Click Here to Subsribe to the 'The Vance Report' Feed Recently, one of my foreign friends became so frustrated with the smoking habits of Chinese men that he decided to take matters into his own hands. He purchased a few sheets of sticky ‘No Smoking’ signs and began plastering them up in front of people’s faces whenever they lit up in an inappropriate place.
“I was on an elevator recently with a couple of Chinese guys and as we went up, one of them stuck a cigarette in his mouth and lit it,” my friend recounted. “I stuck quickly stuck a ‘No Smoking’ sign in front of the guy and he smiled and stopped smoking.” In other words, he got the message.
While I do not know if I would go to that extreme to get people to stop smoking, I will admit that I have often fought the urge to reach over and yank cigarettes out of people’s mouths in China. I am certainly not one who would deny someone their right to light up in public but when I see people smoking on buses and trains or inside very small restaurants that are sure to fill up with their toxic fumes, I quickly become annoyed.
That annoyance, however, is nothing compared to how I felt when I spotted a man smoking in a hospital corridor a few months ago. I wanted to say something but considering the dozens of doctors and nurses that passed by without asking him to smoke somewhere else, I figured that anything I said would be a waste of breathe. After seeing that, I would not be surprised to see somebody smoking in their seat on an airplane in China. No one seems to care.
I hate to refer back to my recently highly controversial article Are There Any Gentlemen in China? but the issue of smoking in China reinforces a few points that I made. Many Chinese men think that they should be able to smoke whenever and wherever they want even if it means that they are crammed into a small elevator with a ton of other people. Is this a matter of simply not thinking about what they are or doing or do they just not care? I am not sure. Either way, no one seems to be willing to stand up to these men and tell them that smoking in certain places is simply inappropriate and very ‘ungentlemanly’.
Are there laws in China about smoking inside buildings? Probably. Just like there are a multitude of laws in China that protect the environment. Some things just never change I suppose.
For now, I guess I will have to consider implenting my friend’s idea. I kind of like it and it seems to work. Unfortunately, it is probably not legal to stick signs wherever you want to in China. That, as opposed to smoking in a hospital or on a bus, could probably get you into big trouble.
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You’d do well to not act like such a violent hothead in a country where you’re a guest.
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All of you smokers who are bitching here can take your pompousness and shove it up your ass. I tolerate Chinese who smoke outside, or in taxis, restaurants, etc., but the author is talking about situations where it is clearly not appropriate. Examples: My friend had a newborn in the maternity ward; an unknown man came in, leaned over his baby, staring at it, and lit up. He got fucking decked and shoved out into the hall, cigarette shoved into his fucking mouth. My mother went into the hospital for asthma when she came here to visit. She is almost 70 years old, and was wheezing. People in the hallway were lighting up, in the only refuge she was supposed to have. Her face was turning blue as she wheezed, so I of course confronted those assholes. Public parks, etc., are one thing. I grant you that. But, and I really mean this, if it means the live of my elderly mother, I will FUCK YOU UP.
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Something’s do change, though. The U.S. was like this in the 1950’s. With all of its air pollution, I think Chinese people have come to acknowledge that there are a LOT toxins in the air already, so screw it.
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i have the same problem here in china. i really hate people who smoke especially in public places and under the “no smoking” sign. but they don’t seem to care at all. they even smoke in front of their wives and kids who don’t smoke. i can’t wait for my husband to finish his job here in china so that we can move out of this freakin’ place!
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I’m sorry man, but you can take your no-smoking sign and shove it. I’m a smoker who agrees that people shouldn’t smoke in places without enough ventilation or, even if there is, around pregnant women or children, but you running around with your little gimmick just makes me a little ill. What do you imagine that you are accomplishing? Do you think that the person who crushes his cig just to avoid awkwardness and confrontation is having a Damascus road flash? He’s not doing it because he ’suddenly understands!’ He just wants this month’s bewildering foreigner episode to go away.
It really sounds like just a trick you use to defuse your own frustration, which is not a public health problem but a private emotional one, and people who defuse their frustrations in public are at least as noxious a presence as inconsiderates lighting up where they shouldn’t. Lame, my friend, lame.
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Dear All
I TRUST that the police are smokers, so when I stick the non-smoking sign, that is put in front of my face, in the right locality, the consequences are minimal.
Ralf
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Robert, I urge you to recount the tale of the competition between the storm cloud and the sun in trying to get a man to take his coat off. You should realize positive incentives work just as well if not better than negative ones. That’s why bribing and blackmail both exist, but bribing is more heard of. Guess what I’m suggesting?
Of course, not an angry method of dealing with these smokers. Be nice about it. Suppress your anger. Remember, you’re not out for vengeance to enforce what you think is idealogically correct, as you’re one person facing tens or perhaps hundreds of millions of these tar and formaldehyde fanatics. Complain that you have breathing problems. If you don’t already know, the world for please is Qin. Pronounced Ching with a upper pitched accent when concerning the vowel. The phrase for please stop smoking is “Qin ni bu yao chou yan”. The english pronounciation is “Ching nee boo yow ch-o yan”. If the man is rude to you and rants, which certainly can happen, I suggest you ask others for assistance. Not all Chinese view smoking as “COOL!”. In fact, many of us hate it, but it’s commonplace, much like Marijuana in the US amongst teens. But smoking is legal in China. So don’t ask Police officers for help, and don’t ask for someone who does smoke. Generally, women don’t. It’s frowned upon. It’s rather safe to ask them.
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I think China’s pulic health education still needs a lot of improvement. Risks associated with smoking such as cancer, teratogenic effects, and the environment are not stressed enough, if at all. Besides, the government WANTS people to smoke because they reap huge on tobacco taxes. What the heck! Let them die of lung cancer, colon cancer, we are making billions of taxes and support local tobacco industry so we can go out to the world to show how wealthy we have become.
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Hi Robert,
Same as the issue of “yielding seat in a bus”, from my point of view, the smoking issue has been improved a lot, but not to the level that everyone could deal with it correctly with c.
In the past, smoke was allowed in the bus. When I asked them stopping smoke, they refused. Now Smoking on the bus is forbidden, when I ask him stopping, he stop immediately without arguing with me, because he knows he’s wrong. The rate of those smoking issues has already dropped deeply. But comparing with your standard, it’s still far away to reach.
By the way, as I took the flight, I didn’t see any Chinese smoking inside the cabinet.
I didn’t see anyone smoking in the subway. I wonder how you could see that happen.
Talking with the problem without knowing the history, it may not get the correct judgement..
Also there is very big difference between the developed city and undeveloped rural site. in China.
Please keep in mind that China is still a unbalanced developing country.
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To “Alaowaiwhohateslaowaiinchina”
The reason your in China is that nobody wanted to hire you in America. You smell like a turd and your attitude stinks.
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If you do not like their smoking, politely telling them the reason would work under most circumstances – however, this requires that reason to be very solid – “i don’t like your smoking here” does not work – but if you tell them that their smoking is harming a pregnant woman, I’d imagine they’d stop it right away, or at least find some other spot.
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If you don’t like the laws, customs, and traditions in China…GO HOME! I find so many things in China so rewarding and fascinating that if someone smokes…WHO CARES! It is people like you (and oter other foreigners) that make me want to walk on the other side of the street when I see you. I am an American in Chongqing and I promised myself when I came to China I would obey the laws, respect the people, and honor any customs and tradtions…without bitching about it. If you don’t like what is happening around you…then go home. People like you make me ashamed to be foreigner in China.
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@Alawaiwhotaselawaiinchina,
You are probably one of those people who could care less about smoking in front of pregnant women, people with asthma, etc. I am all about letting people do what they want but not when it bothers other people. I know plenty of western people who smoke but most I know wouldn’t do it on an elevator.
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Wow. What an asshole. It’s too bad the Chinese are too courteous to slap your pushy friend in his face.
I live in China too. You’ll sometimes have to accept things you don’t like.
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You are in China. Leave your god damn nanny habits at home.
I hate laowai assholes like this.
In fact, I hate most of the moronic loawai assholes I meet in China.
I came to China so I could get away from fucking people who are always deciding what other people can do.
Tell your asshole friend that if he ever tries that crap with me when I light up, I’ll smack him in the face.
But, then again, the fucking coward probably only does this shit with Chinese people who smoke in front of him. He knows that a western smoker would quickly rip him a new one if he tried it with them.
Tell your friend to get the fuck out of China if he can’t cope.
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It’s similar at tourist areas in Japan – Chinese tourists are easily recognizable because some in groups will completely ignore signs and smoke cigarettes.
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I agree with you 110% – and it is one of my pet hates. I have to move in restaurants to avoid the smoke, I have to hold my breath in elevators, I have to gasp in other places where so much smoke fills the air. Sadly I see so many young men smoking too.
Surely the message about the dangers of smoking have reached China? The high cost of health care for those who have indulged has really been given a lot of publicity in the west.
So why does the Chinese government ignore it? Why do they continue to accept so much air pollution by the smokers. As if there is no problem with air health in China!
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