Living in this new apartment means I now have access to all the Chinese television that for some reason was blocked by a whole bunch of French, German and Japanese programming in the exchange student dorm. (yes, very good, censor the Chinese television programs made available to the exchange students who are already in China. Brilliant.)

Those that know me well know that I pretty much can’t stand watching television but for some reason I decided to turn it on this evening. As I expected, not a whole lot going on (it is television after all) but there was an in-home interview of a foreigner named Da Long and his wife. They do these laowai programs every so often of the foreigners that speak and write incredible Chinese and if they’re not too shmaltzy, I’ll watch them for inspiration and new vocab. Da Long is Swedish and has lived in China for 15 years, speaks fluently, writes beautiful calligraphy (this is probably where I’m most envious) and can even read ancient style Chinese…the guy’s basically a rockstar. Well, aim your t-shirt cannon over here and call me groupie because I realized after a few minutes that I actually know Da Long. His name is Johan Bjorksten and he owns a PR company in Beijing. As I understand it, he’s essentially the go-to when it comes to understanding the media world in China. I came across his name through a couple of people I met while I was back in the states and coincidentally just emailed him today. Small world.

Being now in the media world, I noticed I’m starting to pay more attention to commercials and advertisements as a science…marketing tactics, underlying messages, intended audiences, some content more sophisticated than others but all essentially trying to convince people to take some sort of action. Around town these days you can see banners and posters sunshining “civilization and stability, peace and harmony” and “creating a civilized Shenyang to welcome the world”, an effort of course by the government to make sure China puts only its very best face forward for the upcoming Olympic games. The big tagline is “Welcome the Olympics, discuss civilization, cultivate a new wind” (note: my translations make these all sound a little hokier than they really are…in fact they’re actually kind of catchy, get-the-masses-moving mantras) This evening I happened to catch several of what I would call public service announcements in association with the big tagline. A short ad showed various images of people of all ages exercising and being active and then towards the end, the words “the Olympics are coming, we’re welcoming the world, have you moved (or performed) yet?” Heck yes for finally encouraging physical activity as a cool thing to do! The one I was most impressed by was probably around 60 seconds long and showed at least ten different scenarios of people performing random acts of kindness. Every scenario consisted of a helper and a helpee with a third person (usually an unassociated bystander) looking on, visibly impressed by the act of civility s/he just witnessed. Simple things, really, like reacting quickly to hold an elevator or stopping to let a child cross the street at the crosswalk. A woman pushing a person’s coffee cup away from the edge of the table where it was precariously perched, a kid picking up a baby toy and handing it to the baby in a stroller, a man pulling another person out of the path of some falling boxes, a young man helping a worker pull a heavy cart onto the curb, etc etc. Aesthetically, it’s a well-done piece and even kind of heart-warming. I mean who can’t feel good about strangers helping strangers because it’s the right thing to do? China is under a lot of pressure right now to “straighten up” according to Western standards of politeness and conduct, to “civilize”. Unfortunately for those officials in Beijing charged with shining the faces of the Chinese population, old habits die hard, particularly in places away from the shiny internationalized cities like Shanghai and Beijing. I’m very curious to see what kind of effect these 文明 (wenming, civilized) campaigns actually have on the general populace. Though you might not recognize it from the sidewalks in some areas, the ‘no spitting’ campaigns have been around since SARS and while it’s still unwise to dodge cars and roam the streets as a pedestrian while talking on a cell phone, in general, crossing the street has become markedly safer over the past year. Change is coming and I’ll give China credit for the progress it’s making. I mean seriously, 1.6 billion people. I still haven’t been able to wrap my head around it and I can’t remember if I’ve shared this with my blog audience but here it is again anyway as a starting reference point: there are more people studying English in China (something close to 400 million) than people who speak any form of English in the rest of world, combined. That is one mother of an inertia train.

The wenming campaign has also got me thinking about how the American public today would react if the government decided to actively discourage certain practices through a series of education initiatives and television and print campaigns. Surely there were campaigns throughout the 20th century as America went through it’s own pubescent industrialization and growth but now that America is what the Chinese call 发达了 (fadale, flourishing, fully developed) I’m curious if people think any sort of campaign could reign the public in. One example that just came to me is the effort to curb obesity or smoking. Are these efforts working or are these going to turn into wars on drugs?

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.