Murder At the Drum Tower

Put lipstick on a pig, and this is what you get.

Misleading story with a misleading title. This story is not about China, but about one individual with mental instability. Picking one single mentally unstable individual among 1.3 billion people and passing it off as a research article about China is very poor journalism. It's like writing about O.J. Simpson and passing it off as a story about America.

Wow, you people actually think that your loss of a 401k is equal to what this man and several tens of thousands of Chinese have gone through in the past year? "Silly but vocal" someone wrote about the author, you would be just as well to apply it to yourself.

Just the destruction from the earthquake alone trumps any of your monetary issues, or did you just read the first page and start typing? The author makes an excellent case discussing the destruction of systems in place for ages, acts of nature / God, and societal impact towards personal effect.

I honestly have no idea how you can't correlate the article title and the sub-title to the microcosm of the man's experience and the violent and horrible choices he made. Or the larger picture of why the money being pumped into the enconomy by the governement and how it relates.

What does this man's story have to do with your title? And how is it related to the fact that the Chinese government is pumping money into the economy? Tang's story is not unique to China. It happens everywhere-- even in the US.

No wonder you are not at same level at Fareed Zakaria. My 401K has become 101K and you
call China is the most stressed place in the world? You are silly but vocal--that what democracy
creates.

More American kids went hungry last year
USDA: Number jumped 50 percent in 2007 ??? that's nearly 700,000 children
By AP updated 4:23 p.m. ET Nov. 17, 2008
WASHINGTON - Some 691,000 children went hungry in America sometime in 2007, while close to one in eight Americans struggled to feed themselves adequately even before this year???s sharp economic downturn, the Agriculture Department reported Monday.
James Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger group said the figures show that economic growth during the first seven years of the Bush administration didn???t reach the poorest and hungriest people. ???The people in the deepest poverty are suffering the most,??? Weill said.

OMG!!! Japan has thousands of people jumping off buildings because they work 20 hours a day and couldn't make ends meet. And yet one person jumps off some tower in China, then it is the most stressful society. Journalist, seriously! There's a good reason that people go to journalism major (usually drop out from harder majors) are stupid and thus giving out stupid journalist in the future. Go back to school and learn statistics pal!

Inciteful piece. What I glean from this article is this: the country is essentially at the stage of progression the US was in, back at the start of the 20th century. They have a long way to go to catch up with us, and frankly I'm not sure they ever will. Cash reserves don't make a society.

I find this piece quite compelling. It provides a rare view of the inner working of chinese society. Clearly, china is not as homogeneous as most of us are led to believe. It's likely to boild over anytime.

This is one of the stupidest pieces of trash I have ever read. First the author interviews one man, and conflates his circumstances with that of all of his countrymen without even a modicrum of empirical evidence. Secondly, what is with the wistful regret at the loss of communist era poverty? Sure, capitialism has brought an almost miraculous increase in living standards to the most populist country in the world, and thankfully Mao, the greatest mass murderer in history is long since deceased, but oh those tacky gray tiled houses! What drivel!

smh at the title of this story. If one crazy murderer equals stressful society, then China is definitely not the most stressful society in the world. Probably not even in the top ten.

As China emerges as a world economic miracle it's social programs are having a hard time catching up. The change is just happening too fast.

Not sure why Tang is described as being so ordinary. It seems like he had a lot of mental problems. Maybe those were exacerbated by stress, but more likely he had a mood disorder like depression. It sounded like he had lots of good chances -- he was handled kindly by the factory that let him go, other people offered him jobs, he had his own house owned outright.

China is most stressful? Think again, which country has the highest crime rate and a drug culture to escape reality?

I have just visited China back in September and I really saw this. Confucianism is out being replaced by Capitalism which has bred competitiveness and individualism to this society famed for it's collectivism. Most of the society seems to be only about making a money. Even their ancient culture is just another product that is sold to Westerners, anything and everything is mass produced and sold. Although progress has come to China so has the problems of progress, which we all forget about.

I have just visited China back in September and I really saw this. Confucianism is out being replaced by Capitalism which has bred competitiveness and individualism to this society famed for it's collectivism. Most of the society seems to be only about making a money. Even their ancient culture is just another product that is sold to Westerners, anything and everything is mass produced and sold. Although progress has come to China so has the problems of progress, which we all forget about.

In America, decent divorced men go off the rails every day. How come Newsweek has never done a story about what horrendous things are inflicted on good men right here in America? We steal their kids, at least half their income, and their life savings for no reason whatsoever (no-fault divorce). I have met hundreds of men with horrifying stories about what America has done to them. I dare Newsweek to stand up and start writing about the problems that are destroying American society and the dederal and state bugets.

While the new divorce policy in China is quite a change, it is far better than no-fault divorce in America. In China, the divorce is immediate and costs about 83 cents. The government wisely refuses to get involved in property split and childrearing arrangements. The let divorcing spouses work that out. If the husband or wife has been seriously irresponsible, the spouse can petition for property redress. There is no government entitlement on illegitimacy, so it is rare. This is far better and less devastating in the U.S. Divorces usually cost more than the cash assets of low and middle class families. They go bankrupt. Mothers live in poverty and fathers go to jail. Our rate of divorce and social violence is fantastic in comparison to China. Certainly, China is going through rough times with the collapse of socialized agriculture and industry, and the conversion to market enterprise. However, it is completely irresponsible of Newsweek to characterize China the way it has in this piece, simply because one man went off the rails.