Teaching the Pig to Sing

[Raoul Duke]

Beijingers Being Taught to Mind Manners
By DEAN VISSER, Associated Press Writer
Wed Mar 1, 5:06 PM ET

BEIJING - The government is teaching citizens "the right way to spit." A college is showing students the right way to sit. Two years ahead of hosting the Olympic Games, people across Beijing are on an all-out drive to mind their manners.

China's hard, gray, briskly communist capital has a reputation for brusqueness. Visitors are often startled to see its people spit onto the crowded pavement.

Changing all that ahead of the 2008 Summer Games is "crucial in providing a cultural and historical legacy to the world" for China, said Beijing city official Zhang Huiguang.

"We will work with newspapers, radio stations, TV stations, the Internet and mobile telephone carriers to teach people the right way to spit," said Zhang, director of Beijing's Capital Ethical and Cultural Development Office.

Zhang said her office is running a "behavioral training" campaign that also includes lining up properly for buses and turning off mobile phones during meetings.

But spitting is the No. 1 issue, she said at a news conference Wednesday.

"You have to spit into a tissue or a bag, and then put it into a dustbin to complete the process," she said.

Zhang said her office has organized a small army of volunteers who are hitting Beijing's streets to hand out "spit bags," wearing bright orange uniforms with the Chinese character for "mucus" emblazoned in yellow on the back.

Public spitters already face fines up to $6, but "this year ... we will require law enforcement officials to step up the frequency" of penalties, Zhang said.

Others are taking a softer approach.

Lu-chin Mischke was born near Beijing, married an American and spent 10 years in the U.S. She said her heart sank when she and her family returned to live in her homeland and she saw the rampant spitting, littering and cutting in line.

It prompted her to start the Pride Institute, a private group that runs seminars aimed at demonstrating the delights of being more polite.

"I'm trying to wake up a sense of decency," Mischke said. "I know it's there."

She said hundreds of people sometimes crowd the talks at community centers, schools and businesses.

"I saw our beautiful scenery covered with plastic bags," she said. "Sometimes I think I'm the first one to see this littering and say, 'Why do you treat our country like a garbage can?'"

"Many of them never really thought of it that way," she said.

The nearing of the Olympics is starting to raise awareness of the problem, she said.

"Chinese feel it's an acknowledgment by the world," she said. "They feel like it's not a backwater any more. It's on the world stage."

China has always been sensitive about foreign ¡ª especially Western ¡ª criticism of its ways. But Mischke said what she's trying to teach is universal.

"It's not like I'm inventing any problems for China," she said. "Most people hate these things, this bad behavior. I'm just trying to wake them up and show them they can stop."

"All of China is looking forward to the Olympics," noted Zhang Hui, head of training at the Beijing Courtesy College, a finishing school for young adults who want to study decorum, usually before taking their first major jobs.

"It's really important to improve courtesy" ahead of the Games, Zhang said.

She believes in doing this the old-fashioned way.

"Everyone knows how to walk, stand and sit," she said. "But we teach them how to do it in a standard way."

That means sitting, back straight, on the "front one-third" of a chair, she said, primly demonstrating. "Women sit with their knees and feet together. Men may sit with their feet slightly apart. If you cross your legs, you keep the toe of your raised foot pointing downward."

"Every day we teach the students about Confucius and Laozi," Zhang said, referring to the Chinese philosophers who lived some 2,500 years ago and are credited with shaping values associated with China ¡ª discipline and not rocking the boat.

"Every country has a basis for its culture," she said. "Confucius and Laozi are our country's basis."

[Newbs]

Raoul, I haven't read all your post but all the same let me post before I read.

My problem with all this is as follows:

Let's replace "5000 years" of culture in about 2 years.

Note from Newbs to the good Beijing ren. I ain't gonna work, folks.

[Raoul Duke]

Especially since I plan to be in Beijing for the Olympics. I have little interest in the Games but I want to stare and spit at tourists.
Come join me!

[Decurso]

Only if you'll join me in urinating on the Olympic Village in front of horrified tourists...beer in hand naturally.


Newbs...the main reason it won't work is because most of the people who visit the olypmics will be from Hebei,Tianjin,Shandong and other nearby places.It's all well and good educating the people of Beijing...but there's a billion other people out there.

The spitting thing is trivial to me.The cutting in line....oy-vey.This is going to be a BIG problem in 2008.

[joe]

I was thinking about this the other night. You know what';s going to happen when the international media turn up? They're going to go out on the streets to report this or that, a crowd will gather, some pretty reporter will stand in front of the camera and start speaking. Somewhere, sometime, someone will -- what can you call it, throttle the chicken dying in their throat? Wind up for the pitch? -- hawk in preparation for spitting, and the crew will laugh and cut the take and go again.

But it's going to begin happening more and more. It'll start being recognised as a phenomenon, and either there'll be a report done or there'll be such a bloopers tape as China hopes will never see the light of day.

I say it'll be a dangerous time for foreigners in the backwoods if Beijing becomes the spectacle we know it will be. It'll be a hysterical time. Luckily, I think no one will see any of this on Chinese tv.

[Lotus Eater]

One more SARS scare - and no-one will spit - any bets that one will 'occur' between now and 2008??

[Non-Dave]

"You have to spit into a tissue or a bag, and then put it into a dustbin to complete the process," she said.

Ha Ha Farkin Ha! How unlikely!

The only time I've seen a tissue used in China was in a restaurant in Shaungyashan (up in the cold north-east).

Sitting in a crowded restaurant with 3 female FT's - one on her second day in China and still a little "delicate".

An obviously well-bred local emptied his two full nostrils onto the restaurant floor at the table next to us and had the good manners to wipe his nose with a tissue before gently depositing it on the floor too.

Raoul and Decurso - I'm with you guys. I've got a bright orange esky we can keep the beer in.

[Norbert Radd]

Isn't bird flu the new SARS? Hong Kong radio says bird flu's endemic to Guangdong.
I think the media will be censored as much as possbile and shadowed because it'll be an opportunity for many here to vocalize what they can't everyday. I would like to have Western cameras catch the people with streams of snot coming out of their nose that I dodge everyday but it wouldn't change a thing here.

[Miss Motz]

I may be being a tad hmmmm 'delicate' by saying this but ewewewewwe yukky, very BAD mental images of 'streams of snot' flying aorund Chinese restaraunts .... enough to make me gag. Do you REALLY get used to the snotting??

[Norbert Radd]

I just look away from everything and try to think of...anything else

[Ruth]

missmotz said:

I may be being a tad hmmmm 'delicate' by saying this but ewewewewwe yukky, very BAD mental images of 'streams of snot' flying aorund Chinese restaraunts .... enough to make me gag. Do you REALLY get used to the snotting??

NO NO NO. I've been here 28 months now and I'm not used to it. Sometimes I get a physical gag reflex when I see or hear it. I avert my eyes if I see it coming. I tell myself Jesus loves them too. I try to ignore it. But, sometimes it catches me off guard and I get the heave response. Last week, one of my private kids I've taught for months spit on the floor in my room. I couldn't believe it. I gave him a tissue and told him to clean it up. He couldn't believe I was asking him to do this, but he did it. Last night he got up from the table and spit into the trash can. Wish he hadn't done that either, but it's a damn sight better than onto the floor.

providing a cultural and historical legacy to the world

It might not be the legacy they want if people don't learn to 'spit properly.'

wearing bright orange uniforms with the Chinese character for "mucus" emblazoned in yellow on the back

Now THAT is the most enviable uniform in the world. Gosh, almost worth it to apply for that job just to get to wear one of those. A bottle of the Saloon's finest and a civet burger on me for the first picture posted. You barflies in Beijing have a mission to share this with the rest of us.

That means sitting, back straight, on the "front one-third" of a chair

Okay, call me uncouth. I don't sit like this, but my co-workers do. They probably talk about the crude foreigner and how I sit. But my sitting behaviour doesn't spread germs or leave the communal environment yucky like their spitting behaviour. Why do chairs have backs then? Never mind. I know. Place to hang the coat.

I'm gonna use this article as a lesson. Think I'll get fired?

[Mr Nobody]

Any flying pigs?

[Ruth]

No, only singing ones. That is if Raoul can ever teach them.

[Decurso]

I have said it before and I will say it again.It isn't spitting that's the the problem..it's the method.Instead of making more noise than a Ted Nuggent concert...why doesn't one QUIETLY cough up up a mouthful of phlegm and discreetly deposit it in the nearest convenient place.Works for me.

As for "snot rockets"..I'm with Ruth.I'll never get used to that.

[Kurochan]

>I tell myself Jesus loves them too.

A grad school classmate of mine told me about his neighbor who used to say of annoying people, "Bless him with a brick." You just made me think of that!

[Dragonsaver]

If the Government was really serious about stoping this behavior, I have a suggestion.

The armed forces.

Too late to train enough people before the Olympics, but it would work eventually.

Have everyone in the Army, Navy and Airforce be prohibited from spitting etc. They are required to follow orders and this could be one of the orders. Obviously the higher ranks would have to comply, but all recruits would be forced to comply. At University, all students must take military training, again, this (plus no littering), could be one of the orders. Training and repetitive drilling would eventually change habits. They say a habit can be changed in 21 days if an alternative behavior is given. So, why not start with a 'captive' audience???

I was in the armed forces for awhile but .... What do other's think???

[Mr Nobody]

Bloody good idea.

Now, how to impliment it?

[con's fly is open]

Television. BAAAAAAA! Yao Ming doesn't blow snot. But the farmers do. Throw in some zippy commercials of attractive teenagers using a kleenex, and a girl losing the hunk's gaze because she couldn't find a snotrag at the crucial moment.

Finally, introduce an animated mascot...

[Ruth]

introduce an animated mascot

What? An ugly little green thing flying out of someone's nose?

Seriously - commercials are a great idea, Con. I read somewhere (here) that the Chinese want to increase their animation market. Public education would be a great place to start.

Another thought: I saw a cute commercial with the Olympic mascots while I had access to CCTV9 in SJZ. Of course, they were plugging the Olympics (and sales of products with their image, no doubt). The mascots could be used to teach public hygiene.

[woza17]

My son has a cold at the moment and he blows his nose into a tissue and puts it on the table.
I have pointed this out to him but it ends up we have a big fight so I just keep quiet

I can't remember if this is acceptable behaviour in the west.
I never blow my nose at the table or in public for that matter.

Am I right or am I right?

[Hamish]

He does what you tell him or he does not eat. The fight is necessary. You must win. I have raised five daughters, all grown, all gone through college, all honest and upright. Better people than me by a long shot. All kids need, even want, limits.

You are not their friend, you are their parent.

Often, they don't see those as the same thing.

Just my two yuan.

[woza17]

Hamish my son is 26.

I stopped hitting him when he was 14.


I just finished discussing this calmly with my son and we have agreed when we go out together that we will take a plastic bag, a snot bag so he can dispose of the tissues.

Thankyou though, we all had a good laugh and it made it easier to confront the problem

[Ruth]

This is just my opinion and certainly won't qualify as polite behavior in all cultures. Maybe not even my own. It was never an issue for me until I came to China, so I can't say I ever paid attention to what others do back home. Must have been acceptable to me, else I would have noticed.

If the nose just needs a wiping, one can do that subtly while dining without offending one's dining companions. What one does with the tissue is up to the individual - lap, pocket, snot bag - but shouldn't be placed on the table. That's yucky and could offend one's dining companions.

If one needs to clear the nose, which could offend one's dining companions, one should leave the table to take care of it. While away from the table, find a garbage can for the tissue. That's assuming a western home or restaurant. In China, sometimes the restaurants are so noisy that turning away from the table to do the deed is enough that your companions can't hear. One should always use a tissue and the tissue should NOT be placed on the table after it has been used.

Glad you and your son have come to an agreement. When I was reading Hamish's post I was thinking - "Woza's son is about to become a father. Little too late for her to be the heavy parent." Glad you had a laugh about it.

[Lotus Eater]

Brought this one up with my Oral English students today. I had them be the BOC and deal with problems that will occur during the Olympics using the 6 hats stuff. One class finished early and so I introduced this and asked for their options. They decided that it needed to be made against the law and advertsing was an appropriate way to advise all of China that it is against the law. The advertsing was along the "loss of face" lines if you did it. Penalities included being named in public, having to sweep the streets and being sent to jail - that one got a laugh - entire jails full of spitting Chinese!

But it was interesting - no-one admitted to spitting or even admitted knowing anyone who spat! But I pointed out that it is so common that they have to have members of the family and friends doing it. Not one taker!!

[Ruth]

This came up in a lesson on manners a few months ago. My first grade high schoolers denied spitting. There is evidence every day all over the stairs, hallways and pathways outside that someone in the school is spitting. They (all 85 of them) denied it was anyone in their class - must be the teachers and other students. The very next day I was following one of those students up the stairs and guess what? I didn't call him on it.