The incident of giving up one’s seat on the bus

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●Key point: On July 12, a bus passenger was slapped for refusing to give up her seat; the person who struck her kept shouting insults after taking the seat. Recently, on Bus No. 64 in Harbin, Ms. Luo was using her phone and didn’t hear an elderly person asking her to give up her seat; when she looked up, she saw that the person was cursing at her. He got up to offer his seat, saying it wasn’t right to demand one, but that one sentence angered the other person, who then hit him. 　　The girl was very upset; she said that she really hadn’t heard anything, and that he kept shouting offensive things. She merely wanted to say something, but was slapped. After slapping her, the old man actually tried to hit her again, but was stopped by other passengers. After successfully sitting down after hitting someone, he kept cursing in extremely vulgar ways. 　　The driver said that this old man was really rude; the seat the girl was sitting in wasn’t meant specifically for the elderly, children, sick, or disabled people*. Even if he asked to have that seat, he shouldn’t have adopted such an abusive attitude. It’s terrifying that what should take decades to develop has, in the eyes of some people, turned into a right to beat those who refuse to give up their seats. Recently, on a Shenyang Bus No. 215, a girl was violently beaten by the elderly man’s family members after she reluctantly muttered something while giving up her seat to him; as a result, she suffered injuries and had her nose broken. In recent years, public conflicts arising from the issue of giving up seats have occurred frequently across the country. Reporters have compiled a review of these incidents related to seat-sharing. Should one be beaten for not giving up their seat? There are frequent incidents in which social morality is coupled with the threat of violence, with people demanding that others give up their seats; if the other person hesitates even slightly, they are met with abusive language or even physical attacks: “It’s only right to give up your seat,” “If you don’t, you deserve to be beaten,” “I’ll teach you a lesson on behalf of your mother”... [Case 1] “Those who don’t give up their seats deserve to be beaten.” In the incident related to seat-sharing that took place in Shenyang on March 30, 2014, the girl muttered unwillingly as she got up, “Why does it have to be me who gives up my seat?” but she still showed respect for the elderly through her actions. However, when the family members threw punches at the girl, the old man did not stop them; instead, he approved of their violent behavior. According to media reports, in August 2012, on a Jinan No. 115 bus, a young man who was feeling dizzy due to alcohol did not give his seat to a woman with a child beside him; as a result, he was slapped by the woman, who also told him, \"I’m teaching you a lesson on behalf of your mother.\" 【Case 2】Stealing Seats and Sitting on People’s Legs: According to media reports, in November 2013, on Bus No. 202 in Xi’an, a young girl refused to give up her seat to an elderly person who asked for it; as a result, the old man used abusive language and sat down on the girl. In February 2014, on a No. 17 bus in Shiyan, an aunt in her 60s and a 4-year-old boy fought over a seat. Since the boy sat down first, the woman sat right on top of his legs, cursing and scolding him for being \"rude.\" 【Comment】Liu Ting, a lawyer at Tianjin Risheng Law Firm, pointed out that giving up one’s seat is based solely on an individual’s moral standards, and there are no relevant legal provisions requiring it as an obligation for citizens. If a dispute arises among them and one party suffers harm, civil liability shall be incurred ； If it constitutes a minor injury, criminal liability can be pursued. “Sitting on the lap of a person of the opposite sex without reason constitutes a civil infringement of another person’s right to reputation, and may result in penalties such as fines or detention under public order laws. ” Zhang Baoyi, director of the Sociology Institute at the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that the root cause of such disputes lies in the \"deserved\" mindset of those who commit violence. The attacker, based on factors such as age, considered \"sitting\" to be a privilege inherent to their status, believing they had the right to order others. In fact, giving up one’s seat is not an obligation, nor should there be any sense of obligation to do so. ” Can youth represent everything? In the 2012 film \"Search,\" the female protagonist, Ye Lanqiu, was criticized by others for not giving up her seat on the bus, with them accusing her of lacking a sense of public morality and not caring for the weak. However, what the other passengers in the film did not know was that Ye Lanqiu herself was a patient with advanced lymphoma, and also considered a \"weak person\" who needed care. In reality, those who are given their seats are not all healthy and strong. Yet even those who are physically disabled or sick are forced by some people, in the name of respecting the elderly and caring for the young, to give up their seats, with comments like, “Why are you so young?” ” 【Case 1】Disability is no excuse. According to media reports, in August 2012, on a K192 bus in Hangzhou, a young man was slapped five times by a woman’s husband for not giving up his seat to her, who was carrying a child; his glasses were shattered and he started bleeding from his nose. Afterward, a friend who claimed to be the boy who was beaten said that the boy was actually a disabled person with mobility issues. 【Case 2】 “Who asked you to be young?” Ma Yan, a 33-year-old resident of Shenyang, told the reporter, “Once I had a fever and took the bus to get medical treatment and get an injection; an old lady kept staring at me and shouting, ‘Young people these days really don’t know how to behave; they don’t even offer their seats to the elderly.’” I told her I was sick, and she became even more insistent, saying, ‘You’re so young; even if you have a fever, your body will recover faster than an older person’s.’ ” 【Case 3】Period-related abdominal pain is no excuse either. According to media reports, in January 2014, on Bus No. 7 in Changsha, Miss Duan failed to give up her seat to a woman carrying a child because of the pain and fatigue associated with her period, and as a result, the man accompanying the woman attacked her with punches and kicks, causing swelling in her lips. Miss Duan said aggrievedly, “I wasn’t feeling well at that time.” \"Normally, I don’t sit down on the bus even when there are seats available; I leave them for those who need them…\" 【Comment】At present, some cities have quietly changed the slogan on buses from \"Please give your seat to the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled\" to \"Please give your seat to those who need help.\" Those who are considered \"the elderly and the young\" in the traditional sense do indeed have weaker physical conditions and require care, but relying solely on superficial identity criteria, it is impossible to accurately determine \"who are the weak.\" Young people can also be “people in need of help.” Why is it so hard to say “thank you”? “I’m willing to give up my seat, but I’d prefer to hear encouragement and thanks. ”Regarding the issue of whether to give up one’s seat, many people expressed the same hope. 【Case 1】“Why thank me?” She deserves it! ” According to media reports, in July 2013, Sun Limin, a resident of Shenyang, gave up her seat on bus route 64 to an elderly woman in her 70s. After sitting down, in response to her husband’s suggestion to say “thank you,” the old lady said, “Why thank them?” She deserves it! ” 【Case 2】An octogenarian \"honors\" the person who gave up his seat. According to a report by a media outlet in October 2012, dissatisfied with young people giving up their seats to seniors, an elderly man sat down indifferently. Hu Guozhu, an 84-year-old man from Zhuzhou, and his spouse, in order to express their gratitude, put one yuan and a letter of thanks into a red envelope as a way to honor the person who gave up his seat. 【Comment】Some commentators have said that if respecting the elderly does not lead to kindness toward children, and if giving up one’s seat does not earn gratitude, how can citizens’ moral standards improve? Society needs positive moral feedback to acknowledge the good deeds of others. A simple “thank you” can foster positive interaction in society. ““Please give your seat to those in need.” In 2011, volunteer groups dedicated to reserving seats appeared on Shanghai’s subways. “Members are mostly college students and working professionals, who organize activities through Weibo and online forums. “The activity of the \"seat reservation group\" involves informing passengers sitting in reserved seats on the subway to \"give up their seats to those in need.\" In Japan, public transportation facilities such as buses and subways have dedicated spaces* for use by those in need. No matter how many passengers there are, no one will sit in the designated * areas casually. This is a consumption regulation that citizens must abide by. “China also has similar seats, but people lack a sense of compliance. This shows that the overall society’s awareness of public morality and public consciousness still needs to be improved. ”Zhang Baoyi said.