I spent this past Saturday night in a hospital at the bedside of a Danish friend. His car had been smashed up at an intersection in Suzhou Industrial Park by a truck whose driver couldn’t wait the extra two minutes it would take to stop when the traffic light turned red on his side. It was late Friday night. He had had a long day of meetings. My friend was on his way home.

For twenty-four hours after the accident he was in danger of losing his life. The right side of his skull from the scalp across the eye to the cheeks had been shattered. The pressure on his brain had to be brought down. He was not permitted to move his head, or his body. One miracle was that it was only this patch of skull that was damaged; the rest of his body was without a mark. The car had been cleaved into crippled V-shape.

An insurance company representative came from Nanjing by bullet train a little more than half a day after the accident. She carried a bag of money. As long as the police were informed of the accident, there was little more for the insurers to do but to pay out for what is too common a problem in China: beating the stop light.

I spent the afternoon helping my friend’s American girlfriend with the local police and helping track down his passport; the police needed it to complete the report. There was no question in anyone’s mind who was at fault; indeed, the truck driver called his the owner of the local logistics company from the scene of the accident to say there was “a problem.” The owner raced to the scene of the accident and personally took my friend to a downtown hospital and paid cash so my friend would be admitted to the hospital. It was some four hours, though, before anyone knew where my friend lay.

Several days later and he is out of danger. He will be flown out of the country to reconstruct the shattered and fractured parts of his skull. The other miracle is that his body has stabilized quickly enough that he can withstand the travel involved for such surgeries.

One of the reasons one chooses to be an expat is to take advantage of work- and life-related activities that one likely does not have in his country of origin. Another reason is for the Thrill of the Difference: different culture, different food, different geography. There is even the sometimes the thrill of danger: the possible cross-cultural faux pas; traveling by bus or train to another city; crossing the street; even driving home after work. Of course, China is no different than other developing countries in the level of risk one assumes just living here; but, of course, the risks here have “Chinese characteristics”.

Some of the characteristics involve stupid, unnecessary risks to life and limb: for the Chinese themselves, for those just visiting, and for others who choose to make China their home. Let’s hope the Road to Civilization is not paved with too many more victims of The Chinese Way.
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