These factors are at the root of many problems. But glorifying a few model workers may not be enough. China s leaders feel reintroducing courtesy requires nothing less than a mass propaganda campaign. People who displayed good manners were suspected of being bourgeois, he says. It was much better to appear poor and uneducated.
Chinese society is obviously much different today, and the new campaign has had successes.
Public toilets, long the bane of China visitors, are improving. On display was a celebration of the nation s toilet revolution, featuring photos and displays of current technology and bathroom chic from various Chinese cities. In contrast to the smelly outhouses of the past, China s most-modern restrooms now suggest European villas, complete with gleaming tiles and trellises woven with plastic grape vines. To some, no propaganda campaign or exhibit can resolve the deep-rooted mistrust of polite behavior preached by Chairman Mao Zedong. In elementary school, kids are taught to love communism and love their country before they know how to love their parents.