bridge before and I dont’t know why those people choose it as a place to end their lives. The reasons of people’s choices of the two places were neither told in the article,which I think would be useful for us to make a better understanding on the different cultures.”The Golden Gate Bridge is the most popular place in the world for suicides” while the Haizhu Bridge is famous for its suicide events in 2009.The first event happened on the Haizhu Bridge provoked social compassion and also the traffic jam.Then the second one,the third one……happened one by one in a month,and it shows that most of the suicides are not real suicides.They merely want to call social attention so that government could help them to solve their problems.They make pressure on the society with their lives!In one hand,I don’t like the Jumpping Show which disturbs public order.In the other hand,I know there must be something important even more than their lives leading to their unreasonable action.We won’t forget that 2009 was a cold year beacuse of the Financial Crisis, and some of the suicides climbed up the Haizhu Bridge were for their wages that were not paid to support their life.Maybe there is something different between the two bridges on culture, I take it as the differences between the economic degreed in two places which is the basic of social needs.The needs of some of the suicides on Haizhu Bridge are not to end their pain of life.It is not a mere psychological problem of ones’ own but a complex social phenomenon.One day,group of people in Guangzhou are able to made their effor to save
someone who is intended to kill himself for psychological problems specially, there would be no groups of suicide events on Haizhu Bridge any more.I wish everything went well.After all,life is valuable for everyone with once only.
There are so many people living unhappily,who bear so much stress in their daily life both in China and America. The persons live in different culture, educated with different thoughts. I think the important reason of different attitudes towards suicide in bridge is the different national conditions. China is on the process of developing, while America is the strongest country. Nomatter the infrastructure or ideology, America does better than China. There are so many problems related to people’s daily issues. In China there are so many persons sufferring from hungry and illness in many regions, the economical level doesn’t allow us do some other else. The approach of settling the suicide in bridge in China doesn’t show we pay no attention to our citizens, the reality doesn’t permit us to do that. When my country becomes much stronger, much richer, there would be more resource assigned to other issues. What we should do now, as a responsible citizen, we should do what we should and each performs its own functions. The faith we should always keep in mind is that: Treasure life and never give up!
As I take it, the two stories do reflect some differences of two cultures. But it’s a common sense that different countries have different cultures. In the west, people always attach great importance to human rights, which has caused enormous frictions between China and some western coutries. Methods to deal with problems above should accord to social environment.
Guangzhou has a dense population, which is the reason for frequent traffic jams. The person attempted to suicide on Haizhu Bridge led to a traffic jam for almost five hours. Although policemen had negotiated with him since he climbed to the bridge, still he was unwilling to come down. I don’t wanna comment much about deeds of the old man who pushed him off Haizhu Bridge. The point is that it’s not appropriate to say the Chinese doesn’t save or care lives. We have tried. There’re many stories about people sacrificing themselves to save persons who commit suicide. What the goverment did is for the benefits of majority. Otherwise,the traffic will fall into confusion. The San Francisco government seems to be more humanized, which, however, aims to save and help people as well. So these are just two differnt ways of dealing with a similar matter. We can’t simplely judge they’re right or wrong because they’re both reasonable.
I just want to say something about the difference between Chinese culture and America culture that I know. I heard from a friend who studied in USA that America people owned the very good social security system, so citizen had noting to worry about. But in China the social security system is not still perfect. Many people due to poorism or some other reasons have no choice but to select death. She said when such suicide occured, the government would take out a large sum of money to arrange for their future appropriately. Obviously in China government can only relieve the contradiction but can not resolve the contradiction, so many people are unable to find any hope in future but only to go to death.
Actually, I agree, as stated above, that “This article is a factual thought provoking comparison of two different cultures and different attitudes towards two different local bridges. ” However, I think the comparison is unreasonable. The attitude towards the Golden Gate Bridge just is representative of the authorities. Fitting suicide hotline telephones, patrolling, and other activities concerning saving lives in Golden Gate Bridge described in this essay are mostly from the support of the official. In this article, I cannot know how the folks especially passersby in San Francisco or US think about would be jumpers, and what actions will they take as a real help without the official. By contrast, the attitude of both the authorities and citizens towards the Haizhu Bridge are portrayed in this article. This is much more authority and holistic when concerning the culture. From this perspective, I do believe that if the attitude and action of the US folks could be introduced above, it will be more convincing.
Most of the people who seem want to commit suicide do actually intend to have troubles solved. They don’t really suicide. And rubber-neckers know that clearly. Hence it is easy to explain Chinese behaviors. To reduce these accidents, I think this is the social problem, not the skin-deep solutions that conciliate the parties. So we must pay more attention on the social problem. If this problem is solved, there maybe less suicides.
Yes!I admit that there are some problems in we chinese people’s attitude towars suicide and lives.We need a course to arouse some sense of human value.But I think it’s no use to be too jacobinical.Innovation is a long course in society.