LET MICKEY D'S RUN THE COUNTRY:

China Pushes Public To Mind Its Manners: Curbing Bad Habits Is Pre-Olympic Goal (Maureen Fan, 6/13/07, Washington Post)

China cares enormously about how it is perceived by the rest of the world, and the Games have put a spotlight on this country's ancient ideas of shame and superiority, as well as the traditional Chinese concept of not "losing face."

In recent months, officials from the Communist Party have launched campaigns aimed at stamping out practices that, while common in China, might be seen as downright unseemly by outsiders: spitting, cutting in line, swearing and littering.

The preparations are a demonstration of how much emphasis Chinese leaders are putting on protocol, but also of the degree to which they consider individual behavior a reflection of the nation at large. The stakes are high. For a century, Chinese have tried to overcome foreign domination and isolation to regain what they see as their country's rightful status as a world leader. For many, August 2008 is their opportunity.

"We want to prove we are making progress," said Sha Lianxiang, a professor of social psychology at Renmin University in Beijing. "On the one hand, we are developing and making progress now, while on the other, we still have lots of problems. How to step out of these problems? We need to consider how people look at us. It's a mirror for us. In a globalized world, we want to be as good as others. We care about other people's reaction."

When MacDonald's opened its first restaurant in Moscow one of the networks did a story on how there were huge lines to get in even though few people could afford the food. Supposedly they just wanted to experience a place that they could get into that was well stocked and where the employees were polite.

The degree of national pride that the PRC has invested in the Games makes them a ripe target for boycott.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 13, 2007 6:58 AM