Breaking News: 'Shanghainese line up in front of metro car'
That's the headline of a recent post by Bingfeng, a Chinese guy who blogs in English about life in Shanghai, business, politics and lots of other stuff. Here's what he had to say:
i took the metro last week and, for the first time, i saw shanghaiese lined up to enter the metro cars. interestingly, most of those who lined up neatly and quietly are young people and some middle-aged ones didn't get used to the new way and still jam-packed the car doors in order to get a seat.as you might find when you live here, the younger generations of china is quite different from the older ones and sometimes regarded as a new "race".
generally speaking, they are more individualist, independent and hedonistic, have less sense of hierarchy, work ethics and zero-sum mentality. i tend to avoid cooperating with middle-aged partners in business because from my experiences, many of them lack the qualities that are critical to business successes, like a win-win mentality, trust for others, respect for "game rules", tolerant for different opinions, etc. their age says a lot, although that also means they have many good qualities younger people don't have today.
Very interesting, but not surprising. This (the lining up part) may be hard to believe for anyone who has ever had to deliver a forearm shiver to the forehead of a 4-foot-9 Chinese grannie[1] in order to fight their way on to a mode of public transportation in Shanghai or (gasp) in the Chinese hinterlands. But a commenter over at Peking Duck confirms the Shanghai queue:
Its all true, people in shanghai metro, douring rush hour at least, line up quite nicely. Actually people are made to line up by the people who work in the metro. So if you are 1st, 2nd or 3rd you will probably get a seat in the first stop but after that the fastest is the one who gets it and its quite fun to see how grownups are reduced to children. Also metro TV's show how to act politely - people enter the metro from sides and exit from the middle - generally this rule is also followed. But they still like to push when getting out of the metro. And the most over crowded stops- People square and Shanghai railway station are still a nightmare even if they queue and to be avoided douring rush hour :).
But what happens when Shanghai's metro users aren't forced to line up. Back to the battle royale?
[1] Shanghaiist has never actually been physically abusive to a Chinese grandmother (or grandmothers of any nationality). But those little women can be ruthless.
