Liu Shinan is China Daily's assistant editor-in-chief. He writes commentaries on social and cultural issues.
As uncivilized habits like spitting and jaywalking have taken decades or centuries to evolve, it may take a very long period of time, though not necessarily decades or centuries, to completely change them.
A nationwide survey found that 51.8 per cent of Chinese people who can read do not read any books at all. And this percentage has been increasing for the past five years.
It is logical and reasonable: The petroleum price hike prompted the cost of running a taxi to soar; hence taxi fares need to be raised. Taxi passengers will have to pay more. That doesn't sound unfair the person who enjoys the service should pay for the changing cost of producing that service. Surveys found, however, that 80 per cent of urban citizens oppose the authorities' plan to raise taxi fares. This is only too predictable. Nobody would like to spend more except those who can get 100 per cent reimbursement from somewhere.
A top official of Guangzhou municipality urged the city's police officers to "have the courage to fire" at armed robbers who are threatening the life of a citizen or police officer.
The plight of a former national sports champion has aroused widespread concern recently.
A special exhibition is currently being held in Beijing. On display are a variety of commodity ration coupons used in China during the time of the planned economy, which ran from the early 1950s to the mid-1980s.
Traffic police in Beijing have tightened up road patrols to crack down on motorists who deliberately hide their licence plates. The move was in response to the recent rise in the number of such misdeeds. Many car drivers took off the rear licence plate or covered it with mud or graffiti to escape speed-monitoring cameras.
The government has eventually admitted that the wealth disparity between China's rich and poor populations has reached an unreasonably large extent.
As part of its efforts to "build harmonious society," the government has taken initiatives to establish "fair-price hospitals."
At midnight on Lunar New Year's Eve, I stood on the balcony of my 11th floor apartment in Beijing and watched colourful fireworks rocket into the night sky from behind every building I could see. Deafening explosions swept across the city.
Beijing's ban on fireworks has finally been lifted.
"Chunyun" has become a very special word in the modern Chinese vocabulary. The word, literally meaning "spring transportation," has many implications. For people that work away from their hometown, it refers to the happiness of reuniting with loved ones and the bitterness of battling for a train ticket; for railway staff it represents 40 days of arduous work; for scalpers it suggests a busy season of business; for the police it implies a war against theft and luggage containing inflammable materials; for the government it is a test of administrative ability.
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