Cup of Cha
This is China

In the great spirit of “Queuing Day,” the one day each month when Chinese are supposed to line up instead of pushing one another, China has announced “No Spitting Day.” If only I were joking. But the best part is China Daily’s  description of the charming habit. Note that the passage hits the holy trinity of China: spitting, 5000 years of history and Titanic. A China Daily reporter must be the easiest job in the world:

Kate and Leo did it on the Titanic, so why shouldn’t Chinese? After all, the habit goes back five millenia…

Some netizens tried to justify the habit by quoting 5,000-year-old proverbs.

“We used to say that China is a so large a country that one spit from every Chinese may drown all people in a small country, which shows we have a long tradition of spitting,” said netizen Songbce in the forum of Sina.com, one of China’s largest portal sites. “Even foreigners like spitting,” he said, basing his argument on the scene in ‘Titanic’ where Leonardo DiCaprio taught Kate Winslet how to spit.

Some people attributed the spitting to Beijing’s bad air quality and others said, half in jest, that it reflected improved living standards: according to traditional Chinese medicine theories, meat leads to sputum.

Why then are the authorities cracking down?

Because it’s Olympics year, that’s why. And the capital city, which will host the games, is planning its first “No Spitting Day” this year with the goal of eradicating a top etiquette no-no. But the pronouncement by the city’s public health authority on Thursday drew decidedly mixed reactions from local residents.

If this sounds like a familiar, you’re right! That’s because every couple of months the authorities trot out a policy to stop the habit that some Beijing locals say is simply an attempt to put more moisture into the dreadfully dry city’s air (yes, I made that up). Remember a few years ago there was a little disease called SARS. Don’t worry, the government may have been slow to acknowledge it, even blaming the messenger, but it’s public information now! Anyway, the NY Times noted the difficulty and virtues of the 2003 campaign:

This week the Communist Party Central Committee’s Spiritual Civilization Office gave its imprimatur to the war against spit, issuing a ”Directive on Launching Activities to Transform Vile Habits.”

But old habits die hard, and in China there is hardly a more ingrained habit than this one, practiced frequently by men, from lowly peasants to powerful leaders. Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader who ushered in the era of economic reforms, was a famous spitter, renowned for his aim.

Hey if it’s good enough for “Leo and Kate” and Deng Xiaoping, who am I to complain! But the 2003 campaign never took hold. Three years later China Daily was at it again, assuring people things would be different this time:

Keen to present its best face to the world during the prestigious sporting event, the government in Beijing has declared war on expectorating in public in a county where phlegm is as ubiquitous on the ground as dog poop in some European cities.

Not sure if comparing humans who choose to coat the ground with slimy, disease-ridden liquid and animals who are so thrilled to get outside of their tiny urban apartments that they’ll poop anywhere is the analogy I would have chosen. But I digress.

If you think that this steady stream of anti-spitting stories means that the campaigns have utterly failed and the yearly re-launches are a waste of time (ie-, The Nader Effect) then you are wrong. Oh so wrong! Today’s story informs us:

A recent survey by the Beijing-based Renmin University found that in 2007, 2.54 percent of people surveyed in Beijing still spat in public, down by 2.36 percentage points from 2006. Or at least, that was how many admitted doing so. Many Chinese take the practice for granted.

At least you have to give them credit for a little honesty by letting us know the numbers are a little fishy. Hey, I’m not saying that more than 2.54 percent of people spit, I’m just saying if that number is accurate then that tiny proportion has been following me around the last five years.

So there you have it: spitting is ingrained into the rich 5,000-year history of China, the mighty “Leo and Kate” engaged in the activity and a monthly one-day ban on the practice will ensure that the Olympics go off without a hitch. I’ve said it before, but this is going to be the two most entertaining weeks of my life. I may just plant myself in a tiny pink plastic chair on Gongtibeilu, grab a case of beer, and watch everything around me. And I won’t even have to worry about locals lobbing globs of spittle in my direction!!

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