"The only place a lady spits is in the sink when she brushes her teeth", the saying goes. And really, that’s the only place most Westerners spit. For some reason spitting is acceptable for athletes during a game, particularly baseball players (even though they’re no longer allowed to chew tobacco during games), and for men occasionally when they feel the need. Children spit and teenagers spit, despite maternal nagging, and almost anyone will spit to show anger or disgust if provoked. But generally speaking, one does not turn one’s head and spit mid-conversation while walking down the sidewalk, much less hold one nostril closed and blow snot onto the sidewalk. Or at any rate, not if one wants to avoid being thought of as ill mannered and unattractive.

As with most Western cultural attitudes, these standards do not apply in China. Simply put, spitting and blowing your nose sans-handkerchief isn’t rude in China. People do both everywhere and at any time: on the floor at restaurants, mid-conversation, while riding past you on their bikes, etc. True to our own cultural values, westerners find this behavior deeply revolting.

What might lie at the heart of this culture of spitting in China are certain Chinese beliefs about its healthfulness. Despite known links between public spitting and the spread of germs and diseases such as the flu, many people in China believe that clearing the lungs by spitting is good for your health. In large polluted cities, it’s hard not to agree; sometimes the dust and smog are so thick in the air and on your tongue that spitting feels like a necessity.

During the SARS epidemic in 2003 the government launched an anti-spitting campaign as part of their efforts to contain the spread of the disease. Health workers in Guangzhou fined people for spitting in the streets and throwing away cigarette butts or chewing gum (1). According to a May 17, 2003 article in Xinhua News, fines were effective in curbing spitting in many majors cities. "Spitting in public has become socially reprehensible - and even criminal -in many parts of China as public health authorities struggle to curb the spread of SARS," the article says (2). But you wouldn’t be able to tell walking down the streets of Beijing. Here, spitting is as much in evidence as ever.  

And the government is determined to do something about it. With growing numbers of Chinese able and willing to travel abroad, the Chinese government is increasingly worried about how Chinese people are perceived internationally. They’re concerned that Chinese tourists are perceived as rude and ill-mannered and in October of 2006 the China National Tourism Administration and the central government's Office of the Spiritual Civilization Development Steering Commission released a list of "dos and don'ts" for travelers. Spitting in public made the list of ‘don’ts’ (3).  

This concern for international opinion is particularly visible in Beijing. The Olympics will be held in Beijing in a scant year and a half, and everything about the city seems geared to putting its best foot forward for the event. New hotels go up every day and Beijing Olympics merchandise is ubiquitous. An anti-spitting campaign is a big part of the fervor. In March of 2006 the Chinese government announced a campaign to introduce a new code of conduct for its citizens: no slurping of soup, no trying to push to the front of lines and, most of all, absolutely no spitting. Millions of brochures explaining the public health problems spitting creates were distributed, along with spit bags (4).

But again, the campaign seems to be having little affect. In January of 2007, this ex-pat can safely say that she has seen little or no reduction of public spitting in Beijing. A foreigner’s only recourse is to watch where she steps, and try to keep some distance between herself and other cyclists who might hock and spit at any time.

Reference:
1)    sgm.ac.uk
2)    china.org.cn
3)    service.china.org.cn
4)    spiegel.de
5)    chinadaily.com.cn

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