Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Wenming 文明 II
Civilized. Part Two.
Wenming is probably my favorite Chinese words. Its meaning is literally "civilized" but what it sounds like and what it means to the Chinese are probably different things. [Note: At this point I need to continue with "wenming", pronounced like one-ming, since the translation is too far off the mark. Or just conjures up a different notion than is appropriate.]
Based on the amount of signage and propaganda, wenming is what all Chinese are striving for - or at least what the Chinese government is striving for for the people. Wenming Neighborhood, wenming driving, wenming eating, wenming standing in line, wenming use of urinals (see Wenming I for elaboration). A sign on the back of the bathroom door in the mall "Please be wenming, throw the paper in the bin and flush the toilet". Today my taxi scooted around the wenming construction (文明施工 - wenming shigong, which means beautifying work, but I'll save that word for another post :), although I could not see what was so civilized about piles of drying concrete on the paver sidewalk.
And the biggest wenming project of all - Beijing Olympics 2008. I hear almost daily stories of the effort. Wait in line day, no spitting day, no smoking day (I wish), no littering day, translation classes, no pushing...
How to measure it, I don't know, but i love the constant reminder to be more civilized.
Wenming is probably my favorite Chinese words. Its meaning is literally "civilized" but what it sounds like and what it means to the Chinese are probably different things. [Note: At this point I need to continue with "wenming", pronounced like one-ming, since the translation is too far off the mark. Or just conjures up a different notion than is appropriate.]
Based on the amount of signage and propaganda, wenming is what all Chinese are striving for - or at least what the Chinese government is striving for for the people. Wenming Neighborhood, wenming driving, wenming eating, wenming standing in line, wenming use of urinals (see Wenming I for elaboration). A sign on the back of the bathroom door in the mall "Please be wenming, throw the paper in the bin and flush the toilet". Today my taxi scooted around the wenming construction (文明施工 - wenming shigong, which means beautifying work, but I'll save that word for another post :), although I could not see what was so civilized about piles of drying concrete on the paver sidewalk.
And the biggest wenming project of all - Beijing Olympics 2008. I hear almost daily stories of the effort. Wait in line day, no spitting day, no smoking day (I wish), no littering day, translation classes, no pushing...
How to measure it, I don't know, but i love the constant reminder to be more civilized.
# posted by Laurel @ 3:11 PM 
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