Beijing residents, such as these ticket buyers outside the city’s Bird’s Nest National Stadium last week, are being encouraged to line up patiently.
Ng Han Guan/
The Associated Press
By Mark MacKinnon, Beijing — Globe and Mail
From Globe and Mail - August 12, 2009
China has never been a patient, wait-in-line kind of place.
The history of the vast and populous nation is a tale of chaos repeatedly triumphing over calm, order over disorder. On many occasions – the Boxer Rebellion, the Cultural Revolution, the subway each day at rush hour – things have degenerated into mob rule.
But that, Shu Xiaofeng swears, was the old China. The director of the Capital Ethic Development office (sometimes called Beijing's Spiritual Civilization Construction Commission) fully believes it's possible to persuade residents of this city of 17.5 million that there's no need to push or shove, that even those at the end of the line will eventually get the same thing as those who fight their way to the front of it.
Every month, on the 11th – a date chosen because of the two straight 1s – Mr. Shu oversees Queuing Day in Beijing. Tuesday, his department deployed some 4,500 orange-vested volunteers, who set out at 7 a.m. to keep stern watch over this city's 2,000-odd subway stops and bus stations. Their mission: to teach Beijingers that good things like seats on the bus do come to those who wait.
“It looks like a small thing, but considering that it affects 14 million people [the number who use Beijing's transit system] a day, it's a big thing,” Mr. Shu explained, his eyes wide and passionate behind metal-rimmed glasses. “It relates to the order of the city, to the living environment of the city.”
Indeed, the crush to get on the Beijing subway at rush hour is somewhere between a rugby scrum and a mosh pit in its nature as people who are generally polite and deferential suddenly declare war on each other over seating space. The elderly and the diminutive are given no special treatment in the push to get aboard before the doors slam shut.
An earlier campaign to get Beijingers to line up and wait their turn was launched in 2007 as part of a wider effort to improve public behaviour ahead of last summer's Olympic Games. A fresh “100-day” campaign kicked off anew in June, this time targeted at getting the capital to act its best for the Oct. 1 National Day, which will mark the 60th anniversary of the Communist Revolution and the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Other, for now secondary, goals of Mr. Shu's office include persuading Beijingers not to litter or spit in public, the latter being something of a national sport. Another targeted habit is the Beijing male's summertime tendency to roll his shirt up to his chest to cool off his belly.
Mr. Shu said the campaigns are working. A survey taken on July 11 found 85 per cent of those subway stops and bus stations where Queuing Day volunteers were deployed had lineups. The bad news, however, was that only 30 per cent lined up of their own accord in the stations where there were no volunteers.
“China is still a developing country, and there is a process to becoming civilized,” Mr. Shu explained earnestly. “Compared to Sweden or Switzerland or Europe, we do have some ways to go. One reason is that China has too many people.”
His volunteers, however, sense the gains being made. “When people see me in this uniform, they voluntarily stand in line without me needing to tell them,” said Wang Ruiting, a 49-year-old volunteer wearing a red sash that read, “Welcome the National Day. Behave civilly. Build a new atmosphere.”
A train pulled into the Jianguomenwai subway station as Ms. Wang spoke and she eagerly demonstrated her new authority. “Keep the door clear! Let people off the train first!” she barked as the crowd obediently waited. She watched contentedly as people started to file on, then intervened with her arm to prevent any pushing and shoving as the doors started to close.
“Sometimes people try to get on after the bell rings,” she confided afterwards. “I block them with my body, but sometimes they don't understand that I'm doing this for them and complain that I'm making them late.”
The efforts, however, appear to have wide public support. A study by Renmin University of China found that across the city there has been a drop-off in not only queue-jumping, but spitting, littering and shirt rolling. A “civilization index” calculated by the university rated the behaviour of Beijingers at 82.68 out of 100 last year, up from 65.21 when the index was first done in 2005.
Several passengers in Jianguomenwai station Tuesday said they were pleased by the more orderly mood overseen by Mr. Shu's volunteers.
“There are too many passengers, and many of them don't realize they should wait in line. … We need this kind of a campaign to build up a civil society,” said Li Ruowei, a 22-year-old student. She said she hoped that Queuing Day might expand into a No Spitting Day as well.
Even the optimistic Mr. Shu confessed that anything bigger than the once-a-month success of Queuing Day will take time. National Day will come and go, just as the Olympics did, and his work will continue. He already has the next, more timeless slogan ready for the post-anniversary push: “To pass on the spirit of the Olympics and build up a civilized Beijing.”
“The habits of the people are not beaten down in a day,” Mr. Shu acknowledged with a smile. “It is a long course.” [rc]
With a report from Yu Mei in Beijing
© Copyright 2009 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc.
August 12, 2009
CHINA: China's citizens in a shove-hate relationship
.
TORONTO, Ontario / Globe and Mail / World / August 12, 2009
The days of Beijing's unruly pedestrian bustle are numbered, government officials say as volunteers enforce monthly Queuing Days
Beijing residents, such as these ticket buyers outside the city’s Bird’s Nest National Stadium last week, are being encouraged to line up patiently.
Ng Han Guan/
The Associated Press
By Mark MacKinnon, Beijing — Globe and Mail
From Globe and Mail - August 12, 2009
China has never been a patient, wait-in-line kind of place.
The history of the vast and populous nation is a tale of chaos repeatedly triumphing over calm, order over disorder. On many occasions – the Boxer Rebellion, the Cultural Revolution, the subway each day at rush hour – things have degenerated into mob rule.
But that, Shu Xiaofeng swears, was the old China. The director of the Capital Ethic Development office (sometimes called Beijing's Spiritual Civilization Construction Commission) fully believes it's possible to persuade residents of this city of 17.5 million that there's no need to push or shove, that even those at the end of the line will eventually get the same thing as those who fight their way to the front of it.
Every month, on the 11th – a date chosen because of the two straight 1s – Mr. Shu oversees Queuing Day in Beijing. Tuesday, his department deployed some 4,500 orange-vested volunteers, who set out at 7 a.m. to keep stern watch over this city's 2,000-odd subway stops and bus stations. Their mission: to teach Beijingers that good things like seats on the bus do come to those who wait.
“It looks like a small thing, but considering that it affects 14 million people [the number who use Beijing's transit system] a day, it's a big thing,” Mr. Shu explained, his eyes wide and passionate behind metal-rimmed glasses. “It relates to the order of the city, to the living environment of the city.”
Indeed, the crush to get on the Beijing subway at rush hour is somewhere between a rugby scrum and a mosh pit in its nature as people who are generally polite and deferential suddenly declare war on each other over seating space. The elderly and the diminutive are given no special treatment in the push to get aboard before the doors slam shut.
An earlier campaign to get Beijingers to line up and wait their turn was launched in 2007 as part of a wider effort to improve public behaviour ahead of last summer's Olympic Games. A fresh “100-day” campaign kicked off anew in June, this time targeted at getting the capital to act its best for the Oct. 1 National Day, which will mark the 60th anniversary of the Communist Revolution and the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Other, for now secondary, goals of Mr. Shu's office include persuading Beijingers not to litter or spit in public, the latter being something of a national sport. Another targeted habit is the Beijing male's summertime tendency to roll his shirt up to his chest to cool off his belly.
Mr. Shu said the campaigns are working. A survey taken on July 11 found 85 per cent of those subway stops and bus stations where Queuing Day volunteers were deployed had lineups. The bad news, however, was that only 30 per cent lined up of their own accord in the stations where there were no volunteers.
“China is still a developing country, and there is a process to becoming civilized,” Mr. Shu explained earnestly. “Compared to Sweden or Switzerland or Europe, we do have some ways to go. One reason is that China has too many people.”
His volunteers, however, sense the gains being made. “When people see me in this uniform, they voluntarily stand in line without me needing to tell them,” said Wang Ruiting, a 49-year-old volunteer wearing a red sash that read, “Welcome the National Day. Behave civilly. Build a new atmosphere.”
A train pulled into the Jianguomenwai subway station as Ms. Wang spoke and she eagerly demonstrated her new authority. “Keep the door clear! Let people off the train first!” she barked as the crowd obediently waited. She watched contentedly as people started to file on, then intervened with her arm to prevent any pushing and shoving as the doors started to close.
“Sometimes people try to get on after the bell rings,” she confided afterwards. “I block them with my body, but sometimes they don't understand that I'm doing this for them and complain that I'm making them late.”
The efforts, however, appear to have wide public support. A study by Renmin University of China found that across the city there has been a drop-off in not only queue-jumping, but spitting, littering and shirt rolling. A “civilization index” calculated by the university rated the behaviour of Beijingers at 82.68 out of 100 last year, up from 65.21 when the index was first done in 2005.
Several passengers in Jianguomenwai station Tuesday said they were pleased by the more orderly mood overseen by Mr. Shu's volunteers.
“There are too many passengers, and many of them don't realize they should wait in line. … We need this kind of a campaign to build up a civil society,” said Li Ruowei, a 22-year-old student. She said she hoped that Queuing Day might expand into a No Spitting Day as well.
Even the optimistic Mr. Shu confessed that anything bigger than the once-a-month success of Queuing Day will take time. National Day will come and go, just as the Olympics did, and his work will continue. He already has the next, more timeless slogan ready for the post-anniversary push: “To pass on the spirit of the Olympics and build up a civilized Beijing.”
“The habits of the people are not beaten down in a day,” Mr. Shu acknowledged with a smile. “It is a long course.” [rc]
With a report from Yu Mei in Beijing
© Copyright 2009 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc.
Beijing residents, such as these ticket buyers outside the city’s Bird’s Nest National Stadium last week, are being encouraged to line up patiently.
Ng Han Guan/
The Associated Press
By Mark MacKinnon, Beijing — Globe and Mail
From Globe and Mail - August 12, 2009
China has never been a patient, wait-in-line kind of place.
The history of the vast and populous nation is a tale of chaos repeatedly triumphing over calm, order over disorder. On many occasions – the Boxer Rebellion, the Cultural Revolution, the subway each day at rush hour – things have degenerated into mob rule.
But that, Shu Xiaofeng swears, was the old China. The director of the Capital Ethic Development office (sometimes called Beijing's Spiritual Civilization Construction Commission) fully believes it's possible to persuade residents of this city of 17.5 million that there's no need to push or shove, that even those at the end of the line will eventually get the same thing as those who fight their way to the front of it.
Every month, on the 11th – a date chosen because of the two straight 1s – Mr. Shu oversees Queuing Day in Beijing. Tuesday, his department deployed some 4,500 orange-vested volunteers, who set out at 7 a.m. to keep stern watch over this city's 2,000-odd subway stops and bus stations. Their mission: to teach Beijingers that good things like seats on the bus do come to those who wait.
“It looks like a small thing, but considering that it affects 14 million people [the number who use Beijing's transit system] a day, it's a big thing,” Mr. Shu explained, his eyes wide and passionate behind metal-rimmed glasses. “It relates to the order of the city, to the living environment of the city.”
Indeed, the crush to get on the Beijing subway at rush hour is somewhere between a rugby scrum and a mosh pit in its nature as people who are generally polite and deferential suddenly declare war on each other over seating space. The elderly and the diminutive are given no special treatment in the push to get aboard before the doors slam shut.
An earlier campaign to get Beijingers to line up and wait their turn was launched in 2007 as part of a wider effort to improve public behaviour ahead of last summer's Olympic Games. A fresh “100-day” campaign kicked off anew in June, this time targeted at getting the capital to act its best for the Oct. 1 National Day, which will mark the 60th anniversary of the Communist Revolution and the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Other, for now secondary, goals of Mr. Shu's office include persuading Beijingers not to litter or spit in public, the latter being something of a national sport. Another targeted habit is the Beijing male's summertime tendency to roll his shirt up to his chest to cool off his belly.
Mr. Shu said the campaigns are working. A survey taken on July 11 found 85 per cent of those subway stops and bus stations where Queuing Day volunteers were deployed had lineups. The bad news, however, was that only 30 per cent lined up of their own accord in the stations where there were no volunteers.
“China is still a developing country, and there is a process to becoming civilized,” Mr. Shu explained earnestly. “Compared to Sweden or Switzerland or Europe, we do have some ways to go. One reason is that China has too many people.”
His volunteers, however, sense the gains being made. “When people see me in this uniform, they voluntarily stand in line without me needing to tell them,” said Wang Ruiting, a 49-year-old volunteer wearing a red sash that read, “Welcome the National Day. Behave civilly. Build a new atmosphere.”
A train pulled into the Jianguomenwai subway station as Ms. Wang spoke and she eagerly demonstrated her new authority. “Keep the door clear! Let people off the train first!” she barked as the crowd obediently waited. She watched contentedly as people started to file on, then intervened with her arm to prevent any pushing and shoving as the doors started to close.
“Sometimes people try to get on after the bell rings,” she confided afterwards. “I block them with my body, but sometimes they don't understand that I'm doing this for them and complain that I'm making them late.”
The efforts, however, appear to have wide public support. A study by Renmin University of China found that across the city there has been a drop-off in not only queue-jumping, but spitting, littering and shirt rolling. A “civilization index” calculated by the university rated the behaviour of Beijingers at 82.68 out of 100 last year, up from 65.21 when the index was first done in 2005.
Several passengers in Jianguomenwai station Tuesday said they were pleased by the more orderly mood overseen by Mr. Shu's volunteers.
“There are too many passengers, and many of them don't realize they should wait in line. … We need this kind of a campaign to build up a civil society,” said Li Ruowei, a 22-year-old student. She said she hoped that Queuing Day might expand into a No Spitting Day as well.
Even the optimistic Mr. Shu confessed that anything bigger than the once-a-month success of Queuing Day will take time. National Day will come and go, just as the Olympics did, and his work will continue. He already has the next, more timeless slogan ready for the post-anniversary push: “To pass on the spirit of the Olympics and build up a civilized Beijing.”
“The habits of the people are not beaten down in a day,” Mr. Shu acknowledged with a smile. “It is a long course.” [rc]
With a report from Yu Mei in Beijing
© Copyright 2009 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc.
