COURTESY China works to amend manners for Olympics

The campaign includes slogans written on village walls and televised lessons.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
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 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" 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."
Playing catch-up
Among various initiatives are televised manners courses, slogans, billboards and local 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. This was particularly true during the chaotic 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, when refinement was condemned as a ruling-class plot to inhibit people and keep them down.
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.
"Most Chinese are very confident about the hardware for the 2008 Olympics," said Ge Chenhong, a Renmin University professor and government adviser. "But it takes much longer to improve the software, especially the quality of people's behavior, and that's a problem."
Sources of motivation
In a country where mass campaigns, stage-managed Party Congresses and pageantry remain important, the leadership hopes to avoid embarrassing scenes at the Olympics.
In April, referees repeatedly chided fans at a World Snooker tournament here for their rude manners, noisy outbursts and jangling cell phones. "Bad behavior left unchecked at one sports event can grow like a cancer and destroy an entire Olympics," the government-run China Daily warned the following day.
Then in July, in an incident dubbed a "night of shame" by the state press, a crowd went ballistic at a basketball game, throwing objects and launching insults after a Chinese player was fouled during a match with Puerto Rico.
Although the Olympics is a major manners motivator, it's not the only one. Better behavior promises to reduce friction in a society where corruption, growing income disparity and land appropriation create an increasingly explosive mix.
"Manners are essential for interpersonal communication," said Li Lulu, dean of the sociology department at Renmin University. "Without rules, everyone gets hurt."
China is sparing no effort in the charm offensive. Daily TV talk shows, dramas and prime-time minispots provide lessons nationwide on everything from public fighting to the proper use of cell phones.
Universities stage etiquette contests; slogans on village walls urge farmers to create a civilized society as neighborhoods compete in "courteous community" contests.
By the end of 2005, "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.