The Hindu Business Line : Beijing on best behaviour

When the late leader Deng Xiaoping declared that “to get rich is glorious,” China’s footsteps were firmly set on the path of economic reform. Thirty years later, another revolution is brewing in the erstwhile Middle Kingdom; this time thanks to the Olympics. “To queue is glorious,” is the new catchphrase plastered on large red banners festooned across strategic parts of the capital city, Beijing.

Ever since Beijing won the bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games, strenuous efforts have been made to ensure that the city is ready to put its best face forward to the world. The municipal government has poured billions of dollars into giving the Capital a facelift. Iconic stadiums have been erected, hundreds of miles of expressways and new subway lines opened, forty million potted plants put out to beautify the city.

But for Beijing’s harried authorities, the efforts required to put in place the physical infrastructure necessary to ensure a smooth Olympics have been matched by an even more challenging task: that of developing the “civilisational levels” of the city’s average Zhou.

While the main campaign to transform Beijingers from the rude to the refined has been the charge of a special department called the Office of the Spiritual Civilisation Development Steering Commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, BOCOG (the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games) has also been involved.

The authorities have spent the last few years focusing in particular on five major lacunae identified in the city’s social etiquette. These include Beijing-style name-calling, casual spitting, littering, disorderly queuing and not smiling.

‘Line’ of duty

As a result, somewhat bemused Beijingers have been subjected to random fines for spitting, dazzled by smile campaigns and exhorted to form queues. Taxi-drivers have been asked to wash more regularly, put on clean shirts and avoid eating inside their cabs. For the last several months, the 11th of each month has been designated Queuing Day, with government employees fanning out to hundreds of bus and subway stations, urging people to eschew their preferred survival-of-the-fittest push fests in favour of forming orderly lines.

The city government has also instituted a “civility-evaluation index” that ranks neighbourhoods according to the level of refinement they are able to achieve by the time of the Olympics. The resulting competition between neighbourhoods has been intense. Anxious to secure the coveted epithet of “civilised community”, neighbourhood committees across Beijing have been vying with each other in organising weekend discussions on edifying topics such as “Host the Olympics with civility” and “Smile in Beijing”.

Manuals with “guidelines for the building of courteous communities” have been distributed; criteria outlined include sharing housework, speaking a foreign language, regular reading of newspapers, large book-collections and balconies displaying potted plants. Also mentioned are a number of “forbidden” activities such as alcohol abuse, raising pigeons, rearing livestock at home, noisiness and spitting.

Another common Beijing practice that is under threat as a result of the Olympic-friendly image drive is the use of kaidangku (literally open crotch pants) for babies. For decades Chinese parents have opted for the maximum convenience, with minimum coverage provided by the use of these pants that are slit around the buttocks, enabling kids to answer the call of nature anywhere on the streets without the fuss of actually having to pull their trousers down.

Best behaviour on call

Neighbourhood committees have however been pressed into persuading parents to eschew bare bottoms in favour of diapers, at least for the duration of the Olympics. Signposts abound, sternly querying what kind of impression foreign visitors will take home of Beijing if they see public spaces being used as open-air toilets.

All this “civilising” activity appears to have paid off. According to a survey conducted by the People’s University’s Humanistic Olympics Study Centre, the “civic index” of Beijingers was 73.38 in 2007, up from 65.21 and 69.06 in 2005 and 2006 respectively. The index reflects compliance with rules involving public health and public order, attitudes towards strangers, etiquette at sports events and a willingness to contribute to the Olympic Games, explained Liao Fei, a sociology professor who worked on the survey.

“A citizen’s behaviour embodies and reflects on the entire nation’s culture,” she said, adding that the average Chinese needed to modify his manners to be more in line with the changes created by the country’s zooming economy. “With economic reforms changes in China happened very rapidly and people didn’t have time like in Western countries to develop the manners that should go along with a developed economy,” Liao continued.

While emphasising that the etiquette standards of the average Beijinger had improved since the start of the “good manners” campaigns, she also admitted that much work remained to be done. “I think during the Olympics most people will make an extra effort to be on their best behaviour so that the etiquette level of citizens should reach that expected of a host city,” the professor said. “But in the long term it is harder to change people’s behaviour.”

Indeed, etiquette campaigns notwithstanding, for a Beijinger the ability to spit with spirit and swear with style remains almost a badge of authenticity. Despite Liao’s optimism, visitors to next month’s Olympics would do well to be prepared for a little local colour.

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