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Making Shanghai a place people are ashamed to spit
By Wang Yong |
February 17, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CONGRATULATIONS, China.
Not only are you the world's No. 2 economy, you are also the world's 4th largest applicant for patents, putting developed countries such as Germany and South Korea to shame.
Why don't you seek a patent for something that no country would dare challenge, something in which China excels, something that China does like no other country: spitting in public?
That hawking, gurgling and spitting resounds in streets and shops, parks and buses, schools and hospitals. Wherever you go in metropolitan and sophisticated Shanghai, and elsewhere in China, you are in for that disgusting noise and heedless, unhygienic splatter.
Shanghai's World Expo, dedicated to better city living, has had scant, if any, lasting impact on this nauseating behavior with Chinese characteristics. Every day, as I go to and from work, the noise of spitting greets me both from afar and right in front of my face.
It's one of the sounds of the city. Blindfolded, I would know I was in Shanghai.
Xinmin Evening News lamented in an editorial on Tuesday that many bad habits have returned to Shanghai with a vengeance after the Expo gala ended. At the time there was a big emphasis on public courtesy and what we call "civilized behavior." But now, the popular newspaper noted, people in Shanghai were jaywalking and cutting lines again, just as before.
The newspaper didn't mention public spitting - for good reason. Public spitting never disappeared even during the World Expo. Shanghai star comedian Zhou Libo, who pokes fun of everyone in Shanghai dialect, also makes fun of public spitting.
"The weather in Shanghai was so excellent in those (World Expo) days that many people would inhale fresh air in earnest," he said recently, raising his head high and back to take in a deep breath. "There were some other people who acted likewise," he continued, meaning they also seemed about to take a deep breath. "But then they acted like this," he said, bending down in a ready-to-spit position. The audience roared.
In public, there are roughly two kinds of spitting: casual spitting by construction workers or anyone else fed up with bad air; and deliberately loud spitting by people in their 40s or 50s. I can forgive construction workers because they don't spit in your face. Some people - usually middle-aged and often well-dressed - hold the phlegm, tumble it in their mouths with a rumbling noise until they approach you and let the "thunder" out. They want you to hear it and see it.
My colleague Ni Tao writes in today's commentary that he always looks down cautiously to avoid dog poop. I would look up, down and sideways to avoid danger.
You hardly ever see Americans or other people spitting in public, even if they are choking on bad air. As Ni Tao says, many dog owners in China don't bother to clean up their dog's poop in the streets. You don't see so many irresponsible dog owners elsewhere in the global village.
Such is our weird and wonderful country that we carry luxury bags, drive fancy cars, buy expensive shoes - and then spit right in front of each other. Freedom of choice in a market economy doesn't transform people into good citizens.
Shanghai has achieved great things and is justly proud of its skyline, its modernity, sophistication and energy.
With all our fine achievements, why can't we transform Shanghai into a space where people are ashamed of spitting?
Shanghai residents and other Chinese visiting Singapore don't spit - they would be shamed and fined. Chinese wouldn't think of spitting in the Great Hall of the People. They would be mortified.
Whatever happened to shame in our city?
Not only are you the world's No. 2 economy, you are also the world's 4th largest applicant for patents, putting developed countries such as Germany and South Korea to shame.
Why don't you seek a patent for something that no country would dare challenge, something in which China excels, something that China does like no other country: spitting in public?
That hawking, gurgling and spitting resounds in streets and shops, parks and buses, schools and hospitals. Wherever you go in metropolitan and sophisticated Shanghai, and elsewhere in China, you are in for that disgusting noise and heedless, unhygienic splatter.
Shanghai's World Expo, dedicated to better city living, has had scant, if any, lasting impact on this nauseating behavior with Chinese characteristics. Every day, as I go to and from work, the noise of spitting greets me both from afar and right in front of my face.
It's one of the sounds of the city. Blindfolded, I would know I was in Shanghai.
Xinmin Evening News lamented in an editorial on Tuesday that many bad habits have returned to Shanghai with a vengeance after the Expo gala ended. At the time there was a big emphasis on public courtesy and what we call "civilized behavior." But now, the popular newspaper noted, people in Shanghai were jaywalking and cutting lines again, just as before.
The newspaper didn't mention public spitting - for good reason. Public spitting never disappeared even during the World Expo. Shanghai star comedian Zhou Libo, who pokes fun of everyone in Shanghai dialect, also makes fun of public spitting.
"The weather in Shanghai was so excellent in those (World Expo) days that many people would inhale fresh air in earnest," he said recently, raising his head high and back to take in a deep breath. "There were some other people who acted likewise," he continued, meaning they also seemed about to take a deep breath. "But then they acted like this," he said, bending down in a ready-to-spit position. The audience roared.
In public, there are roughly two kinds of spitting: casual spitting by construction workers or anyone else fed up with bad air; and deliberately loud spitting by people in their 40s or 50s. I can forgive construction workers because they don't spit in your face. Some people - usually middle-aged and often well-dressed - hold the phlegm, tumble it in their mouths with a rumbling noise until they approach you and let the "thunder" out. They want you to hear it and see it.
My colleague Ni Tao writes in today's commentary that he always looks down cautiously to avoid dog poop. I would look up, down and sideways to avoid danger.
You hardly ever see Americans or other people spitting in public, even if they are choking on bad air. As Ni Tao says, many dog owners in China don't bother to clean up their dog's poop in the streets. You don't see so many irresponsible dog owners elsewhere in the global village.
Such is our weird and wonderful country that we carry luxury bags, drive fancy cars, buy expensive shoes - and then spit right in front of each other. Freedom of choice in a market economy doesn't transform people into good citizens.
Shanghai has achieved great things and is justly proud of its skyline, its modernity, sophistication and energy.
With all our fine achievements, why can't we transform Shanghai into a space where people are ashamed of spitting?
Shanghai residents and other Chinese visiting Singapore don't spit - they would be shamed and fined. Chinese wouldn't think of spitting in the Great Hall of the People. They would be mortified.
Whatever happened to shame in our city?
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