Shut up, potty-mouths

Verbal violence permeates China's Internet and beyond. It is fuelled by rampant frustrations and a lack of tradition for rational discourse.

Our skyline may be growing more spectacular by the day, but a dirty mouth characterizes China's face. Most Chinese people are polite and restrained in their personal interactions, but when the situation is impersonal, the attacks are really personal.

Let's start at the bottom rung of the social echelon: The anonymous netizens who leave comments on online forums. Whenever a report comes out about, say, a serial killer or rapist in a certain province, they curse everyone in that province as if they are all responsible for the criminal's heinous crimes. They don't seem to realize that perverts like this exist everywhere. For a while, places like Henan were so stigmatized people from the province dared not reveal their hometowns when seeking jobs elsewhere.