[6] Cf. the following remarks by Lu Xun, which amount to an outline of the plot of "A Public Example":The masses, especially in China, are always spectators at a drama. . . . Before the mutton shops in Beijing a few people often gather to gape, with evident enjoyment, at the skinning of the sheep. And this is all they get out of it if a man lays down his life. Moreover, after walking a few steps away from the scene they forget even this modicum of enjoyment. There is nothing you can do with such people; the only way to save them is to give them no drama to watch." ("Suiganlu sanshiba" 
[Random thought 38], in Lu Xun, Lu Xun quanji 1:311–16, here p. 311; translation by Leo Ou-fan Lee, Voices from the Iron House , p. 72)