They Shoot Hummers, Dont They?

We see "Hummer vs. Hybrid" discussions all the time in the USA. In China, there are parallel incidents going on:

Hummer, Mazda Envoy Clash on the Roads in China

In China, they call Hummers "Hanma" - or angry horse. On September 18, 2007, National Public Radio reported on an incident that involved a very angry Hummer driver and about 50 members of a Mazda drivers' club on a highway near Nanjing in eastern China.

According to NPR's Anthony Kuhn, it started when the Hummer barged into the Mazda convoy via the emergency lane. "The Hummer's driver probably thought it was fun to barge into this pack of cars. Our convoy thought that this wasn't too polite," said the Mazda club's leader, A-Xiang, to NPR. "So we decided to box him in, for the fun of it. Once the Hummer made his way forward, we surrounded him and slowed to a crawl, probably about 18 mph."

"With the Hummer honking furiously and traffic backed up behind them, the Mazdas finally moved aside to let cars pass," said Kuhn. The incident lasted about four minutes total.

Ordinarily, this would have been the end of the story. However, the Mazda club decided to post a video of the incident onto its Web site - and that's when all hell broke loose. It ended in an arrest of the lead driver, fines and a media firestorm, according to NPR.

"The story offers a glimpse into China's emerging car culture and Internet politics," says Kuhn. "In China these days, growing income inequality is generating a lot of social tension." The incident became a hot topic of discussion in the Chinese media, with a lot of the talk about class hatred and car envy. Evidently, Hummers are known as the vehicle of choice of newly minted robber barons. "Especially coal mine bosses," adds Kuhn, "who are not widely known for their discreet spending habits or environmental consciousness."

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