http://shanghaiist.com/2008/01/18/shanghai_hualia.php All comments for Shanghai Hualian Pharmaceutical is going to hell en-us 2009 shanghailaine Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:00:00 +0700 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss elaine@shanghaiist.com elaine@shanghaiist.com 60 http://shanghaiist.com/2008/01/18/shanghai_hualia.php#comment-1273446 http://shanghaiist.com/2008/01/18/shanghai_hualia.php#comment-1273446 Comments Fri, 18 Jan 2008 12:42:20 +0700 <p>east vs west, if there is one difference i'm clearly convinced of it's that death looms right around the corner here in the east. the frequency of street level, sometimes even casual, conversations about departed family/friends/migrant/stranger/animals surprised me when i first arrived in china. be it freakish accidents while working, murder by hit and run, kidnappings, jumping off tall buildings, beatings, run aways, prostitution rapings, there are a bunch of curveball stories you hear over here (those not even reported on the news). i'm talking "stories" where someone actually knows someone that this happened to, and i'm not in no way affiliated with the mafia or wrong crowd. the whole concept of stories being told in the whole "well, shit happens" tone is all the more terrifying. i can only assume the conversations get more depressing/crazy the further you move away from the city and into the rural. i must have been immuned to this kind of stuff back in the west.</p>