Safety in China (??)

road in my rental car.  But it wasn’t until about 12:45, driving 70 mph on the 405, when I remembered that, in the U.S., the lines on the road are more than just mere suggestions … you are expected to stay between them and other drivers get upset when you drift aimlessly.  And some of those other drivers are armed and in a very bad mood too!

My inability to cross traffic cultures aside, this raised in my mind an important point about safety in China … and frankly, things are still a bit loose here.  While it is better here in Shanghai than it used to be, cars don’t always stay between the lines, on their side of the street or even off the sidewalk.  If a driver doesn’t know where they are, they stop, wherever they happen to be, to consider their options.  They will stop in the middle of a street, an intersection or even the elevated highway.  They are not thinking about safety … they just don’t want to be lost.  While I admire their commitment to truth and knowledge, if they are not careful, they will soon know very well where they will end up … on a stainless steel table in the morgue!

Pedestrians here will only stop at a crosswalk when there is a traffic cop to shame them into waiting the 12 seconds required for the light to turn.  And if you are on a bicycle, scooter or motorcycle, you can – and will – just go right through any intersection and any light.  Apparently, no traffic rules apply to you and cops, in general, won’t even try to stop you.  Its as if the presence of two wheels under you gives you superpowers of invisibility, Kevlar underwear and a get-out-of-jail-free card.

So when I saw a New York Times article a couple of days ago titled “Salute All Cars, Kids. It’s a Rule in China”, I was intrigued.  In a nutshell, the article tells how Chinese education officials are encouraging children in the countryside to, literally, salute all cars on their walks to and from school … the purpose of which is to get these kids to pay attention to traffic and notice when cars are coming and to stay out of the way.  However, what I thought was going to be an article about improving traffic safety in China turned into a diatribe about the ridiculous edicts that come from the government here and the citizen outrage that often accompanies it.  The journalist cited numerous examples of silly government pronouncements – such as forcing people to purchase local cigarettes and liquor to inflate the state-owned enterprise sales figures – and the fact that ordinary Chinese are fighting back.  Fair enough … its good to see that voices are being raised against government silliness, something we’ve known how to do for a long time in the U.S. (however, we haven’t quite figured out how to actually END the government silliness).

Unfortunately, what gets lost in article, buried at the very end, is that this edict, no matter how silly it may seem, actually seems to be reducing traffic accidents, at least in the mountainous village where the journalist did their interviews.  And that, I think, should be the point … in Shanghai where I live in MORTAL fear of hitting some kid that runs out into traffic, finding some way … ANY way … of teaching kids to respect traffic is OK in my book.

Teaching civil behavior in China has been an issue ever since … well, ever since there was society here.  And China has one of the world’s oldest civilizations so you do the math … but its been awhile. Chinese leaders over the years, from Meng-zi to Mao, have been seen not only as political leaders, but social leaders as well.

The big phrase in China over the past couple of years has been an encouragement from President Hu Jin-tao to work together to create a “he2 xie2 she4 hui4”, a “harmonious society.”  They started it leading up to the Olympics when they expected airplane loads of tourists to descend upon China and the leaders wanted to put on their best face … kind of like when you were a kid and were told to “go wash up, Aunt Marge will be here any minute” and you were dreading that dry, moth-bally kiss and the comments on how big you’d grown and isn’t it cute at how they grow up so fast, but really, can’t you do something about that acne and … well, no need to drag you into my adolescent nightmare.  Let’s just say that the Harmonious Society campaign has gone over about as well here.

So maybe teaching kids to salute cars isn’t so silly after all.  And c’mon, admit it … isn’t EVERY country’s teaching of civil society a bit ridiculous?  Imagine you are sitting in the pitch meeting for the Woodsy the Owl campaign … “OK, J.R., here is how I see it … we don’t want people to throw garbage on the ground, right?  Makes the place look like a dump, right?  OK … so picture this … a grown man, dressed in a cheesy owl costume … and he says ‘Hoo … Hoo … Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute!’  Huh?  Huh? Is that great or what??”  Yea … I know I am guy of limited taste and erudition, but I don’t think I would have signed off on that one.

I think that China is reaching a tipping point in matters of public safety and I really think that the government should – and CAN – step in and start to move public opinion and behavior.  Private cars are proliferating like bunnies in the dark here, but car seats for children are not and Junior is playing Red Rover between the front and the back seat.  Start putting some pictures at the car dealerships of what happens if Junior goes through the front windshield … guaranteed there will be a lock down pretty fast.  And maybe adults will actually start using their own seatbelts as well instead of just draping them across their laps whenever they drive by a policeman.  Seriously, taxi drivers do this all the time!  And people are still dumping garbage out their windows here.  Sure, there are tons of municipal workers running around with brooms to sweep the streets, but polluting for the sake of fuller employment doesn’t make sense to me.

So I say, bring on the saluting if it helps teach kids to respect a ton of speeding death metal on the road.  Heck, get them to bow, curtsey and say “By your leave, m’lord”, I don’t care!  Just keep them from being human speed bumps!  And bring on the animals teaching moral lessons … in the U.S. we had our Woodsy, Smokey and G’ruff, China should have theirs.  Imagine the pitch meeting for that one, “OK … Wang … here’s how I see it.  We want to get people to stop throwing garbage on the ground … so let’s dress up some guy in a cheesy panda costume and have him say, ‘Polluters should be nearly extinct … like me!’  Huh?  Huh??  Is that great or what???”

Yea … maybe I will just stick to Podcasting.

Thanks again for listening … remember our motto: “In China, everything is possible but nothing is easy.”  We’ll see you next time on the China Business Podcast.

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