In Vietnam, it's not unusual to stop and stare when something is out of the ordinary. But while some incidents are fairly tame – think wedding photos or street performers – there are also times when these circumstances require bystander intervention.
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In the case of domestic violence, this is definitely true, as Hanoi-based group WowTV highlighted in a recent video, reports Tuoi Tre.
As a social experiment, the group had two actors pose as a couple in several public places, including an alley and a park. In each instance, the man began hitting, choking or kicking the woman, and the results were pretty upsetting.
In one case, a Vietnamese man quickly intervened, asking the man to stop almost immediately. However, in the other instances, passerbys slow down to stare, watching the scene unfold but never stepping in to stop the violence. When the couple begins fighting in a busy downtown park, it takes almost a full minute before a foreign woman approaches them to stop the behavior, by which time a crowd has gathered, silently looking on.
Huy Anh, the 24-year-old founder of Hanoi group WowTV and the brains behind the project, explained that he had seen negative video clips in the past which helped people to reconsider their behavior and hoped to achieve the same.
For example, when an online video surfaced a few years back of locals looting a beer truck whose contents had spilled onto the road, social media users were quick to condemn the looters. Following the video, Anh said, news stories began popping up in which people provided assistance in similar situations, rather than taking advantage of another's misfortune.
“I thought I could use negative clips to encourage positive acts,” Anh told Tuoi Tre.
