Well, after a long hiatus, I’m again traveling, at the moment in China. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I had hoped to compare my impressions from an earlier trip thirty years ago with the current one. I kept a journal during previous travels through China, which took place in the mid-80s, before the Tiananmen Square protests (1989).
There are many impressions I could probably start with, but the one that immediately came to mind upon landing in Beijing and trekking through the airport was a rather unsavory one–spitting. At the risk of turning readers off, I will elaborate on this topic; however, I’ll try to downplay the more gruesome descriptions and emphasize the more interesting aspects.
We were reminded of this whole topic when Irv visited the bathroom in the airport. He said that the bathroom attendant, who was busily wiping down the sinks, momentarily stopped his cleaning to clear his throat and spit the result into the sink he happened to be mopping. This all brought back memories of thirty years ago. Here’s what I wrote in my journal:
“There are a few disgusting habits I must mention. The most disturbing to me personally is the spitting. There seems to be no social taboo against spitting in public here. Everyone does it. It is not an uncommon experience to be sitting in the hotel dining room and hearing the serving staff in the kitchen or even at the back of the dining hall, hawking and spitting into the sink or other handy receptacle (hopefully not one that is destined for our table). In the better hotels, one sees spittoons arrayed along the corridors every few feet–all unfortunately brimming. I try very hard not to look, but it’s like passing an accident on the highway and attempting to avert your gaze. Virtually impossible. Wait, it gets worse. In most of the hotel rooms we’ve stayed in (even relatively new hotels), there is a ubiquitous stain, averaging about a foot or two in diameter, between the two double beds where the previous occupants have obviously spit rather than bother to walk to the bathroom. I imagine the hotel staff expend a lot of effort trying to eradicate these stains, to no avail.”
Back to the present. Although spitting is typically considered to be rude behavior in the West, it is socially acceptable in a number of countries, including China. And even in the West, in earlier times, spitting was once acceptable behavior and widespread. According to some historical information, spitting became unacceptable as early as the 1700s in Western Europe, although spittoons were still routinely used in an effort to at least localize and sanitize the habit. It seems that the turning point came in 1918, the year of the great influenza epidemic (it finally dawned on people that this practice might spread nasty germs such as those that cause flu and tuberculosis). After that time, spittoons (and spitting) gradually disappeared from public places. An interesting trivia I came across, however, is that the Supreme Court justices of the United States are still provided with personal spittoons (although today they are used as wastebaskets).
The major exception to the disappearance of spitting and spittoons (or cuspidors) in the U.S. is, of course, in association with tobacco chewing by sports enthusiasts who are often seen carrying a plastic cup or coffee can into which they can expel their tobacco-laden saliva. You can see this behavior depicted in the recent movie, Moneyball, which was about baseball statistics. A number of the characters, including Brad Pitt, were seen discreetly spitting into cups. Another Hollywood depiction of spitting occurred in the popular movie, Titanic, when the character Jack Dawes teaches Rose how to spit “like a man”. I could probably write a whole essay about this tactic (on the part of Dawes), which was a clever way to test Rose’s susceptibility and willingness to do something considered to be socially unacceptable. She, of course, accepts the spitting lesson, which foreshadows her participation in even riskier (and risqué) behavior.
But back to spitting. Certainly a disgusting topic, but fascinating all the same. In researching this essay, I came across the fact that spitting in some places has been elevated to a competitive sport. There are Guinness World records for spitting cherries (29 meters or 95 feet), crickets (yes, the insects) (9.8 meters or 32 feet), and Kudu dung (15.6 meters or 51.5 feet). I am quite amazed at these distances (measure them out and see for yourself). The cricket-spitting contest was apparently invented by an entomologist at Purdue University. Entomologists seem to delight in getting people to eat insects, so I suppose convincing folks to spit them out was not too hard.
The contest I found most fascinating was the one involving Kudu dung. The Kudu is a magnificent animal in the antelope family, which is apparently quite difficult to hunt. Often, all the hunter finds is a pile of dung, composed of small roundish pellets, to mark where the Kudu has been. The pellets are just the right consistency for spitting–I imagine not too different from cherry pits. There is a very amusing account of this sport, practiced in South Africa by the Afrikaans community, by Paul Morrison. The story goes that hunters came up with idea of a dung-spitting contest as a way to express their feelings about the elusiveness of the animal. Morrison says that it’s not known exactly when the first contest took place but speculates that it involved large quantities of alcohol. Also, contestants often “prepared” the pellets by soaking in alcoholic liquids.
The key to a long-distance spit seems to be partly determined by getting the right pellet consistency. I imagine that using Kudu pellets that are too dry and crumbly would not work well and would also lead to unwanted results (that is, dissolution in one’s mouth). Morrison also explains that the rules allow the spit to take place from either a stationery position or from a “run-up”, which depends on how drunk the competitor is. Clearly, alcohol is a key ingredient in all aspects of this sport. In a final comment, Morrison quotes the 1994 World champion “Slinger” van der Merwe, who advises the importance of removing one’s false teeth prior to competing–due to the potential embarrassment of spitting one’s teeth farther than a dung pellet. Sage advice. If you are really interested in this contest, here’s a video.
So considering the Kudu dung spitting and similar activities, I suppose the spitting that goes on here in China is pretty tame by comparison. There appears to have been an effort to reduce the habit, however. At least we’ve so far not seen any spittoons in the Hilton where we are currently staying.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons (click here for license details)
Wines and Wetlands 