I expect the boxers to rebel.
Posted on 04/14/2007 12:26:31 PM PDT by Ellesu
BEIJING - Residents were reminded again: Spitting must stop, starting now.
With the 2008 Beijing Olympics less than 500 days away, officials say they are prepared to take harsh measures against people who spit in public if appeals do not work.
"Very soon you will see action to stop spitting," said Jin Dapeng, director general of Beijing's municipal health department. He hinted that fines might be involved.
Residents say the habit is a reaction to Beijing's dirty, dry air.
Bad manners have been a constant worry for Chinese officials.
At a discussion panel on the subject, one adviser, Zi Huayun, listed four key bad habits of Chinese: spitting, not waiting in line, widespread smoking and swearing in the Beijing dialect.
Dirty toilets and rudeness were added to the list by He Huixian, vice-president of the Chinese Olympic Committee.
“Swearing in the Beijing dialect” is something up with which I will not put.
I guess this means that there won’t be baseball in the 2008 games.
I expect the boxers to rebel.
I was in a Beijing restaurant and I took a picture of my friend across the table. It wasn’t until I got the picture processed that I realized I caught a glimpse of a huge wad on a vector right behind my friend. I saw public spitting all over the place - indoors and out.
I guess I can quit training. Do you think they’ll bring it back for 2012?
So I guess it’s true that spitting is a big social problem over there, I had no idea either. “Dirty, dirty air”?
I was there working on a large machine and we had to put tape around it and name it the "No Spitting Zone" to keep the mechanics from kneeling down in someones flem.
PS. Don't even ask about the restrooms....Yuck!
They will treat the *spitters* like stray dog......beat them to death in the street.
Do they use spittoons in China I wonder. Chew Mail Pouch?
The answer to both is a resounding ‘no’ and what they are spitting is even more gross than tobacco, and unlike tobacco, TB is spread through the habit. They fail to mention one other little ‘habit’ and that is the, shall we say depositing, of nose material on any convenient wall, including inside ones house.
Ah-h-h-h more multiculturalism.
The author forgot to add to bring your own food.
Prior Olympic venues used to just prohibit street vendors from hawking their wares...
That makes me so mad I could spit! ;^)
China.....”the loogie-free country”
My Chinese (2nd generation) friend just returned from China. With disgust, he said, “you wouldn’t believe how these people spit all the time.”
BTW, he said the country is already 'full' of foreigners preparing for the 2008 Olympics.
For those fellow FReepers that have been to China...
Has any of you seen the toddlers running around in the split bottom pants? I was in a dumpling shop in a non-tourist section of Shanghai. As we were eating our dumplings for lunch we saw a little boy. He was stand at the entrance of the restaurant. He squatted and took a dump right there, not more than 10 feet from where we were eating. Some woman grabbed a newspaper, picked up the turd. She then dumped water from a bucket on it and swept it out onto the sidewalk. Not a single local person in the restaurant even blinked. One of the guys I was with almost barfed.
I have seen them do in on the street, the parks and in a Chinese style mall not far from Yu Yuan Garden. I should have taken pictures be I was too stunned to get out the camera.
“For those fellow FReepers that have been to China...Has any of you seen the toddlers running around in the split bottom pants?”
Yes, that took me by surprise.
Again I repeat myself. Going to China is not a vaction. It is a learning experience.
vaction = vacation...sorry.
Is it any wonder that flu strains originate there?
China is dirty, but it is interesting.
Well, at least they didn't ban public farting.
Well, dang! I was just now getting good enough to go for a Gold Medal in that sport.
I have seen them do in on the street, the parks and in a Chinese style mall not far from Yu Yuan Garden. I should have taken pictures be I was too stunned to get out the camera.
I saw the same thing - in Guangzhou. Just so you know it's not just a Shanghai thing. And then there was the time a Chinese mom opened up her toddler's pants so he could piss in the sink - at a McDonald's.
A tiny minority of Chinese elites have indeed adopted one aspect of Western high culture (i.e. not spitting). Traditional Chinese culture involves frequent spitting. Deng Xiaoping was a regular user of the spittoon. (And don't tell me Deng wasn't educated - he was literate and the commanding general of the decisive battle that defeated Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists). The issue isn't with the habit of spitting in the street - it's with spitting at all. Since the average Chinese is brought up to think of phlegm as harmful, the natural thing is to spit it out at every opportunity.
The problem is that education level throughout China is still very low. For every 10 million educated, there are 100 million uneducated. But hopefully that will greatly improve in the next few decades.
As you yourself wrote earlier, 90% of Chinese are literate. The problem isn't education levels - it's Chinese culture. Westerners have discarded the quack remedies of traditional Western medicine - the Chinese still cling to the quackery of traditional Chinese medical theory, out of racial pride. (In a world where 99% of what Chinese see and touch everyday is a Western invention, the blind acceptance of traditional Chinese quackery is a salve to wounded Chinese pride).Phlegm is bad for you, so you must spit it out. Since no one carries a spittoon around with him, and the cleanliness of the streets is anyhow not his problem, the natural thing to do outdoors is to hawk and spit out that loogie stuck in his throat.
Note also that what is said by self-appointed Chinese social critics and their official hangers-on in later periods doesn't represent Chinese culture. It is what the Chinese people do that represents Chinese culture. Besides, spitting is such an ancient Chinese tradition that to say it's not part of Chinese culture is like saying that leeches were not part of the Western medical tradition.
I have been to China and I really liked it. I will be going at least 2 more times this year, one for business and one for vacation.
However, there are a lot of smells and sights that I was just not prepared to see.
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