Getting tired of being Civilised – Chaoyang, Beijing

An artists impression of a Civilised Chaoyang

For two years now Chaoyang district (the recently constructed half of Beijing that is home to the Olympic Stadium, the new business district and me) has borne huge billboards with the slogan “Civilized Chaoyang, Magnificent With Me”. This is a poor translation of the Chinese that implies something like “Chaoyang is a classy, cultured, and exciting place, and that we’re all a part of that”.

How the artist impression looks today, with the burnt out CCTV tower in the background

The run up to the October 1^st National Day holiday coincides with the judging period of a national civilisation contest. Chaoyang has entered independently of the rest of Beijing and is vying against 80 other cities like Hangzhou, Lhasa and Guangzhou in the competition run by the Central Civilization Bureau.

National Day, on October 1^st, marks the anniversary of the foundation of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949

The contest runs every three years, but the judging period is only a few weeks long. Rather than using this time to educate people about taking care of themselves and those around them, they put up a few posters at the last minute, then have an aggressive crackdown on anything deemed uncivilised.

Getting Civilised

The first to be tidied up were street food vendors, the friendly people who sell cheap breakfasts and lunches such as my beloved Jian Bing pancakes. After that, it was the unlicensed restaurants, which tend to sell cheap buns, rice and noodle dishes to the office crowd at lunchtime.

The shutdowns extend to the chaps on street corners that mend bikes and shoes, fruit sellers, and anything else that adds character (i.e.: looks a little scruffy). This even includes more high-end restaurants with tables and chairs outside where people might be seen enjoying themselves.

Slightly more welcome, by me at least, is the volunteer army of students in blue and white tracksuits, positioned at busy street corners. These students physically restrain the flow of pedestrians into the road, and stop bike, mopeds and even small trucks from driving along the pavement, or against the traffic. Unless they have government or military plates of course…

There are also ‘queuing ladies’ trying to teach residents how to form a line and let people of the bus or subway before boarding. It takes quite a few queuing ladies to get this message across.

Groups of schoolchildren and the elderly have been pressganged into cleaning the streets of litter, cigarette butts and dog mess. Apparently the education of people not drop litter in the first place, or clean up after their dogs, isn’t one of the 360+ criteria the civilisation contest judges are seeking.

I wonder if the campaign might be more successful if the mascot wasn’t Luo Baobei, a happy but easily ignorable cartoon

According to the official Civilisation website (wenming.cn), the criteria does include public order and behaviour, social relationships, voluntary activities, charitable donations and residents satisfaction with the local government.

All this is adding up to a large number of disgruntled citizens, who can’t get a simple breakfast, are being held up on their way to work  by students; turning up with broken shoes or bikes; struggling to find a reasonably priced lunch and then can’t relax outside with a drink at the end of the day.

The question is, how long will the enforced civilisation last once the volunteers and queuing ladies have gone home?

As it turns out the “Civilized Chaoyang, magnificent with me” are so ubiquitous that I’ve never bothered to take a photo of one – the one above is from DYTM, and the burnt out CCTV Tower is from Look China

Hopefully related posts:

The Fast and the Freezing – Chaoyang Park, Beijing Crystal BBQ Korean Restaurant – Chaoyang, Beijing, China Firecrackers vs evil spirits – Beijing, China How to recreate Chinese New Year in Beijing, from the comfort of your computer