Beijing Newspeak » Manners http://www.beijingnewspeak.com Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:34:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 en The complicated life of a spit monitor in Beijing http://www.beijingnewspeak.com/2007/05/09/the-complicated-life-of-a-spit-monitor-in-beijing/ http://www.beijingnewspeak.com/2007/05/09/the-complicated-life-of-a-spit-monitor-in-beijing/#comments Wed, 09 May 2007 04:27:22 +0000 Chris O'Brien http://www.beijingnewspeak.com/2007/05/09/the-complicated-life-of-a-spit-monitor-in-beijing/ I do not envy employees of “Beijing’s management department and civilization promotion office”. As this report shows, five inspection teams were sent out to patrol the capital over the May holiday to fine people spitting in the streets. But it seems it was not as simple as that.

As reported yesterday by Xinhua, spitting fines range from 20 yuan to 50 yuan. So what are the criteria for the maximum fine? Do the spit inspectors have a checklist? Maybe a full 50 is awarded to a hawk that flies off the decibel scale or is it based on texture, colour … A holiday has clearly caused my maturity to regress.

On an unrelated note (not sure how Charlie will feel about a link to his blog coming under a headline about spit) but I just wanted to direct anyone who hasn’t already read it to this post by Charlie at the China Daily about the workings of the state media. Great analogy - the kind that comes in a Eureka! moment while you listen to an I-pod and trawl through state media stories.

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