Yao Ming had good reason to highlight the issue of showing courtesy to foreign people by his fellow Chinese during a rare interview on the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.
The NBA superstar has urged people at home to respect personal space and speak more softly in restaurants. Currently, uncouth behaviour including spitting, littering, jumping queues and talking loudly has already stigmatized Chinese travellers both inside and outside of China.
Early this month, the government issued an etiquette guide asking Chinese travellers, who number in the millions, to heed common etiquette and hygiene standards while on holiday at home and abroad.
Personally, I believe spitting, littering and most other bad, unhygienic habits will be effectively controlled in the next couple of years by government intervention. There indeed has been empirical evidence that Chinese overseas tourists have improved their behaviour, with less spitting and littering.
However, some crude customs, like talking too loudly in public, may take generations to correct because of the powerful influence of culture on how people behave at home and abroad.
For example, some people tend to speak with an increased volume when they want to demonstrate authority, make a point or simply show friendship. It is not unusual for a superior to raise his voice with his staff or for a group of buddies to be boisterous in an otherwise quiet restaurant. In some offices, employees talk about private matters so loudly on the phone that colleagues can overhear them. For them, a high pitch may convey strength, sincerity or warmth-- values that people cherish. In comparison, a soft voice may imply weaknesses or indecisiveness.
As such, when these people talk loudly in a restaurant, hotel or office, they may not be aware that they are creating noise that might invade other people's space. Some tourist guides have said that what annoys foreigners most is when Chinese tourists speak loudly and make noises in public.
I was more encouraged on the matter, though, when I visited a downtown porridge restaurant in Beijing a couple of days ago.
Inside, a poster on the wall caught my eye. It lists 17 kinds of gestures the restaurant staff uses to communicate between itself in the small, popular restaurant that sells porridge at about 5 yuan per bowl.
A patron wishing to see the menu is represented by an index finger drawing a rectangle in the air. Ordering a dish is communicated by "writing" a line. A thumbs up means "Table 10". Waiters said they developed the gestures to reduce noise level and chaos, especially at peak hours when the restaurant is invariably packed with patrons.
"With the gestures, we don't have to yell at each other across the restaurant over the din," said one waiter, adding that customers are also encouraged to use them to "talk" with the staff. The result is a much quieter and nicer place for everybody.
When Yao Ming plays basketball, 300 million Chinese people watch. If more people like Yao and the waiters at the porridge restaurant would join hands to promote courtesy, it might not take that long to nurture good manners in the country.
(China Daily 10/20/2006 page5)
