‘Why Don’t You Go Die?’

A woman who was accused of being shameless and uncivilized by fellow passengers on a bus asked them a rhetorical question, ‘Why don’t you go and die?’ 

They were all Chinese nationals right here in China where women are feared than respected, especially in public.

Funny as it could get, her haters cursed her in Chinese but she responded in English.

The said woman claimed she works so hard in Shanghai and have no time to practice her oral English. So she had to read her textbook out loud on the bus.

That was an uncivilized behavior to many other passengers who wasted no time in suggesting she lowers her voice. Instead of being considerate, the woman got mad at them for asking.

She called them “uncivilized”.

A video of the incident, apparently shot by another passenger and posted on ThePaper.cn, shows the short-haired woman reading aloud from a book titled An Advanced Course of Interpretation.

“You guys don’t have a clue – English is for us to speak out loud. Well, you can take the next bus,” she told them.

She continued with her oral English practice when another passenger interrupted: “What’s the point of living if one is totally shameless?”

The reference to “living” and “shameless” provoked the woman who couldn’t bear it but shot back immediately saying, “Why don’t you go die? Why can’t I study? I don’t have much time to study as I need to work most of the time.”

A few passengers with attitude found a better way to plead with her to “voice down a little, as everybody is very tired and wants to take a rest on the bus”.

Surprisingly, the kind approach added salt to the injury.

“Shut up, shut up,” she said. “You are being so uncivilized in stopping me from improving myself! No one has blamed me for doing this in the subway. I shall tell you that you are so selfish.”

All her responses to the provocation was in English which she admitted, in the end, was a good way for her to improve her spoken English.

The woman was busy preparing for her oral English exams in the wrong way while the worn out passengers were kicking rocks.

A manager with Shanghai’s bus service operator said the city did not have regulations banning people from talking loudly, but suggested passengers respect social etiquette.