A video of a bloody fight over a seat on a Guangzhou subway was uploaded to Sina yesterday and has since gone viral. The person who posted it, Colorlin, claims that the fight took place on Line 4 of the Guangzhou Subway yesterday morning.

This is one of a long list of instances in which onlookers have failed to intervene when fellow citizens are in danger in China. Lu Xun wrote about the problem in his 1933 essay, “experience.”

Earlier this year, a Brazilian in Dongguan was awarded for helping a woman who had her bag stolen while policemen just stood and watched. The most notorious example of all took place in Foshan last year when 2 year-old Wang Yue was left to die by 18 pedestrians. This opinion piece tries to make sense of this apathy.

Here are some netizens’ reactions to the fight video, translated by The Nanfang:

Chen Zhiyong: Don’t be too hasty to judge. Living in this society could turn anyone into a pervert.

Mugua Tou: The scariest thing is that nobody intervened.

Susanna_Cheung: This is super horrifying, maybe he’s a psychopath.

Bradleychen: How could the other passengers be so lacking in compassion?

Jgarry: How can people be so lacking in character as to just watch, let alone be shameless enough to put it on the internet.

Grain of sand in the wind: To tell the truth, if I were in that situation, I would also lack the courage to act.