Oh, Behave!

China is getting ready for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. They want everything to go right, to show off how well China has gotten things together. And as part of that, the government is teaching Beijingers how to behave. Specifically, they are teaching them to avoid public habits that are disgusting to many foreigners. You know, littering. Spitting on the sidewalks. Chewing with their mouths open. Whizzing against walls. And public displays of nosepicking.

Reminds me of when we first arrived in Beijing, at its old airport. The guy who was supposed to pick us up had been caught in traffic, so we were waiting in the crowded arrivals area, watching the scene. We saw one young woman, the very model of modern China. She was tall, had on a very chic grey business suit with a short skirt. Toting an expensive brief case. She had perfect long hair. She was talking on a cell phone (which in China in 1996 was WAY ahead of the game).

And she had one finger up her nose. To the third knuckle. Digging for gold. I swear she could have had her finger come out of her eye socket, she was in so far. I watched it with horrified fascination, the way we watch a train wreck or the early weeks of American Idol. But apart from us, NOBODY else noticed. Because it was just a normal sight, like seeing an American sipping from his Starbucks cup on the streets.

So China, good luck with that campaign!