Spitting Fines: One Dimensional Reporting by Western Press
Lately, it seems as if the Western press cannot stop themselves from focusing on how China is dealing with manners - especially on the spitting issue. A recent spitting fine of 40yuan($5) was announced in February for Beijing. We all know that "the crackdown is part of efforts to raise ethical and cultural standards in advance of the 2008 Games." The Western press is approaching this movement as a positive step forward for a Communist country that is finally setting etiquette standards. For example, a recent Wired article highlights how Chinese high culture is being taught abroad, and how this is comparable to American and French emissaries going abroad to "spread its language and culture." This erroneous comparison is totally off the mark because those American and French "cultural emissaries" were agents of their own country's imperialists powers. Teaching African children to love Jesus and young women to cross their legs is the mask of Western patriarchy. China is not attempting to colonize America. Therefore for Western journalists to paint China's new etiquette movement as one that mirrors their own imperialistic process is totally off the mark. The question that should be asked is how does China's sudden crackdown on manners reflect its own internal social dialogue, social tensions and cultural divides? How are manners linked to morality and how are is the moral dichotomy being set up as a class issue?
There is a definite class divide when it comes to spitting and manners. Just like how many "educated" Americans shun the manners of "white trash" or "ghetto folks," many upper-middle class Chinese shun the manners of villagers/peasants. So keep in mind when you interview a Beijingner who says spitting is disgusting- be careful that it may be coded language for saying migrants are disgusting.
This is a socio-economic clash of village manners versus city manners. Because of the lack of rural economic development and the unbalanced development in urban cities, Chinese villagers - especially males, have migrated to cities to be employed for cheap construction labor. Many Beijingners are hostile to migrant workers because they see them as invaders who have taken over job sectors that used to be reserved for local Beijingners. For example, in 1996 most restaurant service workers were locals, now it is almost 100% chance that your waitress is not from Beijing. So the tension between locals and migrants mirrors the clash between Americans and Mexican migrants.
One a final note, here's a curious project from Shanghai. In their new "A Million Workers Learning Etiquette" campaign, they are giving their 3.7million migrant workers free internet access to learn manners. I would love to study this project.
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