I was going to put the following post on <a href="http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/community/index.php?blog=23" title="Shanghai Public Transportation">my Shanghai Expat weblog</a> because it comes from an article on metro tickets, but in thinking about the article it turned into more of a social commentary so I'm writing it here.

--It's interesting moving to a country without a history of rule-of-law, where legal precedent still hasn't been set in stone, and "heavenly mandate" is still lurking in the background of people's thought processes.  One recurring example of this is the perennial newspaper articles that quote city residents challenging business practices that they disagree with, not by saying "there oughta be a law against that" but by claiming that they are unfair, or unjust, or inhumane; the expectation is that businesses should not limit themselves to what can be done within the current legal framework (get away with murder, really), but that business should, like people, steer their actions according to their/our ethical compasses.

An example from today's Morning Post is the article 《地铁票款少付要补多付不退》, motivated by a phoned-in complaint by one Ms Li, about the metro staff not refunding the difference for passengers who purchase metro tickets and use only part of the value by riding for fewer stops than they paid for.  Ms Li is a commuter who is used to buying 4 yuan tickets to ride to work.  On a day off she bought a 4 yuan ticket out of habit but then realized that she would only be going two stops, and that a 3 yuan ticket would have sufficed.  At the exit gate, the metro staff refused to refund her 1 yuan, prompting Ms Li to call the newspaper and complain.  The metro company's response to Ms Li's complaint was to explain that passengers sign a contract through the action of buying a ticket which says that passengers must make-up the difference when they ride for more than what they've paid but will not be refunded for riding less than what they've paid.

This kind of implicit contract is standard fare (pun not intended; no, seriously) in the United States:  people accept it without question.  But here in China, contracts--much less these type of fine-print, hidden contracts--are a new thing, and people are still inclined to make judgements on them.  Ms Li felt that the metro company's way of calculating the bill was unfair, even if it's written in a contract--a contract which she never signed.

(There's an ironic sidebar to the article in which professors from the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, and from Fudan University both argue that the contract is unfair, while a representative of the (Shanghai?) Consumer Protection Committee stands on the side of the metro company.)