Beijing's "clean up" campaign went beyond physical pollution

Better late than never... Diana Fu, FACES '03, who had been living in Beijing during the summer leading up to the Olympics, had a great post on a New York Times blog on the many aspects of Beijing's "clean up" campaign.

Here's the start of the article:

"The environment is not the only thing that needs cleaning in Beijing. When I was here in February, state-sponsored billboards all over the city listed the “ten dos and don’ts” and the “eight honorable and eight shameful behaviors.” The first list included cautions such as “don’t spit, don’t pirate, and don’t climb over fences.” Top on the second list is, “patriotism is honorable; harming the country is shameful.” The point of this massive campaign was to “clean up” Chinese people’s behaviors and to encourage patriotism. The Chinese phrase for this is “tigao suzhi,” which literally means to “uplift quality.” This means adopting better manners and etiquette."

(Read full article.)