When can the Chinese improve on their personal habits?

Question

I just got back from a trip in China. While waiting at the lobby of a 5 star hotel, I saw this well dressed man,(obviously a Chinese from the way he speaks) spitting onto the carpet of the hotel. Spittons has long been removed from many places, but old habits die hard. In the efforts to be more civilised (wen ming), the Chinese government have put up posters against the don't of personal habits - and spitting is one of them. I wonder when the Chinese improve on this aspect of their culture.

The man in question is in his thirties. The hotel I mentioned was in Shenzhen.

btw, I am an overseas Chinese, and my forefathers come from Guandong province. I do hope to see the Chinese in China being more cultured and gracious in time to come.

Answer 1

Yes spitting become Chinese Goverment big problem as the Olympic games coming, 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 — especially Western — 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 — discipline and not rocking the boat.

“Every country has a basis for its culture,” she said. “Confucius and Laozi are our country’s basis.”

Despite all that I still not convince they will overcome the problem soon. Hope they start to learn and eliminate that nasty habit.

Answer 2

I doff my hat to you Guru.

The spitting thing is generally becoming less and less acceptable here, especially in the cities and large towns and particularly among the young. The man you witnessed was likely some middle-aged provincial. You'd be surprised how many Chinese would react in a similar way to yourself.

I think the spitting thing comes from belief that it's more healthy out than in, or at least that's what I've always been told.

I honestly can't remember last time I saw someone spitting here in GZ. Oh I tell a lie, I do remember: I heard some long drawn out hacking behind me about a year back and turned round to see the cutest young lady you could ever imagine.

Mind you, perhaps I don't notice it anymore. Scary thought.

Answer 3

You have yet to see the worst of it. That's only tip of the iceberg. Spitting is a die-hard habit. The central geovernment is now trying to educate it's people. Eg, visitors to HK are advised that spitting in HK is an offence, that squatting gives off a bad image, that speaking loudly on the mobile is frowned upon. It has to be through the young, in school and that will take years and years. Good luck to those visiting Beijing next year! Stay close to the city, don't wander off into the rural areas, you might get a heart attack!

Answer 4

The main problem is that China suddenly open the the outside world and for them spitting, driving like fools is normal. It is true that the government ask their travellers to behave well when outside the country and try to change their habits mainly in Beijing but it takes a long time.

And for the spitting, it is believe that spiting and doing that noise just before is good for the health. So as long as they believe that it won't be simple to break their habits.

And you can also talk about the children peeing in the streets, or peeing in a dustbin in Walmart ( with the help of their parents )

Answer 5

It will take a desire to learn proper public behaviour. Most adults in the city come from the inner parts of China, and have not been exposed to "cultured" behavior. Even businessmen and well-dressed people don't always have the education in etiquette. This is an area that needs to be taught. Hard headed, rough living, and farmer mentality are characteristics that will prevent many people from changing. It has to be in the schools, and the parents participating and relearning their behavior, and maybe in the next 20 years we will see changes.
For now, let someone know how bad that behavior is by your expression or if you speak Chinese, tell them, so they begin to think about it.

Answer 6

I don't know if anyone's mentioned THIS ONE but when I was in Pingyao, about a day by train from Beijing, I saw lots of toddlers without diapers. What the parents do is cut a hole into the child's pants and let her/him shyt right into the street when they have to go. To me that is more than just a manners thing, it's a sanitation catastrophy. I saw some children in action with this and really thought I was going to heave. The spitting, lack of teeth-brushing... most of it seems to be not manners but hygene-related offences, to me... Don't get me wrong, I love China but they have very different standards than Western ones when it comes to sanitation and hygene!

Answer 7

About 30-50 years. We have to wait for the next generation so this can be change in general.

Like you said, old habits die hard, so we will just have to wait till they die.

Also, the women will wet the entire bathroom after a shower. I really don't get this. There are glass doors to enclose the water, but they manage to get the whole floor wet every time. I am bewilder on this front.

Answer 8

my grandfather is for Guandong.but i'm only 1/4 Guandong.

Answer 9

My friend just returned from China and he told me that he saw human faeces on a bus and in a washroom sink.

Answer 10

sounds like the old west here in America.....