OPINION> Commentary
Doctors should kick the habit
By Chong Zi (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-23 07:42

Guess what, more than half of our male doctors are smokers.

A survey found that there are 350 million puffers on the Chinese mainland and more than 1 million people die of tobacco-related diseases every year. It is reported that 70 percent of people who quit smoking do so on their doctors' suggestion. So doctors are supposed to be the best source of support for smokers to quit the bad habit - their advice on healthy lifestyles should be nothing but convincing.

However, some of doctors are bad role models. Last week's national conference on respiratory diseases in Xi'an, Shaanxi province engaged doctors in tobacco control. More than 2,000 respiratory doctors promised to quit smoking.

This is a good start.

Doctors and other healthcare professionals are highly respected. They probably have the greatest potential of any group in society to promote a reduction in tobacco use, and thus, in due course, a reduction in tobacco-induced mortality and morbidity. They have a unique potential to contribute to tobacco control in several complementary ways: as role models in not smoking, or quitting smoking; in counseling patients not to smoke; in providing treatmentto help people quit smoking; and in organizing and speaking out publicly and lobbying for comprehensive public policies to control tobacco use. It is important to encourage medical professionals to give up smoking and to embrace the key role they play in helping others curtail their tobacco use.

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Beauty sells, it is what psychologists sometimes call the beauty premium. Attractive people get good things in life - attractive children get off the hook when they're in trouble, and attractive adults are preferentially hired and promoted.

A Chinese saying goes like this: you find your official position too low when you are in Beijing; you find yourself poor when landing in Guangzhou; and you regret that you get married too early when you come to Chengdu, Sichuan province.

The capital of the southwestern province is famous for its pretty women. According to Huaxi Metropolitan News the authorities in Chengdu's Jinjiang district will soon publish a report on how many beauties its busiest commercial area has and how eye-catching their pretty faces are.

Sure, beauties can be counted, even without a fair amount of math. But what a beauty is remains controversial. It must be a pretty complicated job to set a definition of beauty. What the report is for, however, is not a hard nut to crack.

Evolutionary psychology makes the argument that we evolved to seek out and worship physical signs of good breeding potential, such as muscle tone, clear skin, full lips and for women, a waist-to-hip ratio of 7/10 (that could translate into a 25-inch waist to 36-inch hips).

Every region of the country has been trying to present its unique side to lure investors. Chengdu is turning its attention to its pretty young ladies.

But Jinjiang district's decision to focus on the attractiveness of its young women's physical appearance could be a fairly risky undertaking.

What does the district expect the outside investors to invest in? The young women?

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Full marks to the presidents of the writers' associations of 30 provinces and autonomous regions for entering their novels to a competition launched by Chinese literary website www.qidian.com on Sept 10. The judges are the nation's netizens - the latest survey said they are 162 million.

The courage these writers have shown in entering this competition has been hailed as a milestone in Chinese literature.

Quarrels between old and young writers are still ringing in our ears. They have turned print literature and online creative writing into two completely different worlds.

The Web offers those who want to do creative writing a place to present their wares. It is fair as everyone enjoys the same freedom to write, and as a result it has produced a booming online literature.

It sounds like "official" writers are beginning to embrace the Web, a good move given that the popularity of books is in dramatic decline.

(China Daily 09/23/2008 page8)