The ordinary, every-day insensitivity of Chinese..

[Roger]

Not in the mood for bashing Chinese, but I have to get this off my chest.

The other day I left our university through the main gate which leads to Huanshidonglu, Guangzhou's main thoroughfare that runs from the main station to Tianhe in the east with Guangzhou's second rail terminus, a very busy and in parts very posh road.

I had an appointment with someone who needed a little tourist guide help from me. I walked on the south side of Huanshidonglu towards my destination some 2 kms to the west.
It was foggy and drizzly, the weather that's the norm for this season. Visibility was pretty limited.
Some 500 meters from my uni I beheld a curious scene.
Just some 20 meters from the stairs leading up a pedestrian overpass is a tree on the sidewalk, so you can imagine it is a pretty busy pedestrian area. and right there I saw three people...
One was a photographer clicking away like mad at something on the floor right under the tree. The other person was a policeman. Curiously, at first I noticed no pedestrians at all. Then I saw why they were at a safe distance...
They were huddled under the protruding roof of the nearby Shenzhen Bank, watching, gawping, staring... They were in their dozens, maybe hundreds...
And I, the lone waiguoren, was right beside... a corpse!

A nearly naked old man, lying on his back, his shirt opened to reveal a hairless, yellow-skinned torso, his feet sticking out of some baggy trousers.
Gray hair, eyes closed. Someone pulled his trousers down - more nakedness, more pictures, people watching...
I was transfixed, unable to move on. I stared too!
The people doing their job were methodical, practised, going about their business without any haste, displaying no impatience and no particular emotion, interest. Not a word was spoken.

Someone (who? the cop/ i forgot - I saw the old man and little else), lifted the dead man's baggy underpant to see underneath. More watching from the onlookers.
My stomach began to churn. I left.

[con's fly is open]

What, no one had a sheet they could spare?

[danielb]

I have seen the same thing many times in Australia so maybe it's not country specific. Crime scene barriers are difficult to put up at times as well so sometimes it is best to just get things done and get out of there.

[Lotus Eater]

And the gawkers are universal as well. We all seem fascinated by disaster - maybe a 'there but for the grace of god go I' thing.

Saw hundreds of people watching water police in Shanghai trying to gaffe a dead body from the river. left very soon - especially after they dropped it.

[Dr. Gonzo]

I watched a person die outside the expensive compound we were renting in Guilin. Impossible to tell, but I think this was a female of indeterminent age. Skinny like a skeleton, wore a few rags during a bitter winter, and just sat there under a broken, thrown away umbrella during this bitter winter. She wasn't ostensibly begging. I dropped her a few baozi each morning, she said "xie xie", but soon she was gone. a single worn shoe was left on the ground. This still haunts me, though I'm sure no-one else remembers.
A lovely piece of writing Roger. Please keep dropping into the saloon.