BEIJING – Even Miss Manners might blanch at the task at hand: charm school for a billion people, a good number of them convinced that life means never having to say you’re sorry, excuse me or thank you.
This is no tutorial on fish forks. In advance of the 2008 Olympics, the Chinese government has embarked on a crash campaign to instill manners in the world’s most populous country. The effort has left government planners struggling to break some deeply entrenched habits, including public spitting and urinating, driving that evokes a “Road Warrior” movie set, and an inordinate fondness for cutting in line.
“I think they’re already too late for the Olympics,” said Zhu Wei, manager of the Shanghai Boni Housekeeping Service, a maid referral service that uses British butlers to train its staff. “They should have started 20 years ago.”
China hardly has a monopoly on rude behavior. And many observers give Beijing kudos for trying. “Some people’s manners in China are atrocious, but you have to start somewhere,” said Yue-sai Kan, author of “Etiquette for the Modern Chinese.” “I think it’s great what the government is doing. I wish the New York City government would do this.”
Among various initiatives are televised manners courses, slogans, billboards and civilization contests.
China’s politeness push might be more challenging than elsewhere, however, in part because of its history. After the Communists took power in 1949, etiquette wasn’t just pushed aside. It often was rooted out, sociologists say.
Now China finds itself playing catch-up in the manners department, as it realizes that commanding global respect means more than just churning out widgets and building five-star hotels.
By the end of the year, “The bad habits of local citizens will be eradicated,” the China Daily declared optimistically in outlining Shanghai’s six-year “Be a Lovable Shanghainese” campaign.
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