Ptooey! Gobs of Trouble On the Streets of Beijing at Summer Olympian

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Ptooey! Gobs of Trouble On the Streets of Beijing

Posted November 29, 2007 at 12:59 AM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: Beijing 2008

Beijing - no spitting The manners police in Beijing are embroiled (or should I say immersed?) in a cultural battle involving spitting. The Chinese government, first made aware of the hazards of public expectoration in 2003 during the SARS crisis, has been trying for the past 18 months to clean up the acts (and the phlegm puddles) of its citizens in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. A news article in March, 2006 spelled out a new code of conduct issued by the Chinese government for its citizens: “no slurping of soup, no trying to push to the front of lines and, most of all, absolutely no spitting.”

A year and a half later, little progress has been made. An article in Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald reveals that “getting the capital’s residents to bring their manners up to international standard in time for the Olympics next August could be a bigger task than constructing the new sports venues.”

This controversy begs the question: will athletes have to be concerned with yet one more worry, that is, being fined for letting one fly during one of the Olympic marathons?

Sources: [Sydney Morning Herald, Australia][Spiegel Online, Germany]