Chinese Herald Topic of the week
Author: Yang Wenkai
On June 24, 2024, on an ordinary day, a murder occurred. At about 16 o'clock, a knife wounding case occurred at a bus stop in Suzhou High-tech Zone, targeting Japanese mothers and children waiting for the bus, as well as more children on the Japanese school bus. Suzhou High-tech Development Zone, where more than 700 Japanese-funded enterprises are gathered, and more than 4,000 Japanese live and work. At the last moment, the school bus guide Hu Youping faced the knife-wielding gangsters, desperately stopped them, and was stabbed several times and fell to the ground, and unfortunately passed away after rescue efforts.
55-year-old Hu Youping is an ordinary middle-aged woman, but when others faced serious threats to their lives, she disregarded her personal safety and stepped forward, showing her heroism and character of being brave and fearless, upholding justice, and promoting social justice. She has protected more people from harm at the cost of her life, and her instinctive kindness and righteousness have shocked China and touched Japan.
Suzhou City recognized Hu Youping's righteous and courageous behavior, and posthumously awarded her the title of "Model of Righteousness and Courage". The Japanese Embassy in China lowered the flag at half-mast to salute her: "Ms. Hu Youping has single-handedly protected innocent women and children from gangsters, and I believe that her courage and kindness also represent the Chinese people." We would like to pay tribute to Ms. Hu's righteous deeds and wish Ms. Hu rest in peace. ”
Hu Youping is gone, but the whole incident is not over. Some people may not want to let the incident continue to ferment and hope that it will end as soon as possible, but human lives are at stake, and the stakes are serious, and the spread and impact caused by it are inevitable. Hu Youping's death shattered the hypocritical mask of populism under the guise of "patriotism"; It awakens Chinese society to return to the level of common sense to clarify twists and turns, right and wrong, and redefine what patriotism and justice are; saved a major diplomatic crisis that may arise in Sino-Japanese relations; alleviated the continuous deterioration and alienation of Japanese people's feelings towards China; It may also affect the subsequent choice of Japanese companies to invest in China and vote with their feet.
Hu Youping's death, for whom did he block the knife and who did he disgrace? There is much to reflect on. An ordinary Chinese woman was pushed to the front of Sino-Japanese relations in an unexpected way, and instantly became the center of attention. Recalling that in January 2001, Lee so-hyun, a young South Korean who sacrificed his life to save people at Shin-Okubo Station in Tokyo, was regarded as a hero by the Japanese and remembered for a long time, Hu Youping will become a symbolic topic of bilateral relations for a long time to come, and will live in the memory of Sino-Japanese relations. If China and Japan fail to reflect and change from the tragedy of the death, it will be the greatest disappointment to Hu Youping's life.
First of all, Hu Youping is an ordinary person, she didn't expect to become a hero, let alone die innocently. She doesn't want to represent anyone, she doesn't want to be represented by anyone, she can only represent herself. As Chinese, the concept of "compatriots" is all-encompassing, under the same social environment, why are people so different? The ordinary Hu Youping has kindness and courage, and those murderers who wield their fists and knives when they disagree, as well as the keyboard warriors who incite national confrontation and national antagonism, are two kinds of people who will never intersect. Hu Youping can only represent ordinary people who are as kind as her, and never include the so-called compatriots who frantically assassinated her (even indiscriminate murderers) and the same kind who fanned the flames, because civilization is not with barbarism, and good is not with evil.
Second, the assassination in Suzhou was defined as an episodic case. From the point of view of probability, of course, the incident is accidental, and it must be an individual case, because it is impossible for a normal society to have many incidents and be frightened every day. However, dialectical materialism tells us that contingency and necessity are opposites, interdependent, and transformable. Behind the contingencies, the logic of inevitability is indispensable. From the early U-lock youth, to the recent peeing Internet celebrity iron head, Cui who stabbed 4 Americans in Jilin, and then to Zhou in the Suzhou assassination case, a vicious circle is forming. The wolf is coming, the wind is tight, how can a civilized society ignore its own affairs and turn a blind eye? Only by sparing no effort to understand the inevitability behind accidents can we prevent problems from occurring in the first place, and only by fulfilling the commitment of the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, "China will continue to take effective measures to protect the safety of foreigners in China as it protects Chinese citizens." ”
Third, Hu Youping was stabbed and died in order to prevent the suspect from committing the murder and protect the Japanese elementary school students in the vehicle. The flag of the Japanese Embassy in China was lowered at half-mast to express respect for life and affirmation of righteousness and good deeds. The Chief Cabinet Secretary, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Chinese Ambassador to China, and the Consul General in Shanghai all took the floor to express their gratitude and respect. From the perspective of human nature benchmarks and social common sense, this wave of operations in Japan belongs to normal etiquette, and it is not worth seeing and being too strange. It cannot be ruled out that there will be more praise and commemoration from the Japanese side in the future, because the Japanese attach great importance to the good deeds and righteous deeds of protecting children. Hu Youping's death will become an important topic in Sino-Japanese relations this year. It is worth observing and looking forward to the extent to which Hu Youping can draw the feelings of the Chinese and Japanese people closer and promote national understanding.
Fourth, after the Suzhou injury case, the mainstream media was silent, and many news came from Japanese media reports; After the news of Hu Youping's death was released, the trend of public opinion changed, and a large number of articles were published from mainstream official media to major self-media platforms, which were not without the suspicion of gaining popularity and earning traffic. However, the frenzy of public opinion has concealed the essence of the incident, and the motive for the murder of the suspect Zhou, the process of committing the crime, what his deep hatred and hatred are, and the causes and consequences of the incident are still unclear. Compared with the heaviness of life, those argumentative essays and memorial essays that dance and show off their literary brilliance seem so light. Readers don't need to be deliberately lyrical, society needs the truth, and I believe this is also the wish of the deceased and their families. However, the media is struggling to make this move, and there is still a long way to go.
The deeds of Chinese women who sacrificed their lives to protect their children have also attracted great attention in Japanese society. Many Japanese people left messages of thanks and tribute, and there were also many words of reflection. An employee of a Japanese company in China said: "I am really sad to hear this news. I have nothing but gratitude to Ms. Hu Youping. I get the support of many wonderful Chinese colleagues every day. I sincerely hope that true friendship will be achieved between our two countries. Another netizen said: Even if there is no political factor, I was moved by this person's behavior. The Japanese government does not protect the Japanese, let alone insists on protecting them. In this case, it is touching that Japanese children were saved by the Chinese. I express my condolences.
A representative message said: In Japan, incidents of being slashed with a knife are not uncommon, but in reality, no one is willing to sacrifice their lives to protect the victims. I remember one time, a Japanese child drowned in a river, and it was also a male Chinese student who jumped into the river to save him. It is common to recall that after the war, the Chinese took in the abandoned children of the Japanese and raised them as if they were their own children. Isn't this a difference in values formed by differences in education? Japanese education does not teach people to help others even at the expense of their own interests, but only how not to cause trouble to others. This time, Suzhou rescued people and took in orphans after the war, which should be done in China, but the Japanese may not understand it, which is regrettable. Nowadays, there are many bizarre murders and other incidents in Japan, so perhaps we should rethink and change the way we educate and think about what we should and should not promote for children.
Obviously, the ripples in China caused by the Suzhou injury incident are still expanding. Hu Youping's death has given the Chinese and Japanese people an opportunity to re-understand the significance of Sino-Japanese friendship, is promoting the formation of a social atmosphere in which right and wrong are distinguished, evil is suppressed, and good is promoted, and it also warns people of the importance of loving the country in a civilized way and with rational behavior.