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China's lawmakers want spitting, swearing stamped out ahead of Olympics
2007-03-13
A group of lawmakers at China's annual session of parliament proposed Monday that the nation use the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics to stamp out spitting, smoking and cursing in public. "The uncivilised behavior that we see all the time includes four things, spitting, queue-jumping, smoking at will and swearing," said Zi Huayun, a delegate to the ongoing "two meetings" of China's parliament. She urged Beijing to begin a campaign to stamp out the offending behavior as well as to step up efforts to clean up the rubbish on city streets ahead of the 2008 Games. The proposal was posted on the website of the China People's Political Consultative Conference, the lower body of China's parliamentary system, after the delegates aired their views in a meeting Sunday. "As far as hardware is concerned the Beijing Olympic Games will not have many problems, but what is of concern is the software," the proposal said. During the Olympics "we must fully exhibit the special culture and the good quality of the Chinese race." The group of officials that put forward the proposal included members of China's sports ministry, the Beijing Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, the Communist Party's department for ideology and spiritual civilisation and other ministries. Beijing Vice Mayor Liu Jingmin said city officials were already working on such proposals, including setting up smoking sections at Olympic venues. "This year we are preparing to hold training on how to behave in stadiums, this includes assessing civilised behavior at games venues ... and banning cursing and other similar things," Zhai Weihua, vice head of the ruling party's spiritual civilisation office told the Beijing News. Zhai was referring to the tradition of dissatisfied Chinese sports fans to loudly curse or shout out insults in unison at players and referees after bad play or bad calls during matches. He further added that a campaign to improve the behavior of Beijing citizens would peak this August, one year ahead of the games.
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