|
China's spitting image to be overturned
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-03 09:19 Hosting the Olympics means
doing a lot more than building a few stadiums, as Beijing is finding out. On
Wednesday the Chinese authorities launched a campaign to clean up the way people
in the city behave. One of the biggest challenges is to ban public spitting.
This billboard tells residents what not to do
in China in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics: no illegal construction and
parking, grafitti, damage of public property, damage to greenery,
littering and spitting or illegal street vending.
[AP] |
In preparation for the 2008 Summer
Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese government said Wednesday it would introduce a
new code of conduct for its citizens: no slurping of soup, no trying to push to
the front of lines and, most of all, absolutely no spitting.
Keen to present its best face to the world during the prestigious sporting
event, the government in Beijing has declared war on expectorating in public in
a county where phlegm is as ubiquitous on the ground as dog poop in some
European cities.
Millions of brochures are being sent out to persuade individuals that
spitting is unhygienic, paper sanitary bags with the Chinese symbol for "mucus"
are being distributed on public transport for people to spit into and anyone
found spitting onto the sidewalk will have to either clean up the mess or cough
up an on-the-spot fine of 50 yuan, the equivalent of about ？.
The issue of spitting in public was first tackled by the Chinese government
in a 2003 awareness campaign aimed at curbing the spread of SARS. But it has
also become one of the issues that divide the increasingly wealthy urban
Chinese, who often regard spitting as lower class, from the poor workers in the
countryside.
But banning spitting is no easy feat. Beijing's dusty climate and high levels
of pollution mean that coughing up is often the only way to clear your throat.
Whether the Chinese government can actually change people's behavior from
above remains doubtful: After all Germany's campaign to get people smiling in
time for this summer's football World Cup, has been going for months now. But as
yet there is no sign that dour Berliners are looking any more
jovial.
|
