I mostly stick to T1 and NT1 cities, and in the past single week I've observed people
- lighting fires on a street corner at night
JC wept. You have no clue do you?
Not that I totally disagree with your observations but this kinda makes me question the colour of the lens you are viewing the below observations ...
I spend a lot of time in China, across various tier cities. My observation is that things in context look very different
I mostly stick to T1 and NT1 cities, and in the past single week I've observed people
- lots of spitting , after clearing their throats loudly (saw a old uncle spit a massive glob on someone's parked moped too : )))))) )
- Peeing on a busy sidewalk
I honestly have not seen a single case of peeing in public (toddlers not withstanding).
Spitting, yes, but they generally aim for the drains and usually it's the old codgers.
- Driving down the wrong way of a new and well paved 6 lane road
- Minimal turn signal usage and poor general traffic etiquette even for a large city
Slow trucks and various stuff road hogging the left (fast) lane, up. Farm machinery, yup.
Driving down the wrong direction of a highway? Nah.
Driving down the wrong direction of a deserted road? Yup, seen plenty.
Traffic in China cities can be quite wild, by western standards. Coming from South East Asia though, I find it "normal". Yes, there is generally no right of way given but then again, there is no road rage-aggro just because someone squeezed into the gap you did not leave for them.
- Egregious line cutting and not letting others off the subway first
I've only been in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu metro.
Can't say I've seen this happen that frequently. It's quite civilised but road rules apply (see above). You leave a gap in the line and people will just flow past you.
Can't say it's any worse (in fact, I'll say it's better) than the Tube, Métro or the NYC Subway in terms of line cutting and not letting people off.
- Smoking while walking in busy thoroughfares
- Smoking indoors in packed public spaces in no smoking areas
- smoking in busy entry and exit areas
Ah ... absolutely no f**ks given. My favourite photo of China is a middle-age uncle, in a small T3 local cafe, sitting directly under a no smoking sign happily puffing away.
Basically, unless I'm on my university campus, or somewhere else the average age is <40yrs, I can't expect a decent sense of civility.
The younger generation is great with few exceptions.
Many other, older Chinese basically thrive off treating other Chinese people and public+private spaces like absolute shit. ie. not so great.
Yes, part of it has to be poverty, overpopulation, etc, but there are countries which are currently poorer with better civic sense.
My 2c ...
All large population, metropolis, big cities are similar to a large extent.
The sheer number of people in dense urban environment usually leads to pressure on space that translates into different behaviour. High population levels also generally pushes society to become more competitive (for simple living activities) and therefore move at a much faster pace. Take for instance Indians, they walk in the middle of the street (due to sheer press of humanity) but they don't get offended if you toot your horn at them cos that's their mindset - there's little space everywhere so I'm taking this space and if you want me to move, just toot. New Yorkers ... you try sounding your horn at them, even if they are clearly in the wrong. In case you want to bring up the anomaly of the Japanese, understand that beneath that civil exterior held in place by overbearingly rigid "code of conduct" lies a rather obnoxious, selfish person to the core once you scratch past that facade.
China is right up there with population pressure and mega cities of tens of millions. To expect behaviour to be similar to somewhere else with an order of magnitude lower level of societal competition is just being naive. The Chinese are very pragmatic bunch and will take the path that requires the least effort if it is available. But to the point of outright disregard for civic space and sense? This is where I will disagree with you strongly.
If anything, in my time in China, I observe a very strong sense of morality and civic right and wrong. There will always be bad apples but the exception does not prove the rule. It's not because of the so called "army of cleaners" that cities are as well kept as they are. People do not wantonly deface property (graffiti) or treat things like shyte - not even in the most cowboy of T3 cities do I observe that kind of slef-over-society entitlement (and it's not because of a fear of enforcement).
Talking about enforcement. Another favourite observation of China - almost every lower tier city train station has announcements warning against private cab touts etc, often at the driveways where they will pick up passengers, often with a security personnel or two stationed there blithely ignoring the touts hanging out there. Fear of enforcement? lolz, hardly. Pragmatism on full display. As long as the private cabbies don't create a problem, the security personnel aren't going to interfere with their livelihood.
China is very culturally different. Once you understand what makes them tick, a lot of behaviour starts to make sense and become less objectionable. When in Rome ...
