I have personal experience traveling in China with my job over the past few years.
I enjoyed bike riding and walking around Beijing and Shanghai. One of the hazards (other than battery operated scooters zipping by) was avoiding the flinging of bodily fluids by the common practice of public spitting.
The scientists have stated how this current novel virus has ability to remain active for long periods.
Got me wondering about the spread of phlegm contaminated with SARS CoV2 virus on the soles of shoes via the spitting in public.
I also remember my CBRN training in the Air Guard. Decontaminating our boots walking thru the ‘shuffle box’
factsanddetails.com
Spitting in China
Chinese men hack and spit everywhere: on the streets, all over the sidewalks, in buildings, on the floor of trains, and even on the floors of restaurants and homes. Doctors and staff routinely spit on the hallway floors in hospitals. Be careful when walking past a bus full of Chinese. Passengers often spit out the window. Women also spit but not as much as the men.
In one survey, two thirds of all the adult Chinese asked admitted to spitting on a regular basis. If that figure is true around 900 million people in China are habitual spitters. Many men smoke and have hacking smoker's coughs. The first thing many of them do when they leave their houses in morning is clear phlegm from their throats and spit. Some Chinese men spit on the wheel rims on their cars to see if the brakes are rubbing on the hub.
Spitting has been linked in the past with anti-foreigner sentiments. A banner raised during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 read: "Certainly foreign soldiers are a horde; but if each of our people spits once, they will drown." Up until fairly recently Chinese leaders had ceramic spittoons next to their chairs at ceremonies and banquets where they greeted royals, diplomats and foreign leaders. Mao had a spittoon at his feet when he met Nixon.
The Chinese, wrote Theroux, "spat all the time...With their cheeks alone they made the sunctioning: hhggaarrkh! And then they ground and positioned their teeth, and they leaned. You expected them to propel it about five yards, like a Laramie stockman sitting over a fence. But no they never gave it any force. They seldom spat more than a few inches from where they stood. They did not spit out, they spit down."
"Chinese spitting is not half as bad as throat clearing," Theroux wrote, "the hoick can be heard for fifty yards...They cleared their throats so loudly they could drown out conversation’they could sound like a Rota-Rooter or someone clearing a storm drain, or the last gallon leaving a Jacuzzi ...After that, the spitting itself was rather an anticlimax."
Phlegm in China
David Sedaris wrote in The Guardian, “After arriving at Beijing International Airport one of the “the first thing one notices is what sounds like a milk steamer, the sort a cafe uses when making lattes and cappuccinos. "That's odd," you think. "There's a coffee bar on the elevator to the parking deck?" What you're hearing, that incessant guttural hiss, is the sound of one person, and then another, dredging up phlegm, seemingly from the depths of his or her soul. At first you look over, wondering, "Where are you going to put that?" A better question, you soon realise, is, "Where aren't you going to put it?" [Source: David Sedaris, The Guardian July 15, 2011]
I saw wads of phlegm glistening like freshly shucked oysters on staircases and escalators. I saw them frozen into slicks on the sidewalk and oozing down the sides of walls. It often seemed that if people weren't spitting, they were coughing without covering their mouths, or shooting wads of snot out of their noses. This was done by plugging one nostril and using the other as a blowhole. "We Chinese think it's best just to get it out," a woman told me over dinner one night. She said that, in her opinion, it's disgusting that a westerner would use a handkerchief and then put it back into his pocket. "Well, it's not for sentimental reasons," I told her. "We don't hold on to our snot for ever. The handkerchief's mainly a sanitary consideration."
Reasons for Spitting and Anti-Spitting Campaigns in China
Many Chinese who spit say they do so for health reasons. Many Chinese have phlegm in their throats as a result of chronic bronchitis, colds that never get better and respiratory problems caused by heavy smoking, air pollution, and cold weather.
The hacking and spitting is merely a way of clearing the lungs and throats and respiratory system of phlegm and other nasty things that have accumulated in them. According to Chinese beliefs, phlegm is considered a manifestation of natural imbalances in the body and getting rid of it is regarded as a healthy act. Some people claim that chronic spitting spreads disease and helps create the problem it is trying to solve.
Spitting is much less common than it once was. Twenty years ago spit was all over the place. Now it is just all over some places. Many Chinese are embarrassed by the spitting habit of some of their countrymen. They view it as a sign of ignorance and backwardness. According to one survey 80 percent of Chinese disapprove of public spitting. In another survey, in Beijing, spitting was ranked among the top five most disgusting habits.
The omnipresent anti-spitting posters, which are seen throughout China, don't discourage people from spitting but rather encourage them to spit in spittoons. Most anti-spitting campaigns are launched before important events or the arrival of foreign VIPs’such as the committee which selected where the Olympics would be held. Most campaigns---including one linking spitting with the spread of AIDS---have had limited effectiveness.
In Beijing, the fine for spitting is around $6.60, less than fine for failing to dispose of dog excrement ($25) and hanging laundry facing major roads ($25). Volunteers there with the word “mucus” printed on them give out small white plastic bags in parks, shopping malls and other places for people to spit in. Uniformed inspectors patrol places like Tiananmen Square looking for spitters and litterers. When a spitter is caught in the act he is forced to bend over and clean up his mess. After a small crowd has gathered he is lectured by the inspector on the consequences of spiting: spreading diseases, causing pollution and embarrassing China.
History of Anti-Spitting Campaigns in China
Disgust over spitting is nothing new. Before the Communists came to power in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek ordered troops onto the streets of Beijing to stop people from spitting. In the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping launched a massive campaign against "this unhealthy practice" and enlisted a force of 200,000 health inspectors to levy fines on spitters in Beijing alone. One thousand anti-spitting centers were set up around the city; posters displaying bacteria found in spit were plastered around town; and banners were hung with slogans like "Keep fit. Don't spit." One newspaper intoned: "Efforts to eliminate spitting will not only clear the capital ground of phlegm, but purify minds and raise the nation's moral standards."
In the 1990s, when more and more Chinese began traveling abroad, the government published a booklet on proper behavior. It advised, "Do not spit in public. If you must...spit in your palm." Perhaps the most serious anti-spitting campaign was launched during he SARS outbreak in 2003, when spitting was considered a health hazard as well as a nasty habit. As part of the “Directive on Launching Activities to Transform Vile Habits” launched by the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee's Spiritual Civilization Office, stiff fines were imposed, newspapers were filled with anti-spitting stories and street committees were told on the look for spitters. There were even reports of old women spraying sidewalk spit spots with disinfectant.
In the campaign to win the 2008 Olympics an effort was made to get Chinese to stop spitting. The argument was made that Chinese will lose face and foreigners will look down on them unless they curb the habit. A book called Etiquette for Modern Chinese exhorted readers not to spit if China was to be perceived as an advanced nation.
In 2006, Beijing stepped up its anti-spitting campaign in an effort to eliminate the habit by the start of the 2008 Olympics. The effort involved setting up trash boxes every 100 meters on major streets and providing sanitary bags for people to spit into on buses, taxis and in public areas.
I enjoyed bike riding and walking around Beijing and Shanghai. One of the hazards (other than battery operated scooters zipping by) was avoiding the flinging of bodily fluids by the common practice of public spitting.
The scientists have stated how this current novel virus has ability to remain active for long periods.
Got me wondering about the spread of phlegm contaminated with SARS CoV2 virus on the soles of shoes via the spitting in public.
I also remember my CBRN training in the Air Guard. Decontaminating our boots walking thru the ‘shuffle box’
EXPOSED BELLIES, SPITTING, PAJAMAS AND BAD MANNERS IN CHINA | Facts and Details
factsanddetails.com
Spitting in China
In one survey, two thirds of all the adult Chinese asked admitted to spitting on a regular basis. If that figure is true around 900 million people in China are habitual spitters. Many men smoke and have hacking smoker's coughs. The first thing many of them do when they leave their houses in morning is clear phlegm from their throats and spit. Some Chinese men spit on the wheel rims on their cars to see if the brakes are rubbing on the hub.
Spitting has been linked in the past with anti-foreigner sentiments. A banner raised during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 read: "Certainly foreign soldiers are a horde; but if each of our people spits once, they will drown." Up until fairly recently Chinese leaders had ceramic spittoons next to their chairs at ceremonies and banquets where they greeted royals, diplomats and foreign leaders. Mao had a spittoon at his feet when he met Nixon.
The Chinese, wrote Theroux, "spat all the time...With their cheeks alone they made the sunctioning: hhggaarrkh! And then they ground and positioned their teeth, and they leaned. You expected them to propel it about five yards, like a Laramie stockman sitting over a fence. But no they never gave it any force. They seldom spat more than a few inches from where they stood. They did not spit out, they spit down."
"Chinese spitting is not half as bad as throat clearing," Theroux wrote, "the hoick can be heard for fifty yards...They cleared their throats so loudly they could drown out conversation’they could sound like a Rota-Rooter or someone clearing a storm drain, or the last gallon leaving a Jacuzzi ...After that, the spitting itself was rather an anticlimax."
Phlegm in China
David Sedaris wrote in The Guardian, “After arriving at Beijing International Airport one of the “the first thing one notices is what sounds like a milk steamer, the sort a cafe uses when making lattes and cappuccinos. "That's odd," you think. "There's a coffee bar on the elevator to the parking deck?" What you're hearing, that incessant guttural hiss, is the sound of one person, and then another, dredging up phlegm, seemingly from the depths of his or her soul. At first you look over, wondering, "Where are you going to put that?" A better question, you soon realise, is, "Where aren't you going to put it?" [Source: David Sedaris, The Guardian July 15, 2011]
I saw wads of phlegm glistening like freshly shucked oysters on staircases and escalators. I saw them frozen into slicks on the sidewalk and oozing down the sides of walls. It often seemed that if people weren't spitting, they were coughing without covering their mouths, or shooting wads of snot out of their noses. This was done by plugging one nostril and using the other as a blowhole. "We Chinese think it's best just to get it out," a woman told me over dinner one night. She said that, in her opinion, it's disgusting that a westerner would use a handkerchief and then put it back into his pocket. "Well, it's not for sentimental reasons," I told her. "We don't hold on to our snot for ever. The handkerchief's mainly a sanitary consideration."
Reasons for Spitting and Anti-Spitting Campaigns in China
Many Chinese who spit say they do so for health reasons. Many Chinese have phlegm in their throats as a result of chronic bronchitis, colds that never get better and respiratory problems caused by heavy smoking, air pollution, and cold weather.
The hacking and spitting is merely a way of clearing the lungs and throats and respiratory system of phlegm and other nasty things that have accumulated in them. According to Chinese beliefs, phlegm is considered a manifestation of natural imbalances in the body and getting rid of it is regarded as a healthy act. Some people claim that chronic spitting spreads disease and helps create the problem it is trying to solve.
Spitting is much less common than it once was. Twenty years ago spit was all over the place. Now it is just all over some places. Many Chinese are embarrassed by the spitting habit of some of their countrymen. They view it as a sign of ignorance and backwardness. According to one survey 80 percent of Chinese disapprove of public spitting. In another survey, in Beijing, spitting was ranked among the top five most disgusting habits.
The omnipresent anti-spitting posters, which are seen throughout China, don't discourage people from spitting but rather encourage them to spit in spittoons. Most anti-spitting campaigns are launched before important events or the arrival of foreign VIPs’such as the committee which selected where the Olympics would be held. Most campaigns---including one linking spitting with the spread of AIDS---have had limited effectiveness.
In Beijing, the fine for spitting is around $6.60, less than fine for failing to dispose of dog excrement ($25) and hanging laundry facing major roads ($25). Volunteers there with the word “mucus” printed on them give out small white plastic bags in parks, shopping malls and other places for people to spit in. Uniformed inspectors patrol places like Tiananmen Square looking for spitters and litterers. When a spitter is caught in the act he is forced to bend over and clean up his mess. After a small crowd has gathered he is lectured by the inspector on the consequences of spiting: spreading diseases, causing pollution and embarrassing China.
History of Anti-Spitting Campaigns in China
In the 1990s, when more and more Chinese began traveling abroad, the government published a booklet on proper behavior. It advised, "Do not spit in public. If you must...spit in your palm." Perhaps the most serious anti-spitting campaign was launched during he SARS outbreak in 2003, when spitting was considered a health hazard as well as a nasty habit. As part of the “Directive on Launching Activities to Transform Vile Habits” launched by the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee's Spiritual Civilization Office, stiff fines were imposed, newspapers were filled with anti-spitting stories and street committees were told on the look for spitters. There were even reports of old women spraying sidewalk spit spots with disinfectant.
In the campaign to win the 2008 Olympics an effort was made to get Chinese to stop spitting. The argument was made that Chinese will lose face and foreigners will look down on them unless they curb the habit. A book called Etiquette for Modern Chinese exhorted readers not to spit if China was to be perceived as an advanced nation.
In 2006, Beijing stepped up its anti-spitting campaign in an effort to eliminate the habit by the start of the 2008 Olympics. The effort involved setting up trash boxes every 100 meters on major streets and providing sanitary bags for people to spit into on buses, taxis and in public areas.
