Falling down in China

There's sometimes no telling what might become a hot topic in China. This week's odd sleeper appears to be the subject of how to approach old people who have fallen down. It's such a weighty matter than recently, the Ministry of Health issued new technical guidelines on how to handle an older person who has fallen. In short, don't leave them lying there to die.

That very things has happened several times recently, much to the disdain of web commenters and others who say it's a signal of the decline of Chinese society. A piece in today's China Daily newspaper blames a 2006 court ruling for the societal scourge of people choosing not to intervene when someone is hurt, noting that in several cases those who intervened were faulted with causing the accident. But China's non-interventionist attitude toward those who are injured or otherwise embroiled in problems dates far back beyond 2006.