Social etiquette reform

[bhchao]

Beijing is embarking on a crash campaign to improve the way people conduct themselves in public, excluding the educated and sophisticated elite in cities like Shanghai and Beijing who are well ahead of the rest of the population in this arena.

To prepare for the 2008 Olympics, Beijing is launching an assault on bad manners like spitting, urinating in public, and shoving. Personally I think launching a social refinement campaign for an event less than 3 years away won't do much to change people's public behavior, which is rooted in one's educational level, social status, and upbringing. At least it's better than nothing.

Imagine what kind of negative reaction Beijing will receive if Chinese fans jeered at another country's athletes during the Olympic opening ceremony or Olympic sporting event, similar to what happened at previous football matches.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fg-manners17sep17,1,1585825.story

"BEIJING — Even Miss Manners might blanch at the task at hand: charm school for a billion people, a good number of them convinced that life means never having to say you're sorry, excuse me or thank you.

This is no tutorial on fish forks. In advance of the 2008 Olympics, the government has embarked on a crash campaign to instill manners in the world's most populous country. The effort has left government planners struggling to break some deeply entrenched habits, including public spitting and urinating, driving that evokes a "Road Warrior" set, and an inordinate fondness for cutting in line.

"I think they're already too late for the Olympics," said Zhu Wei, manager of the Shanghai Boni Housekeeping Service, a maid-referral agency that uses British butlers to train its staff. "They should have started 20 years ago."

China hardly has a monopoly on rude behavior. And many give Beijing major kudos for tackling the problem.

"Some people's manners in China are atrocious, but you have to start somewhere," said Yue-sai Kan, author of "Etiquette for the Modern Chinese." "I think it's great what the government is doing. I wish the New York City government would do this."

Among various initiatives in manners are televised courses, slogans, billboards and local contests.

China's politeness push may be more challenging than elsewhere, however, in part because of the country's history. After the communists took power in 1949, etiquette wasn't just pushed aside, it was often actively rooted out, sociologists say. That was particularly true during the chaotic 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, when refinement was condemned as a ruling-class plot to inhibit people and keep them down.

Now China finds itself playing catch-up as it realizes that commanding global respect means more than just churning out widgets and building five-star hotels.

"Most Chinese are very confident about the hardware for the 2008 Olympics," said Ge Chenhong, a People's University professor and government advisor. "But it takes much longer to improve the software, especially the quality of people's behavior, and that's a problem."

In a country where mass campaigns, stage-managed party congresses and pageantry remain important, leaders are hoping to avoid embarrassing scenes at the Olympics.

In April, referees repeatedly chided fans at a world snooker tournament here for their lack of manners, noisy outbursts and jangling cellphones. "Bad behavior left unchecked at one sports event can grow like a cancer and destroy an entire Olympics," the government-run China Daily newspaper warned the following day.

Then, in July, in what the state press dubbed a "night of shame," the crowd at a basketball game went ballistic, throwing objects and launching insults after a Chinese player was fouled during a match with Puerto Rico.

Although the Olympics is a major manners motivator, it's not the only one. Better behavior promises to reduce friction in a society where corruption, growing income disparity and land appropriation make for an increasingly explosive mix.

"Manners are essential for interpersonal communication," said Li Lulu, dean of the sociology department at People's University. "Without rules, everyone gets hurt."

China is sparing no effort in the charm offensive. Daily TV talk shows, dramas and prime-time mini-spots provide lessons nationwide on everything from public fighting to the proper use of cellphones.

By the end of the year, "the bad habits of local citizens will be eradicated," the China Daily declared optimistically in outlining Shanghai's six-year "Be a Lovable Shanghainese" campaign.

Topping the list of pet peeves in many local surveys is spitting, which not even a campaign linking it to SARS could stop. In fact, some Chinese say it improves your constitution.

Asked mid-spit for his view of the government's politeness campaign, a resident of Beijing's Shijingshan district swore, then yelled, "It's none of your business!" before stomping off.

Other targets of the various campaigns include aggressive jostling, men who lounge half-naked in public, cooking on the street, cutting in line and urinating in public.

"The etiquette of food is another big area," deportment expert Kan said. "Eating loudly, not knowing what a napkin is for, throwing bones on the table or floor."

It also used to be much better. Historians note that China — a nation that perfected the subtleties of good taste and behavior thousands of years ago — now finds itself lagging. Some attribute this to poverty, limited education and the eradication of an upper class, the traditional champion of good manners.

Others point to the enormous imprint of Mao Tse-tung, a man who often enjoyed flouting convention. "Some people might have considered him coarse and vulgar," American reporter Edgar Snow said of Mao in his landmark 1938 book, "Red Star Over China."

Snow described how Mao would scratch himself, remove his clothes and conduct meetings naked when he felt hot, and on occasion "absent-mindedly turn down the belt of his trousers and search for some guests," namely lice and fleas.

In 1972, Mao attended the funeral of Marshal Chen Yi in his pajamas. And in 1954, he met former British Prime Minister Clement Attlee wearing worn trousers that were patched on the backside. Advised by an aide that he might want to wear a new pair, according to a biography by historian Chen Jin, he replied: "It doesn't matter. Who will look at my bottom?"

During the Cultural Revolution, it was a compliment to be called dalaocu, or big, rude guy, as leaders sought to upend anything associated with tradition. Nor were manners the only thing destroyed during those years, said Guo Shixing, author of a 1999 play about disrespect titled "Bad Words Street." By stripping away civility, China often destroyed the fundamental trust between people, a legacy its society is still paying for.

Today, wealth has come so rapidly to some Chinese that they haven't had time to absorb it. "You see people, yesterday they couldn't eat, overnight they're millionaires," said June Yamada, dean of a Shanghai-based "school of elegance" and author of an etiquette bestseller titled "Tell It Like It Is, June." "They have no education, but they have money. They still forget to take a bath for three days."

The government's good-behavior campaign has its critics. Some say Beijing has launched so many campaigns — follow the leaders, don't gamble, create a harmonious society — that the impact is often lost. Others argue that the dos and don'ts fail to address more fundamental deficits, such as morality and ethics.

Still others, such as Peng Lin, a history professor and Confucius studies expert at Beijing's Qinghua University, question China's headlong embrace of Western manners as a way to impress the world. The trend ignores China's own rich li and yi traditions with their focus on filial piety, mutual obligation and modesty, Peng said.

Etiquette academy dean Yamada prefers to start at the top. "I'd like to teach all of China, but we can't afford it," she said. "So our service is limited to the upper class."

During several hours of role-playing, she instructed them to be polite and warm and to avoid doggedly following customers around the store.

Businesspeople also are taking a growing interest in proper behavior, in hopes of boosting profits. China's Alibaba.com, a website launched in 1999 that links Chinese and foreign wholesalers, soon found itself facing a large cultural gap. Even as Chinese companies were becoming more adept at producing mountains of goods at low prices, many employees lacked the manners or sophistication to earn the trust of customers in America or Europe.

Since then, Alibaba has trained more than 5,000 Chinese firms in such basics as responding in a timely way, using polite language and not cheating the customer.

As local governments educate the masses, they're trying to clean up their own act. This summer, the Beijing municipal government launched "professional manners education month," one of several campaigns nationwide. More than 100,000 workers are in training to smile, wear socks to work and use proper hygiene, among other things. A similar Shanghai campaign advises women not to dye their hair green or wear strange dresses.

One of the more obscure things bureaucrats hope to phase out is kaidangku, the open-crotch pants worn by Chinese children that allow them to do their business wherever. Although the pants tend to draw stares from foreigners, defenders say they are comfortable, healthy and hasten the potty-training process.

She bristles at the effort to get rid of them, saying: "I don't see any link between kaidangku and the Olympics. It's pretty weak. I think the bureaucrats should be more concerned with spitting."

Kaidangku soon may have a new use, however... "

[bhchao]

Interesting that being called 大佬粗 was perceived as a compliment then.

[Quest]

Hard when migrants keep flooding the cities....

[roddy]

I find it a bit disappointing that the Chinese government only seems to start worrying about this when it might embarass them internationally - have there have been any such high-profile campaigns spurred on by the fact that it would simply improve everyone's day to day quality of life? You might get some minor stuff here and there and occasional knee-jerk reactions like that time a few years ago when it was decided that Beijing's men should stop flaunting their beer bellies (I was in favour of this at the time, but I've got a bit of one myself now so I'm not so sure).

Regardless it's going to be a long upward struggle.

Roddy

[Outofin]

Social etiquette is really a spiral cycle, sometimes upward sometimes downward. If I meet some bad-mannered guy, I can't maintain my manner and could easily pass the bad mood to others. In some college campuses, students form lines in dinning hall. But the same person could be pushing like a hell when he visits a dinning hall with no formed lines.

[gougou]

In some college campuses, students form lines in dinning hall. But the same person could be pushing like a hell when he visits a dinning hall with no formed lines.

Which is not necessarily a bad thing. If somewhere the accepted norm was pushing and shoving, who is to say that that is wrong?

[Outofin]

If somewhere the accepted norm was pushing and shoving, who is to say that that is wrong?

Are you joking? Waiting in line is mathematically better than pushing and shoving. Pushing doesn't make them being served any faster and it hurts people.

[gougou]

Are you joking? Waiting in line is mathematically better than pushing and shoving. Pushing doesn't make them being served any faster and it hurts people.

Not to worry, I completely agree with you. But I wonder whether everybody does? What I mean is, if something is generally accepted, one (especially an outsider) should not criticise it too easily.

If people are educated not to shove anymore, I think few will whole-heartedly disagree with that. But I was shocked when I read that the person responsible for preparing Beijing for the Olympic games (a Belgian, for that matter) was thinking about banning bicycles out of Beijing's inner city because he considered their driving style inappropriate. To me, that's on one level with tearing down siheyuan's.

[Outofin]

But I was shocked when I read that the person responsible for preparing Beijing for the Olympic games (a Belgian, for that matter) was thinking about banning bicycles out of Beijing's inner city because he considered their driving style inappropriate.

(Sigh...) Why stupid guys like this one could always bother us all the time?