蹲式窗口(dūnshì chuāngkǒu):Squat-style counters

There is a scene in the popular anti-corruption TV drama In the Name of the People, in which the character of "Jingzhou" Party Secretary Li Dakang criticizes the reception counters of the office of letters and calls for being too low, as it requires the petitioners to squat in front of the counter to talk to the bureau staff on the other side of the counter.

It is a shame to see such a scene is not an invention of the writers. Netizens have revealed that the counter of the police station in Zhuzhou railway station, Central China's Hunan province, is only 80 centimeters from the ground, and the residents have to squat when they talk to the police officers.

It is hard to justify such low counters as a mistake, because the height of the counters is just right for the civil servants when they sit. They just choose to ignore the inconvenience that the lower-than-normal counter causes the public. These government departments apparently forget that the basic purpose of their work is to serve the people.

The problem of "squat-style counters" not only exposes the lack of awareness on the part of some government departments to serve the people, but also exposes the arrogance of some government organizations. More detailed government service standards should be set up to enhance the civil servants' awareness that they serve the people.