He looks well-groomed, and like a professional, wearing a suit
and walking down the street in the middle of the day.
His head turns slightly and there's a slight hoicking sound from
the back of his mouth. Then, he spits on the street.
It's a flagrant violation of the law that occurs thousands
--possibly hundreds of thousands -- of times each day in the
Chinese capital, but as Beijing tries to spruce up its image for
the 2008 Olympics, the city government and the civic-minded have
the practice in their sights.
During the week-long Labor Day holiday this year, which began on
May 1, more than 100,000 paper bags were handed out to the public
for people to spit into. The local authorities also meted out fines
ranging from 20 yuan (US$2.7) to 50 yuan (US$6.7) to 89 people for
spitting in public.
A most recent official campaign against spitting in public was
in 2003 to raise the public awareness of the spread of SARS.
But spitting is proving difficult to eradicate. Beijing's dusty
climate and high levels of pollution mean many people consider it
necessary to spit in the streets just to clear their throats.
Wang Tao, 35, who works at the Xicheng District Health Bureau,
decided to do something about it.
He started his first battle to fight spitting in the streets in
May 2006. At weekends Wang and his growing band of Green
Woodpeckers, formed mainly of student volunteers, patrol on
Beijing's streets, trying to show spitters the error of their
ways.
"We give tissues to the people who spit and ask them to wipe up
the spittle," he says. "If they refuse, we do it in front of them.
This kind of action is effective on most people."
He is not alone. With less than a year to the opening of the
2008 Olympics, Beijing continues its endeavors to improve the
character of the city as residents are on the alert to mind their
manners.
"Hosting the Games means a lot more than building grand
stadiums," says Zhang Huiguang, director of Beijing's Capital
Ethics Development Office, the official etiquette watchdog.
An official estimate of 500,000 visitors and athletes will come
to China for the Games. "Both China's positive and negative sides
will be amplified -- and bad impressions last," she says.
Changing bad habits ahead of the Games is "crucial in providing
a cultural and historical legacy to China and the world as a
whole", says Zhang.
Dubbed the "Ms. Manners" of the Beijing Games, Zhang Huiguang is
racing against time to improve the city's decorum. She and her team
use daily TV commercials, newspaper cartoons and street posters to
try to change the ingrained habits of the 15 million people living
in and around the city.
"Promoting civilized behavior among Chinese travelers and
residents is a long-term task. For the Games, we need to focus our
resources on the main problems," Zhang says, citing spitting,
queue-jumping, swearing and smoking as the four "new pests" against
the "four pests" of rats, flies, mosquitoes and sparrows during
Mao's era.
One measure to "eliminate the four new pests" is the "promote
queuing" campaign, which was launched in February 2007, and is held
on the 11th day of each month as "11" has come to symbolize "one
after one".
Uniformed queuing inspectors, waving flags, appear at bus stops
and subway stations on "queuing day" to ensure people line up. The
traditional swarming mobs at the doors of trains and buses are less
common these days.
"In March, we focused on bus stops and subway stations. In
April, we focused on hospitals," says Zhang. "We gave flowers to
patients standing in line to show our appreciation for their good
behavior."
Beijing has also issued 2.8 million pamphlets about daily
etiquette to local households and offered polishing courses to all
civil servants and 870,000 people working in the service sector,
such as cab drivers, waiters and waitresses, and bus
conductors.
"Sentences like 'No means no, it doesn't need an explanation'
and 'We can't help you. Go ask someone else' are strictly
prohibited," says Zhao Guiling, a 36-year-old cab driver.
Yao Kuo, vice-director of the municipal transport management
bureau, says his bureau has devised a 12-point evaluation chart for
taxi drivers, which includes no smoking while driving, no
overcharging, no spitting and no littering.
"Cab drivers must remember that their service is a window on
China's capital, and they contribute powerfully to the city's
image," Yao says.
Progress is being made. A survey released by Renmin University
of China at the end of January found that in 2006, 4.95 percent of
people still spat, down by 3.5 percentage points from 2005.
From November 2005 to November 2006, the poll covered 10,000
local residents and 1,000 foreigners who had lived in Beijing for
more than two years. The survey team also gathered observations
from 230,000 people at 320 public venues and 180,000
automobiles.
The survey revealed that the occurrence of littering in public
had dropped from 9.1 percent in 2005 to 5.3 percent in 2006 and
queue-jumping dropped from 9 percent to 6 percent.
The "civic index" of Beijing residents scored 69.06 in 2006,
3.85 points higher than 2005. The index takes into account public
compliance with rules in public health and public order, attitudes
towards strangers, etiquette in watching sports events and
willingness to contribute to the Olympic Games.
However, the "civic index" still fails to meet the standard
required for the 2008 Olympics, says Sha Lianxiang, professor of
the Department of Sociology, Renmin University. She expected the
index to rise to 72 to 78 during the Games.
"On the one hand, we are developing and making progress now,
while on the other, we still have many problems. Raising public
etiquette and civility is not something we can do in one or two
months, or even one or two years," she says.
Zhang Faqiang, vice-chairman of the China Olympic Committee,
agrees. "We are still away from meeting the standards of a really
civilized Olympic Games, so we will continue to do important work
on this."
"The Olympics is an opportunity to learn, but this is not just
for the Olympics. We are trying to get the public to be more
civilized in the long run. Ultimately, China's modernization rests
on the quality of its citizens."
(Xinhua News Agency October 5, 2007)?