Obsession with civilized behavior
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In Chinese media, we often encounter exhortations to wénmíng xíngwéi 文明行为 ("civilized behavior"), but in this article, they've really gone over the top in promoting it:
"Běijīng wénmíng cùjìn tiáolì tōngguò tíchàng zhèxiē wénmíng xíngwéi 北京文明促进条例通过 提倡这些文明行为" ("Beijing passes regulations for the advancement of civilization; for the promotion of these [types of] civilized behavior"), people.com (4/24/20)
Just counting wénmíng xíngwéi 文明行为 ("civilized behavior"), this four syllable, two word phrase is mentioned 17 times in this article. If we count only the two syllable word wénmíng 文明 ("civilized; civilization"), it occurs 30 times. I won't mention all of the more than sixty types of civilized behavior that are encouraged or required, but will note only those that are likely related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the proximate cause for the passage of these regulations:
Donate blood for free, donate hematopoietic stem cells, human organs (tissues), and remains
Do not incinerate or throw away funeral memorial items on roads, residential areas and other public areas;
Cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing in a public place, and wear a mask when you suffer from infectious respiratory diseases such as influenza
When suffering from infectious diseases, cooperate with relevant inspection, isolation treatment and other measures to provide relevant information truthfully
Not illegally consuming or trading wild animals and their products [VHM: this is the key item]
Other civilized codes of conduct to maintain public health
Comply with various diagnosis and treatment service systems
Respect and cooperate with medical staff
Solve medical disputes through legal channels
(Google translate)
Be civilized! Don't be uncivilized!
Selected reading
- "Civilized language" (6/26/15)
- "Civilized urinating" (10/31/17)
- "Linguistic advice in the lavatory: speaking Mandarin is a great convenience for everyone" (9/11/07)
- "Toilet Revolution!!" (11/26/17) — see particularly the last comment for numerous articles on this subject in the Chinese press
- "Toilet revolution!, part 2" (11/22/18)
- "Please micturate in the urinal" (4/19/15)
- "Bovine / friggin' toilet" (9/6/18)
- "A quantum leap in the Chinese toilet revolution" (5/6/19) — with nearly two dozen other relevant posts listed
[Thanks to Mark Metcalf]
Philip Taylor said,
April 27, 2020 @ 6:31 am
Well, I've read the entire thing (in translation, of course, courtesy of Google Translate), and to my mind if every government in the world were to promulgate those same values — and of course if their citizens were to adopt them — then the world would be a far far better place.
Dr. Emilio Lizardo said,
April 27, 2020 @ 7:17 am
The following type of "civilized behavior" is also quite important to the CCP's COVID-19 response strategy:
"With respect to protecting the internet culture, the following civilized codes of conduct should be observed:
(3) Resist internet rumors and harmful information, and do not create rumors, believe rumors, or spread rumors"
However, compliance obviously depends on one's definition of "rumors".
~flow said,
April 27, 2020 @ 7:55 am
I can second that this world would be a better place if the exhortation to not trade or consume wild animals resonated with relevant personal in the government and lead to the abolishment and replacement of national laws in China that actually support the catching and keeping, the trade with and the consumption of wild animals (be it for their taste in a dish, as a status symbol, or because of ludicrous health claims, all of which are utterly frivolous in the face of the well-known risks and intolerable from the point of view of animal rights). The sad state of animal trade in China (and other places) appears to be the one key factor that brought the world into this situation in the first place, so now is a good time to alter course.
AntC said,
April 27, 2020 @ 4:48 pm
You mean "frivolous" health claims like injecting people with disinfectant or shining U.V. light inside them or chloroquine? I don't think TCM has a monopoly on bunkum.
Ingesting pangolin scales is at least less harmful.
Alison said,
April 27, 2020 @ 7:21 pm
TCM is a hundred billion dollar industry of quack medicine, deliberately created by and promoted by the government of single party state, for 70 years. It is not even remotely comparable to a few off-the-cuff remarks made by a democratic head of state who is well-known for talking nonsense.
Victor Mair said,
April 27, 2020 @ 7:27 pm
@Alison:
Thank you for talking sense to nonsense.
loonquawl said,
April 28, 2020 @ 3:18 am
Could someone go into the background of some of those 'civilized behaviours' or their 'uncivilized(?)' precursors? – for instance, i see both the value of covering your mouth while sneezing, and the preexixting condition of slightly uncouth people not doing it. But what's up with not incinerating funeral memorials on street corners? Solving medical disputes through legal channels? What is the behaviour that is discouraged here? could someone give a brief explanatioon of the cultural significance of the preexisting behaviours?
Philip Taylor said,
April 28, 2020 @ 4:26 am
I think it worthwhile to compare Alison's comment above (especially the part about Tradtional Chinese Medicine being "created […] by the government of [a] single party state" with the corresponding entry in Wikipedia :
My emphasis added to both quotations ("created" v. "standardised").
Alison said,
April 28, 2020 @ 8:14 am
Philip, it is fair to point out that TCM is based on a variety of ancient superstitions and folk remedies. But when it comes to the term TCM specifically, this generally refers to the formal industry that was created by the PRC government under Mao.
Alison said,
April 28, 2020 @ 8:32 am
loonquawl, I am far from an expert on Chinese funeral customs, but I can say that the local governments in tier one cities consider public burning of pretty much anything besides cigarettes to be "uncivilized". Every Chinese New Year we get text messages from the police advising us to remain civilized and not light firecrackers. I imagine the burning of joss paper at funerals falls into a similar category.
Philip Taylor said,
April 28, 2020 @ 8:44 am
Well, I am happy to take your word for that, Alison, but no Google search with the search string "TCM" returns results (to me) that would confirm your hypothesis. All make reference to Traditional Chinese Medicine, and almost by definition, "Traditional" cannot mean something created as recently as Mao's time. I just asked my wife about this (she is 75% Chinese, 25% Vietnamese) and she says that in Viet Nam Thuốc Nam and Thuốc Bắc have been practised since time immemorial.
Robot Therapist said,
April 28, 2020 @ 9:47 am
Is there any disapproval of spitting?
Philip Taylor said,
April 28, 2020 @ 11:11 am
(spitting) Well, not explicitly, as least as far as I could see. Some might suggest that it is implicitly covered by "Other civilized codes of conduct to maintain public health", but one could equally argue that it is implicitly permitted by "Respect the local customs and habits" !
~flow said,
April 28, 2020 @ 11:23 am
I would like to add that personally I think the line between 'proven medication that is known to be beneficial' and 'mumbo-jumbo junk science' can be a fine one. So when people apply pressure to body parts for pain relief, in my experience that can be helpful. Same goes for at least the one acupuncture tooth treatment I underwent in my life (being quite critical of it, and having to have someone talk me into it, coupled with a dearth of options at the time; but, it did stop aching, and an X-ray taken a month later was without findings, so what can I say). I also have nothing against people ingesting, say, Royal Jelly, but it's probably a good thing when independent public institutions have a say on the nature of health claims that may appear on labels (and they do, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_jelly).
In the end it's not the traditional vs the industrial background of a given medication (in say, taking Aspirin as opposed to willow bark extracts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirin#History), it is the scientific evidence that should count, AND the moral, ethic, cultural values. So if we should scientifically find that sneezing and common cold can be somewhat alleviated by swallowing ground rhino body parts, we should probably still abstain from it (and maybe go and synthesize the active factor).
So I better stop here but let me say that discussions like these are what to me should be at the root and core of 文明 and, hence, 文明行爲: it is what a German youtuber famously called "inhaltsbasierte Diskussionen" a few months ago when commenting on the sad state of the biggest German political party. In addition to drawing up long wish-lists of check points that citizens are made to comply with or else, maybe engaging in reasoned and ideally non-partisan discussions would be a good idea. I refrain from saying China should 'look west to learn' how to do that because, well, these are bad times to do so.
The world it would seem is awash in counterfactual cults: antivaxers, flat-earthers, consumers of ground rhino horns, chemtrailers, any imaginable brand of conspiracy theorists, and, on top of that, the leader of (one of) the most powerful countries in the world advised me to inject chlorine bleach just days ago. I do not believe that issuing a wish-list with "do not spread rumors" is enough or even in the right direction to stay on top of this, especially since the Chinese government is complicit in allowing bogus health claims to stand in the way of an effective protection of wildlife.
But maybe, just maybe they will revise their standpoint and correct their own 很不文明的行爲.
It's bitterly ironic that most of this could have been prevented, had it not been for the early attempts at silencing a medical practitioner on the count that he "spread rumors" when in fact he acted in the most civilized way possible.
AntC said,
April 28, 2020 @ 6:05 pm
at least the one acupuncture tooth treatment
Curiously, the only TCM/alternative medicine approach that actually showed better than nothing effect (in a controlled trial) was acupuncture. But it didn't matter where the acupuncturist stuck the needles, so long as it took your attention away from the toothache. So all that stuff about meridians and measuring chungs from your elbow is mumbo-jumbo.
But there's another effect that Western medicine doesn't take into account: TCM practitioners (and homeopaths) take a detailed medical/emotional history; and take the 'pulses' or detect points of tension; before applying any technique. For many people suffering non-specific pain/insomnia/stress, having someone let them talk about it is therapeutic — in a way that a rushed visit to a Western-style physician isn't.
Contrast I see no chance of therapeutic benefit from injecting bleach. "a democratic head of state who is well-known for talking nonsense" listen to yourself: where outside of dysfunctional African or South American 'shit-hole' countries would you dismiss a democracy like that?
Wanda said,
April 28, 2020 @ 11:18 pm
Actually, in acupuncture it does not even matter whether the needles pierce your skin. Studies have shown that using special needles where the needle part retracts and doesn't pierce the skin work just as well.
It's placebo.
I mean, the placebo effect is real. We know that the placebo effect for pain is mediated by endorphins. We even know that anti-opioid drugs such as naloxone will block the placebo effect for pain. So placebo "works." But it doesn't work the way practitioners claim it works.