Job Discussion Forums

[Millerlong]

Heh everyone I have a couple of interesting stories to tell you about my foreign friends and the Chinese.

Story #(1).

Well I have these friends who have been living in China for a while now. One is a bar manager and the other is a lawyer --- this is not a joke, this is a genuine story -------- anyway, they went out to a restaurant / pub one night and the lawyer actually fell through the floor of the multi level restaurant (a floor which looked sturdy) that was on a patio or something. He fell through the floor and landed in the kitchen below destoying the food and a part of the kitchen and almost killing himself. Afterwards the restaurant demanded he pay 5000 RMB for the damage done to the food and the kitchen and also the floor which he fell though. Anyway, this lawyer said NO. He said that he wanted compensation for his injuries etc. Anyway, the police were called by the restaurant etc. This problem went on for a couple of months with the police finally getting mightly annoyed at the whole situation and told the lawyer's law firm to pay the money. The law firm agreed without the lawyers (victim) consent. When the restaurant came to retrieve their money he said no, but they said that your law firm has already agreed. Anyway, he bargained and ended up paying 2000 RMB. China is strange. In any other country you would get paid by the restaurant and not the other way around.


Story # (2)

My Australian friend rides a bike to university etc. One day a Shanghai lady stepped in front of his bike without looking (as usual - no regard to personal safety) and my friend ran her over and knocked her to the ground. She hit her head. She went absolutely nuts at him and called the police. The police came and took his bike and told him to come to the police station the following day. When he arrived the lady wanted compensation. My friend said that it was her fault. The lady said that she wanted years of compensation for medical bills and pain and suffering etc. He said he would give her 500 RMB for one set of medical bills and that is it. And that was it. Motto??? If you run over a Chinese put your head down and go go go.

Millerlong

[Roger]

Yes, this compensation thing is a very faddish trend, and not paying attention but be quick in blaming others for one's misfortunes is as old as the Chinese civilisation... 500 years or maybe more!
These days, it is the little emperors and empresses that may cost us a fortune for their own mistakes.
The other day, I came out of a supermarket with two plastic bags in both my hands, one containing two bottles of wine. It was inside a mall, and as always, some young toddlers were running around in circles, darting between the legs of adults. One of them came crashing into the plastic bag with the wine.
The child was dazed but not hurt. My wine was a pool on the floor, the bottles shards. In next to no time, a crowd formed around me. A security man came up. I pointed out that the mother of the child owed me compensation for the wine lost, "...here is the receipt..."
A woman in her thirties was clutching the child, but she said she was not the mother. Someone scolded the girl, so she started crying. Then it almost got nasty, with some adults giving me rather dirty looks. Me a child molester?
In the end, the child was escorted home by the woman who was not her mother! I got off the hook cheaply, having paid 50 kuai for my now worthless wine, but not being expected to pay for psychological damage to the child.
I owed my rescue to some extent to a Hong Kong man who had shielded me from the crowd that was in an obviously aggressive mood. Had the common people had it their way, I would possibly have ended up paying for a fictitious medical bill to the tune of several thousand yuan!