BJ's Public Civilization Index Rises for 12th Consecutive Year
The term "gradual improvement" may be one commonly seen when discussing many of China's issues, but never before has been so apt when discussing the unstoppable rise of Beijing's public behavior civilization index.
The index rose to 85.78 last year, its highest point since it was established in 2005 as a method to measure just how civilized the residents of a city are.
Rated out of a maximum 100 points for can-not-possibly be anymore wénmíng (文明 civilized), this year's index is compiled from a survey of 10,016 questionnaires from respondents located in each of the 16 districts and areas of Beijing and more than 700 hours of field observations, finally culminating in a numerical score for objective comparisons.
This year, Beijing society excelled in public relations, public viewing and public participation at the same time as worsening in areas such as spitting in public, running red lights, and sorting garbage, each of which scored 45.8, 38.1, 33.4 percent, respectively.
Beijing's most civilized districts are Fangshan, Haidian, and Huairou, each ranking in the top three with scores of 87.48, 87.33 and 86.94 percent, respectively.
It bears repeating that although Beijing has some ways to go until achieving the nirvana of civilized behavior (specifically 14.22 points), the city has simply failed to become a worse place for public civility and manners over the last decade.
The index's biggest improvement came in 2008 when it exceeded 80 points for the first time, and yet, even though we've seen an increase of just 3 points, each year has seen marginal improvements that are as small as just 0.03 points (between 2011 and 2010).
It could be that differences of a hundredth of a percent are not perceptible by humans, of whom some believe they can objectively apply a score out of a 100 to a movie or video game. But on the chance that the gains made by Beijing's public behavior index don't seem praiseworthy, we should note that some cities haven't fared as well.
Despite its status as China's premier expat enclave, Shanghai remains afflicted with "bad manners." The Global Times reported that the Pearl of the Orient suffered a drop in its public behavior index in 2012 when it fell to 88.97.
Seeing that we fare much better than Shanghai (though not scoring as high as them), we're pleased with our slow but gradual progress. Or, in terms that can be easily understood, we are 1.5 percentage points more pleased than we were last year.
Images: Beijing Daily (via weibo.com)
Do you have what it takes to be a True Runner?
Scan/Extract the QR code above to check out our current job openings.
Want to know what awesome events are happening in town? Scan/Extract the QR code above to get the list of our Editors' Picks.
Got something to sell? Looking for a job? Or probably your soulmate? Then scan/extract the QR code above to visit our Classified Ads.
Always something fresh
Scan/Extract the QR code above to follow us!
Tap on the cover to access the latest print issue.