As a Chinese person, I’ve noticed these incidents becoming more frequent in recent years. Despite gun control, there have been more knife attacks and vehicle rammings. Many innocent lives have been lost and families shattered, which is deeply distressing and frightening. I often remind my family and friends to be cautious when going out.
Discussing these topics is often restricted or prohibited within China. I’m curious to understand why people who want to ‘take revenge on society’ harm strangers who are defenseless and unknown to them. Logically, this behavior is hard to comprehend. There’s an old Chinese saying that roughly translates to ‘revenge should be directed at the source of the grievance.’ If someone has been wronged and feels desperate, shouldn’t they confront those who harmed them directly? By attacking random strangers, only innocent people suffer while those responsible remain unaffected.
I’m deeply saddened by this situation and am seeking insights. This is my first post on Lemmy, and I hope people can explain this issue or recommend books or videos that address the reasons behind such behaviors. Thank you very much.
I’m in the USA, so all of my answers would be colored by my culture. My knowledge of the culture in China is limited.
If I had to make a guess I’d say it may be a recognition of the collectivist view of society in China. As in “I am wronged by society, so any member of society is a valid target for my anger/revenge.”
For someone that becomes an attacker, it is likely the result of many events, not one. How many times have they tried to move to a Tier 1 city and been rejected? How many times have they been passed over for better education or job opportunities? When they raise their objections how many times are they met by others with “没精打采｡” (“nothing can be done about it”)?
As someone living in Chinese culture, you’re probably better equipped to answer this than most of us. I appreciate you sharing your question and your answers as you have here. I’m interested in understanding this from your perspective.
To my knowledge, the reasons that lead them to commit these acts are mostly: poverty to the point of being unable to live, bankruptcy due to failed investments, divorce, and other family upheavals. In official announcements of such events in China, the motives and details of the incidents are not mentioned. For example, an indiscriminate attack on students and parents outside a school would be described in official announcements as if it were a simple traffic accident.
Due to China’s severe censorship of negative news, official media outlets do not report on these stories, and self-media posts about similar news are either restricted or deleted, so pictures and videos are extremely rare. Therefore, except for those who have been long-term internet users, most people have little understanding of the severity of these incidents.
Generally, only locals are more aware of the details of the events. They share this information, including on-site photos and videos, in chat groups with friends and family on messaging apps (content in group chats is usually not censored). And due to the nature of Chinese society, there are always some locals who have connections with the perpetrator’s family and know and share relatively private information about their situation. But as I said at the beginning, the vast majority of their motives are related to property, love, and family issues. And I can be certain that the victims have no relation to them.
I can only provide the above information. In Chinese culture, people also resent and reject those who expand their own misfortunes to affect innocent people. My view is that a victim only represents himself and his family, not any particular group. The victims include school children, parents, farmers, and people working hard to support their families. They are just ordinary members of society who have to suffer this undeserved disaster. The idea that one’s own suffering should implicate more people to suffer, or that if one doesn’t want to live, they should drag others to die with them - I find this thinking painful, and at the same time, I really don’t understand the deeper reasons and logic behind such behavior.