China Pushes Public To Mind Its Manners

Curbing Bad Habits Is Pre-Olympic Goal

A group of public toilet cleaners in Beijing gets an etiquette lesson from Zhuang Zeping, a lecturer from a government-run center that is urging citizens to get rid of unseemly habits ahead of the 2008 Olympics. (By Maureen Fan -- The Washington Post)

BEIJING -- In the downtown Environmental Sanitation Bureau, 100 public toilet cleaners sat at rapt attention in neat rows, red armbands pinned to the sleeves of their immaculate purple jumpsuits.

The small army of mostly migrant workers who help keep Beijing clean are trained routinely in the mechanics of their jobs. But on this day, a senior lecturer from a government-run institute was driving home a specific point.

"As long as you have come to Beijing, you are a Beijinger," said Zhuang Zeping, urging the toilet cleaners to match their shoes and socks, keep their tools clean and speak softly and politely to strangers. "You represent the image of China to the rest of the world."

Zhuang's guidance was delivered with a certain context in mind: the 2008 Olympic Games, when an estimated 500,000 foreigners are expected to descend on this fast-developing capital for a crucial two-week period.

China cares enormously about how it is perceived by the rest of the world, and the Games have put a spotlight on this country's ancient ideas of shame and superiority, as well as the traditional Chinese concept of not "losing face."

In recent months, officials from the Communist Party have launched campaigns aimed at stamping out practices that, while common in China, might be seen as downright unseemly by outsiders: spitting, cutting in line, swearing and littering.

The preparations are a demonstration of how much emphasis Chinese leaders are putting on protocol, but also of the degree to which they consider individual behavior a reflection of the nation at large. The stakes are high. For a century, Chinese have tried to overcome foreign domination and isolation to regain what they see as their country's rightful status as a world leader. For many, August 2008 is their opportunity.

"We want to prove we are making progress," said Sha Lianxiang, a professor of social psychology at Renmin University in Beijing. "On the one hand, we are developing and making progress now, while on the other, we still have lots of problems. How to step out of these problems? We need to consider how people look at us. It's a mirror for us. In a globalized world, we want to be as good as others. We care about other people's reaction."

In the run-up to the Games -- called China's "coming-out party" by some commentators here -- officials are preparing to show visitors a sparkling and modern capital with world-class architecture and five-star customer service.

Beijing's municipal government has said it will spend $200 billion to build stadiums and other facilities, upgrade aging infrastructure and improve its tourist industry. That figure doesn't include the vast amounts of money being spent on venues in other Chinese cities or on state-of-the-art training for athletes.

The city, meanwhile, is less eager to be associated with some of its people's traditional habits. Just as unwittingly noisy Americans can offend and the Parisian tendency to allow dogs to defecate anywhere can outrage, Chinese exhibit idiosyncrasies that can seem off-putting. Beijingers spit on sidewalks and chew with open mouths; cabbies engage in protracted nose-picking; and airline passengers jostle one another as soon as their planes touch down.

In the West, a person's behavior would not necessarily be seen as a reflection of a whole nation. But for many Chinese, it's different.