First hand take on China's elders

The recent issue of The Communicator includes an Article by Jarad Alexander titled, Use and abuse of a generation. He begins with, “In China elderly people are revered. If a young man saw an elderly woman struggling with some bags his first instinct would probably be to help her.” While I am quite certain that no one took offense at this statement, it isn’t quite correct. I lived in China for nearly two years and saw many instances in which Chinese young men ignore the elderly in need of help with simple tasks. Even when a crowd of people in China get on a bus, the first “instinct” of young men in that crowd is to push everyone else out of the way, including elderly women, so that they may be more likely to get a seat. Anyway, I see how it makes a cute little segue into the topic of the article, but even though people in China generally place immense reverence on the elderly of their own family, it does not necessarily imply they are any more considerate of non-relation elderly than us Americans.

Peace,
Adam D

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