Unraveling truth from fiction in reporting on China.

Fan, Lu

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People rushed away on Aug. 9 in 10 seconds from a foreigner who fainted on a Shanghai subway. The news and a surveillance video clip about the incident caught the attention of journalists both in China and the United States.

In the video, a Caucasian male appeared to lean unconsciously to a woman sitting next to him. After the woman stood up quickly to get away from him, the man fell on the ground when the train braked as it arrived at next station. All the passengers sitting close to him quickly ran away, except for one young man who remained nearby. Reports said someone had shouted "Accident." The video also shows some people running out of the train in panic after the doors opened. A subway officer showed up to talk to the man after he awakened. Once the officer got off the train, the Caucasian man sat down by himself in the train.

The incident was not covered by Chinese media until August 19. Chinas official news agency, Xinhua News Agency, ran stories online from other news outlets but did not release any news itself except a piece on related first aid. The coverage by other Chinese mainstream media generally fell into three categories.

The earliest stories released on the websites of mainstream media had headlines "Foreigner Fainted in Shanghai Subway" and "All Passengers in Three Cars Ran Away in 10 Seconds," and similar ones indicating no one had helped. The stories included details from the surveillance video, and a similar incident had happened on July 18 in which people had run out of another train because a woman's mobile phone had started to smoke. The subway staff had called for people to stay calm and to not panic.

A few hours later, some media released reports with the headlines such as "Shanghai Subway: 'No One helped Fainted Foreigner in Subway' Is Untrue". The reports said some kind passengers told the subway officer about this incident and asked for help after they ran out of the train. These stories ended with comments by subway staff that people should not panic in such incidents.

In the following days, some media released opinion pieces on the incident, with some outlets citing foreign media. Reference News, the newspaper with largest circulation in China, cited the first paragraph of a story in the Wall Street Journal that "if you're in trouble on Chinas subways, don't expect to get help from good Samaritans." Some pieces said there was no need to chastise the passengers. While people might feel fearful when a foreign passenger passes out in front of them and not make reasonable decisions when people run away, this incident reflects the lack of knowledge and training of handling public crisis as well as the need for better emergency service from the subway department. An opinion piece by People's Daily, for example, said people need to be more kind and responsible, rather than simply protecting themselves. Some other pieces offered more positive stories on foreigners living in China.

Chinese media covered this subway accident 10 days after it had happened. It means they had already been delayed by the government from covering it immediately. However, they posted the video clip online showing people running away in panic with the headline of "No one helped fainted foreign passenger" before they checked the fact with the staff in Shanghai subway system. The sense of being the first to publish news has been rooted deeper in news reporters' mind than that of fact checking. Also there is a trend for media in China to report on positive stories after some accidents caused negative and even radical public opinion. However, the positive reporting can hardly save the previous image they created.

The reason passengers ran away without helping was a hot topic on China's Internet. Some Internet users recalled a similarly controversial but more serious accident in 2011. A surveillance video clip showed a two-year old girl named Wang Yue was run over three times by two vehicles in south China. When she was lying on the floor bleeding, 18 people walked by but no one helped. She was rescued by the 19th passer-by, a scavenger named Chen Xianmei. However, Wang Yue died eight days later because of serious injuries. Wang's death aroused the questions on Chinese morality, and also reminded people and the media of the earlier "Peng Yu Case".

In 2006, Xu Shoulan, a 65-year-old female got off a bus and fell to the ground. Peng Yu, a 26-year-old male who got off the bus after her, helped her, accompanied her to the hospital and paid 200 RMB of her medical bill. However, Xu sued Peng in 2007 for a compensation of 136,000 as she claimed Peng had been the one who knocked her down. Media in China at that time spent a lot of space and time on this case and covered many similar cases in following years. As a result, people became cautious of offering help, which led to the so-called indifference. Although some media in China reported on people blackmailed after helping others, the public opinion of "think before helping" had been formed.

Another possible reason of people running away from the fainted passenger is the media's reporting on Ebola. Since the Ebola virus had prevailed in West Africa, especially earlier this year, media in China paid close attention to it. But how they covered it caused public panic. People have only seen reports on growing numbers of patients and death, warning from the United Nation, and how Chinese government sent help to the affected areas. The media seldom talk about how the Ebola virus spreads and how to prevent it scientifically. The coverage of a suspected case in Hong Kong aggravated the panic.

Thus, media in China cannot be completely blamed for generating such public panic and indifference in this case. However, they did not fulfill the responsibility of an agency that the public relies on for fair and objective information.