Photos would be shared on Weibo for all to see
Charles Liu, September 28, 2015 11:23am
The Shanghai Metro wants to know whether you think fare dodgers should be publicly shamed.
Under the proposed plan, fare evaders would have a photo of themselves published on the Metro’s Weibo account for all the world to see.
Although specific details of the policy weren’t disclosed, the Shanghai Metro did say that those caught in the act, and properly punished by authorities, would not be subjected to public shaming. The press release comes as a two-month campaign against fare evasion is set to start.
Shanghai Daily reports that public opinion has been overwhelmingly positive: more than 80 percent of respondents on a Shanghai government WeChat poll said they were in favor of the policy. The People’s Daily reported the ratio closer to 90 percent.
While most netizens are in favor of the use of public shaming as a device for policing, not everyone is on board. One person wrote, “I object! Only countries like North Korea would be so bold as to do something like this.”
Anonymity in the public eye is an ongoing concern for many people in China. News stories often use only partial names or pseudonyms, even if they are witnesses or actually part of the story, and pictures are often pixelated to hide people’s identities. It’s this desire for anonymity that makes the Shanghai Metro’s proposal such an interesting one.
There are already a number of examples of public shaming in China to help police its residents. Using DNA samples collected from discarded trash, an anti-littering campaign in Hong Kong published the faces of suspected litterers. In 2013, Shenzhen broadcast images of beggars suspected by authorities to be fake on a public LED screen. More recently in August, red light-runners in Shenzhen were forced to wear green hats, a cultural shaming equivalent to being cuckolded.
CCTV did its part to publicly shame fare dodgers in 2014 by broadcasting a (mostly) unadulterated video showing the identities of commuters crawling and hopping over turnstiles in subway stations across China.
Fare evasion remains a big problem in China. In 2012, over 202,000 people were fined 476,000 yuan for dodging fares on the Shanghai Metro, while Shenzhen said it lost five million yuan in 2013. A popular 2013 video showed 21 people jumping turn styles at the same Shanghai Metro entry gate within 90 seconds of each other.
Source: Shanghai Daily, Shanghai Daily, People's Daily Online, Sina Shanghai, Sina Shanghai, China Outlook, France 24
Photos: CRI, Things to Do
Tags: face, fare dodging, public image,shame, Shanghai Metro, Subway
Charles Liu
The Nanfang's Senior Editor
https://thenanfang.com/shanghai-metro-considers-publicly-shaming-fare-dodgers/
