The Culture Games

Sixteen stadiums and hundreds of miles of expressways and subway lines are under construction. Over 350 million of government and corporate funds have been earmarked for 449 high-tech projects aimed at providing solutions to Beijing8217;s notoriously congested roads and polluted air. Efforts are apace to develop renewable energy, improved sewage treatment and rubbish disposal mechanisms.

But for Beijing8217;s harried mayor, Wang Qishan, the efforts required to put in place the physical infrastructure necessary to ensure a smooth Olympics, pale in comparison to the Herculean task of developing 8216;8216;urban civility8217;8217; and upgrading the 8216;8216;moral standards8217;8217; of the city8217;s average Zhou.

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games BOCOG, of which Wang is in charge, has identified 5 lacunae in the city8217;s social etiquette, which it is the committee8217;s stated aim to redress by 2008. These include: Beijing-style name-calling, casual spitting, littering, disorderly queuing and not smiling.

Indeed the throaty skills of the Beijinger remain unsurpassed when it comes to expectorating large quantities of phlegm and the city8217;s taxi drivers are expert at the delicate juggling act of hawking up and cursing at overtaking vehicles simultaneously.

However, the evil forces of littering and spitting may soon be overcome by the civilizing effects of potted plants and books. In their drive to create 8216;8216;courteous communities8217;8217; so as to present the world with a revamped image by 2008, the city government has instituted a 8216;8216;morality-evaluation index8217;8217; that ranks neighbourhoods according to the level of refinement they have achieved.

The resulting competition between neighbourhoods is intense. Anxious to secure the coveted epithet of 8216;8216;civilized community8217;8217;, neighbourhood committees across Beijing vie with each other in organizing weekend discussions on edifying topics such as 8216;8216;Host the Olympics with civility8217;8217; and 8216;8216;Smile in Beijing8217;8217;.

According to the criterion laid out in the 8216;8216;guidelines for the building of courteous communities8217;8217;, sharing housework, speaking a foreign language, regular reading of newspapers, large book-collections and balconies displaying potted plants boost the neighbourhood score on the civility index while spitting, alcohol abuse, raising pigeons, rearing livestock at home and noisiness act as black marks.

Another common Beijing practice that is under threat as a result of the Olympic-friendly image that is being promoted is the use of 8216;8216;kaidangku8217;8217; literally open crotch pants for babies. For decades Chinese parents have opted for the maximum convenience, with minimum coverage provided by the use of these pants that are slit around the buttocks, enabling kids to answer the call of nature anywhere on the streets without the fuss of actually having to pull their trousers down.

Village neighbourhood committees have now been pressed into persuading parents to eschew bare bottoms in favour of diapers. Signposts abound sternly querying their readers of what kind of impression foreign visitors will take home of Beijing if they see public spaces being used as open-air toilets.

It is the goal of the BOCOG to ensure that by the end of 2005, 50 percent of all neighbourhoods have reached the point where they can be considered to be 8216;8216;communities with adequate civility8217;8217;.

For the moment however, despite the strenuous efforts of the authorities, most Beijingers continue content to spit with spirit and swear with style. Visitors to the 2008 Olympic would thus do well to be prepared for a little local colour.