Stay classy, Dongguan.
Some things never change. As nice as that may sound for continuity, this week it’s a bad thing.
After visiting two factories, I was riding the bus from Changan back to Shenzhen last Friday night when I came upon another knife attack/fight. It was right at the bus station this time at about 6PM—in fact the bus that I wanted to board was under attack.
There were 4 guys (who I first thought were not Chinese but whom I later realized were just from Western China) doing everything they could to stop a bus from leaving. They were threatening to throw big rocks though the windows and were physically standing in the way of the bus forcing the driver to either run them down or stop (of course, he stopped).
The police were just arriving on the scene when I showed up looking for a bus home. (In the end there were a total of 36 police on site—yes, I counted). There had already been a fight too and one guy was still bleeding on the ground. The 4 attackers, friends of the bloody guy, were trying to get the perp off the bus before it left. The police were both on the bus (with the door locked) and sort of trying to keeping the crowed back away from the guys with rocks.
Then, a new guy with a long stiff towel shows up. He, very dramatically I thought, unfurls the towel and pulls out a 2 foot long machete. He starts threatening the police, the bus driver and the bus (windows and tires mostly get slapped around). He does this for at least 20 minutes while more and more police show up and tell more an more onlookers to go away.
For 25 minutes no one stops the guy with the knife, no one tends to the bleeding guy on the ground, no one moves people away from the swinging machete, no one gets the guy off the bus. NOTHING. It was the most amazing dance/show. It honestly seemed like no one was scared, surprised or intended to help or get involved in any way—especially the police!!
Now the green suited police were all about 25 years old, had no crown control devices or weapons and didn’t look like they wanted to be there at all. None of them even talked with the knife-guy. They threatened a few people that stopped to watch—told them to leave and menacingly walked toward the bystanders. But of course everyone stayed to watch. I took photos with my camera and no one seemed to care.
So 25-30 minutes into this show, a policeman in a blue uniform and driving a Toyota Corolla shows up and starts taking with the knife guy. The bus tries to leave and more rocks and threats ensue and the bus stops again. The only two people showing any emotion this whole time are the bus driver (fear) and the knife-guy (anger). (OK, the bleeding guys is obviously in pain too.) Anyway, the cop finally convinces the guys to let the bus go and the four guys (and one knife, if you critics at home are counting) wrap the machete back up in the towel and just walk away. The bleeding guy gets some help from a just-arrived ambulance and the crowed disperses and I’m left in a line with about 40 other people that are buying tickets to get on the next bus like nothing happened.
This event reminded me of my experience with the Shenzhen police last year. It was amazing how much of a show it was rather than an actual protest/conflict with an end goal of resolution in mind. Last year in Shenzhen I was under the impression that we were going to protest until we either were dragged off screaming or until the govt relented and gave us some concessions. But neither was the case for the Chinese. They made a show one morning and then from that afternoon on it was over. We’d made our point and the govt just went ahead and did what they had planned on doing.
The knife-guy wasn’t arrested in Dongguan either. The bleeding guy wasn’t taken to a hospital and the bus wasn’t detained or anyone forcibly removed from it. The 4 angry guys got face from being angry in public. The police keep the incident from spreading (and hey, no arrests so no paper work either!), the bus kept running and only one foreigner with a camera-phone probably will ever say anything more about it.