China: We LOVE smoking! (Ban ineffective)

[Soontir C'boath]

BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing's first smoke-free restaurant chain faces going out of business after its customers deserted it in droves after the ban was enforced, state media reported on Friday.

The Chinese are the world's most enthusiastic smokers, with a growing market of more than 350 million, making it a magnet for cigarette companies and a focus of international health concerns.

The occupancy rate at Meizhou Dongpo, a chain serving the spicy fare of southwest Sichuan province, had dropped to "about 80 percent of that enjoyed by other restaurants across the street" after it banned smoking in October, the China Daily quoted its manager as saying.

"We figure that if we're going to die, at least we're going to die honorably," the paper quoted Guo Xiaodong, deputy director of the restaurant chain, as saying.

Meizhou Dongpo had trained its waitresses how to discourage people from lighting up, but met resistance from customers who would lock staff out of private dining rooms to sneak a quick puff, Guo said.

"It just illustrates how much resistance there is to kicking the habit among Chinese smokers," the paper quoted Zhang Xuemei, a Beijing reporter who lobbied the restaurant to ban smoking, as saying.

Beijing, set to mark the 200-day countdown to the Olympics on Monday, has yet to issue clear rules on smoking bans, despite Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promising a "smoke-free Olympics."

Along with spitting, and not queuing, Olympic organizers fear Chinese people's tendency to smoke anywhere at any time could taint the country's image in foreign eyes.

China banned smoking in taxis in October and launched a drive to ban smoking in hospitals, schools, and government offices last year.

But resistance to the campaign has been fierce.

Beijing authorities had written to 30,000 restaurants asking them to put smoking bans in place, but not a single one had taken up the suggestion, the paper said.

Did China ever have any anti-cigarette campaigns? It sounds like the majority of the population are smokers.

[ray245]

I am more annoyed with the not queuing habit.

Last time, I went to Hong Kong disney land, and there was two mainland chinese who keep cutting queue through 4-5 year old KIDS.

Fuckers...

[Zablorg]

"We figure that if we're going to die, at least we're going to die honorably," the paper quoted Guo Xiaodong, deputy director of the restaurant chain, as saying.

Yes, because there is no better way to die honorably than to become rank and wheezy before finally succumbing to various forms of cancer.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Ah yes, it's the kiddy brigade indicating their inability to notice context once again. The deputy director of the restaurant chain said that in regard to their decision not to rescind their smoking ban, you idiot.

[Havok]

launched a drive to ban smoking in hospitals, schools, and government offices last year.

OK. Seriously, WTF? Last year? And not even banned, but LAUNCHED A DRIVE. Wow. I guess I could understand the Gov offices, but schools and HOSPITALS?

I guess living in smoke free California skews my view on this subject. I get annoyed when I see people smoking outside at this point. 100 yards away. In their own cars.

[Spyder]

Did China ever have any anti-cigarette campaigns? It sounds like the majority of the population are smokers.

Nope, quite the opposite infact.

And while Canadians, for years, have been seeing ominous anti-smoking ads warning of premature deaths of loved ones who light up, no such campaign has hit the Chinese airwaves.

Instead, the government-run tobacco industry clearly promotes smoking as a way to improve health in the nation of 1.3 billion people.

Ads in China tout smoking as a cure-all for diseases and ailments -- from Parkinson's to ulcers. In fact, smoking can even make you smarter and happier, if you listen to the government.

Yes folks, they have a pro-smoking campaign. They are that fucking backwards.

[Seggybop]

That's one way of limiting their population growth, I guess.

[Dominus Atheos]

"We figure that if we're going to die, at least we're going to die honorably," the paper quoted Guo Xiaodong, deputy director of the restaurant chain, as saying.

Yes, because there is no better way to die honorably than to become rank and wheezy before finally succumbing to various forms of cancer.

You're reading it wrong. The person saying that is the vice president of the restaurant that's going out of business because they banned smoking on their premises.

[[R_H]]

Yes folks, they have a pro-smoking campaign. They are that fucking backwards.

Why would they have a pro-smoking campaign? That's just...mind-boggling.

[PeZook]

Why would they have a pro-smoking campaign? That's just...mind-boggling.

Because, contrary to what the popular myth says, China is still 50 years behind everybody else?

Okay, that may be too harsh. Their government did lead to their very own ecological crisis, though, so they may just be fucking stupid.

[Rye]

China probably see mass-smoking as a good thing because it lowers fertility and makes people die. IIRC, they execute more people than the rest of the world combined. That's pretty impressive if true.

[HemlockGrey]

Rather than a sinister plot to kill off its own population, the explanation is more likely to be that it is a way for the government-run tobacco company to make more money for the government.

[Glocksman]

Smoking bans here in southern Indiana only 'took root' so to speak once they were mandated by law.
In other words, if a business owner had an 'out', he wouldn't enforce a ban becasue it'd be against the wishes of a vocal minority of his customers.

As an ex-smoker (I quit in 2000 after my Mother asked me to right before she died), I like the idea of private businesses being able to tell people 'don't smoke on my property', but the populist in me isn't entirely comfortable with it.

[Glocksman]

launched a drive to ban smoking in hospitals, schools, and government offices last year.

OK. Seriously, WTF? Last year? And not even banned, but LAUNCHED A DRIVE. Wow. I guess I could understand the Gov offices, but schools and HOSPITALS?

I guess living in smoke free California skews my view on this subject. I get annoyed when I see people smoking outside at this point. 100 yards away. In their own cars.

Heh.
Before I quit in 2000, I was hospitalized in 1998 for pneumonia, and the hospital had a smoking area set up for patients who smoked.

It was outside the building, but it was basically an enclosed tent with heating, so it wasn't unbearable for me in my bathrobe and cigarette in hand.

Nowadays though, there's no smoking anywhere on hospital grounds and I think that's a good thing.

[Admiral Valdemar]

It's funny, really, that they're not only in the Industrial Revolution age we were in from an economic POV, but their health viewpoint seems to mirror the same thinking in the West at that same time. Smoking, we can't forget, was favoured by doctors who loved big dollar sign marked bags of love from Big Tobacco.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

It improves the physique and reduces fatigue!

[Havok]

When was smoking introduced to China? Cigarettes I mean, I know the have been smoking the wacky stuff for centuries.

I wonder if the USSR's smoking habits influenced China's when they went red?

[Spyder]

Yes folks, they have a pro-smoking campaign. They are that fucking backwards.

Why would they have a pro-smoking campaign? That's just...mind-boggling.

State owned tobacco industry.

Here's a bone for the liberterian nutters, an industry that actually is better privatised.

[FSTargetDrone]

Heh.
Before I quit in 2000, I was hospitalized in 1998 for pneumonia, and the hospital had a smoking area set up for patients who smoked.

It was outside the building, but it was basically an enclosed tent with heating, so it wasn't unbearable for me in my bathrobe and cigarette in hand.

Nowadays though, there's no smoking anywhere on hospital grounds and I think that's a good thing.

Smoking on hospital grounds... Last year I was at the Fox Chase Cancer Center with an uncle who was there for lung cancer treatment. The facility specializes in treating all kinds of cancers and the large waiting area is usually full of people, most of them obviously cancer patients.

On one of the days I was there, as I was leaving the place to drive my uncle home, a well-dressed woman walked up to us (this was inside the building, near the entrance to the waiting area) and asked if either of us had a light. My uncle, who was just recovering from the first of several procedures, looked at her as if she had three heads. I forget exactly what it was he said to her, but it was something along the lines of "WTF?", though slightly more politely said.

I've also seen people smoking right outside the entrance to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. If there's a ban, it's not enforced there. And these were mostly medical people smoking.

[Darth Wong]

Rather than a sinister plot to kill off its own population, the explanation is more likely to be that it is a way for the government-run tobacco company to make more money for the government.

Since the same phenomenon was firmly rooted in place here only a few decades ago with private tobacco companies, it seems more likely that it's just mass stupidity.

[RIPP_n_WIPE]

Shit, when and were can I invest in Chinese tobacco!

[Ypoknons]

I am more annoyed with the not queuing habit.

Last time, I went to Hong Kong disney land, and there was two mainland chinese who keep cutting queue through 4-5 year old KIDS.

Fuckers...

No kidding, they have classes on how to queue in the mainland.

[Darth Wong]

It's actually amazing that so many people do spontaneously queue up in certain countries with few violations. It's certainly not a universal human trait, and I regularly see violators from every cultural and ethnic background.

What's interesting is the way the "line courtesy" ethic has apparently not made much headway in automobile driving behaviour. I don't know anybody who has never driven past a bunch of cars lining up for a busy exit and then cut in at an opportune moment, thus bypassing most of the line. Some even do it habitually, but everyone I know has done it at least once. Contrast that to, say, the grocery store. Can you even imagine the idea of rushing in and shoving your grocery cart into the middle of a line if someone is inattentive and lets a gap open up?

[Spyder]

It's actually amazing that so many people do spontaneously queue up in certain countries with few violations. It's certainly not a universal human trait, and I regularly see violators from every cultural and ethnic background.

What's interesting is the way the "line courtesy" ethic has apparently not made much headway in automobile driving behaviour. I don't know anybody who has never driven past a bunch of cars lining up for a busy exit and then cut in at an opportune moment, thus bypassing most of the line. Some even do it habitually, but everyone I know has done it at least once. Contrast that to, say, the grocery store. Can you even imagine the idea of rushing in and shoving your grocery cart into the middle of a line if someone is inattentive and lets a gap open up?

That's one of these things that seem to be worse in small towns. I noticed when I moved from Napier to Wellington was that drivers here tend to be a little more courteous. With Napier drivers, any car trip that takes ten minutes and thirty seconds has taken thirty seconds longer then it should have and someone will pay dearly.

[Rye]

It's actually amazing that so many people do spontaneously queue up in certain countries with few violations. It's certainly not a universal human trait, and I regularly see violators from every cultural and ethnic background.

What's interesting is the way the "line courtesy" ethic has apparently not made much headway in automobile driving behaviour. I don't know anybody who has never driven past a bunch of cars lining up for a busy exit and then cut in at an opportune moment, thus bypassing most of the line. Some even do it habitually, but everyone I know has done it at least once. Contrast that to, say, the grocery store. Can you even imagine the idea of rushing in and shoving your grocery cart into the middle of a line if someone is inattentive and lets a gap open up?

It's weird. Here, I've noticed that in general, if traffic's moving slowly, there's a bit of a spirit of "we're all in this together" and people will, unless they're an arsehole, let people in to their lanes, let people out of side streets ahead of them, etc. If there's a bit more speed available and a huge empty lane, people will go for it and fuck everyone off while they run away. Strangely, the more southernly you get, especially closer to London, the more people tend to be "right wing" about it and take everything for themselves.

There's probably a Darwinian model for it somewhere.