what are they all doing?
You won't go far on a Beijing bus before passing a crowd gathered around two or more shouting folk. These altercations can start
for any number of reasons, and a quick look at the surroundings will help you figure out what's going on - keep an eye out for
shattered headlights on cars, overturned fruit-barrows and insulted family members, all of which can cause conflict.
These events look very worrying, and you can't watch for more than a few minutes without starting to wonder who's going to throw
the first punch. However, in my experience (thankfully only as observer) violence is a very rare occurence - shouting and apportioning
blame is much more important. The aim is to regain whatever face was lost and to avoid being seen to back down due to cowardice or
admission of fault. As far as I can tell, these disputes are usually ended by exhaustion and/or starvation.
walk on by?
I tend to stop and watch whenever I see one of these crowds - there's always an interesting story to be heard, and you can start your own sub-crowd around yourself as observers start listening to you speak Chinese to the guy who's explaining what's going on.
A really good argument can attract a huge crowd and cause traffic jams. My favourite one ever involved a groom and two brides standing on a main street in a provincial city arguing about something, but I was on steps a good number of meters away, so I have no idea what was really going on. I had great fun speculating with all the other people on the steps though. Eventually the police turned up, but all they seemed to do was take up front-row positions and watch.