ANTI-GLOBALIST EXPATRIATE writes:

Not getting involved in the troubles of strangers is the norm in Asian societies. There are numerous horror stories of victims of accidents or other misfortunes suing and even preferring criminal charges against bystanders who did try to intervene and assist the victims. See this article about Chinese subway passengers recently abandoning a fainting passenger.

If you’re a pedestrian in many Southeast Asian countries and are struck by a vehicle, the best thing you can possibly do to ensure your immediate survival is to try and get out of any possible path the vehicle which struck you might take to strike you again. In those countries, it isn’t unusual for the operator of a motor vehicle who injures a pedestrian to try and finish the job, in order to possibly stave off any demands of compensation from the victim.

The subsequent step is for the operator of the motor vehicle to either flee the scene, or if he’s influential or the relative of someone influential, proclaim to one and all that he’s untouchable because of his power and influence, or both.

Fleeing the scene and/or proclaiming that the perpetrator’s power and influence overrides any other considerations are not uncommon in China, too. I’ve never heard of either of these scenarios in Japan, South Korea, or Singapore.

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