Spitting has rich connotations and is regarded as the "quintessence of China" by Lin Yutang

?Spitting has rich connotations and is regarded by Lin Yutang as the quintessence of China?

In the West, spitting was constructed as an uncivilized behavior from the end of the 19th century

Ross Coomber, professor of sociology at the University of Plymouth in the UK, is currently working on sociological research on spitting. In May, he conducted research in six Asian countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia, at his own expense, and made some interesting findings: spitting is very common in China, India, and South Korea. Indians love to chew betel nut, and when chewing betel nut, they spit out the juice. Therefore, in India, both men and women, poor and rich, will spit. They spit on the streets, walls, garbage cans, and sewers.

In South Korea, most of the people who spit are men. They often gather in small groups next to trash cans on the street to smoke, and then spit in the trash can or sewer, but rarely spit directly in the trash can. on the ground.

In China, if it is in commercial centers such as Lujiazui in Shanghai, people will not spit everywhere, but they have no scruples in the train station square or in the countryside.

Ross Comber believes that spitting should not be regarded as "extremely disgusting" by default. There are historical and cultural factors behind this behavior. In fact, in the West, the construction of spitting as an uncivilized behavior began at the end of the 19th century. Before that, people spitted unscrupulously; and in many countries, spitting is a way of life. ?In China, many people believe that spitting removes toxins from the body. In Asian culture, people in Western countries sneeze into a handkerchief and put it in their pocket, which is more disgusting and worse than spitting. ?

Whether in the East or the West, spitting has rich connotations

In Chinese, the verbs related to "spit" or to a lesser extent spitting are: Spit, spit, vomit, spit, cough, etc. When people spit on their own faces and let them dry naturally without wiping them off, this is called "spit on one's own face".

To spit on your hands and then shake hands with the other person to show that you have reached an agreement. This is called "decision with the palm of your hand".

Li Bai has a poem: "The saliva falls for nine days, and the wind brings forth pearls and jade". During the Republic of China, Ma Yinchu's lectures were so "spitting" that some students sitting in the front row said: "Listen to Mr. Ma's class. Want to hold an umbrella? It can be seen that spitting all over the sky is not only not annoying, but also a polite thing. When a woman is embroidering, when she stops the needle to change the thread or bites off the embroidery thread, her mouth is often filled with lint and she spits it out, which is commonly known as "spit lint". It can also be included in poetry. The words of Li Yu's "A Dendrobium Pearl" in the Southern Tang Dynasty: ?Leaning on the embroidered bed, she is so delicate that she chews red velvet and spits at Tanlang with a smile. ?

Therefore, Lin Yutang regards spitting as the "quintessence of China" in "My Country, My People": The action of spitting generally has three beats. The first two beats are to prepare for the final cough and spit. Throat sweeping sound. The last vomit was made with an urgent and strong voice, the urgent look behind the adagio. If the spitting is aesthetically pleasing, I really don't mind the spread of bacteria into the air, because I have been exposed to such bacteria before and have not noticed any significant impact on my health. ?

For this reason, spittoons (also called spittoons, smaller ones called spittoons) have always been a necessity for Chinese people. Lu Sun of the Tang Dynasty wrote in his article "Also Talking about Spittoons" that in those days, no matter whether it was a big house or a small house, there was always a spittoon or a pair of spittoons where guests could sit and cough, for guests to cough or knock out cigarette ashes. In the center of Guan Mian's hall, in front of the Kang bed, a pair of two-foot-tall silvery copper spit buckets are indispensable. Ordinary homes also have a pair of blue-edged white enamel buckets. Without them, they seem to be missing something. . The missionary Fu Kaisen once praised: The Chinese are really clever in using spittoons to spit. If they are afraid of being unhygienic, sprinkle some disinfectant on the spittoons and add a lid, wouldn't it be perfect? ?

And spitting itself, whether in the East or the West, has rich connotations. As Ross Comber said, in many regional cultures, spitting is a form of masculinity. Needless to say, the Chinese people spit on them. In Europe, young boys spit together to show that they have strength and have grown up.

In the movie "Titanic", Rose asked Jack to teach her to spit. She wanted to "spit like a man".

?To have a new life that is in line with etiquette, justice, and integrity, start by never spitting. ?

Ross Comber believes that the construction of spitting as uncivilized behavior is a long process in the West. It takes hundreds of years of continuous advancement to evolve acceptable behavior into unacceptable behavior. Generally speaking, this has to do with changes in people's understanding, coercion, and the spread of disease.

First of all, out of the need to distinguish between classes, the elite classifies spitting as inappropriate behavior. In medieval Europe, people could spit under the table, but never far to the other side of the table; while standing, they could spit on the ground and rub it off immediately with the soles of their feet. But as early as the 15th century, an unnamed French writer denounced this behavior as "obscene". In the 16th century, the Dutch scholar Erasmus and the Italian writer Casar ridiculed spitting in their writings in 1530 and 1558 respectively as "dirty", rude, and uncivilized.

Then there is the establishment and popularization of public health concepts. Spitting, as the culprit of spreading germs, is disgusted and rejected by the people. Taking the UK as an example, after the Industrial Revolution, a large number of rural people flocked to cities and transformed into industrial workers. The skyrocketing population has made cities unable to provide adequate living facilities, and the living conditions of industrial workers have been poor, leading to large-scale outbreaks of epidemics, the most representative of which is tuberculosis. In 1882, German biologist Koch discovered tuberculosis bacilli and pointed out that spit is an important vector of infection. Mycobacterium tuberculosis can survive in sputum for a whole day. People started talking about this, and in 1886, the French Ministry of Health issued the world's first ordinance prohibiting spitting. As of 1916, 195 of 213 cities in the United States had enacted ordinances prohibiting spitting. All over the world, warnings can be seen everywhere: "For the sake of our children, don't spit!" ?Men, look at us! Spitting spreads diseases, ladies don’t spit! ?Women were warned not to wear long skirts in the city, lest their floor-length skirts become stained with phlegm and bring tuberculosis bacteria home.

In 1875, during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, the "Simple Literacy Textbook" used in the country's first public schools contained this aphorism: If there is phlegm, do not spit it on the ground. This is probably the earliest call to ban spitting in our country. Sun Yat-sen once lamented that spitting and farting at will are the two major vices of the Chinese people; in 1930, the bacteriologist Gao Shiqi returned from studying abroad and warned the Chinese people not to spit in a popular science article: "Every 24 hours, one person with tuberculosis A person who is seriously ill can release 1.5 to 4 billion Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria from his mouth. How much harm can be caused by a tiny drop of phlegm. Immediately afterwards, the Communist Party of the Republic of China used Jiangxi as a pilot to implement the "New Life Movement". Chiang Kai-shek pointed out in his speech "The Essentials of the New Life Movement" that "a new life that conforms to etiquette, justice and integrity starts with not spitting".

What followed was constant war, disputes, and turmoil. It was not until the 1980s that spitting became an issue of concern again. In 1984, Shanghai became the first country in the country to ban spitting, and violators were fined 20 cents. It is said that on the day when the fine was implemented, *** received a fine of more than 200,000 yuan, which shows the seriousness of the spitting phenomenon. The Hepatitis A pandemic in 1988 created an urgent need to prevent infectious diseases, and the fine for spitting was raised to 10 yuan. Since 2003, the fine has been increased to 200 yuan.

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However, in terms of punishment, Shanghai is not as good as Hong Kong: spitting in Hong Kong can result in a fine of up to HK$5,000. Hong Kong is not as good as Singapore. In Singapore, spitting is no longer an immoral act, but a crime punishable by caning. The ban on spitting in Singapore began in 1964. In 1994, the Ig Nobel Prize in Psychology was awarded to Lee Kuan Yew.

The American mentality is probably that spitting is shameful and has become common knowledge in Western society. Is Lee Kuan Yew making a fuss out of a molehill if he wants to use law to ban it? In fact, they forget that their ancestors declared war on spitting more than a hundred years ago, and spitting was once extremely common even in the White House.