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Well-off Chinese learn manners fit for Queen
By Thomas Brown (Agencies)
Updated: 2006-01-02 10:58
Their star may be rising in the worlds of business and international affairs,
but the manners of the Chinese are lagging rather further behind.
 Now one woman is campaigning to change that, starting by training her fellow
countrymen to be "ready to dine with Queen Elizabeth II".
In booming Shanghai, there are plenty of affluent people prepared to pay to
appear well bred. Using a sixth-floor restaurant overlooking the Huangpu river
as her classroom, June Yamada is teaching two business executives how to behave
at the dining table.
"No, no," she exclaims, pausing to draw on a cigarette as she scolds her
pupils. "Your knife cannot face other people because that's rude. Neither of you
look too badly dressed today. You both deserve 95 per cent for dress, although
it would be 100 if your shirt was not so loose, Mr Ho, or if you had removed
your hat, Miss Huang."
A table manners course under Miss Yamada's tutelage costs 990 renminbi (￡70)
per hour. The fees are justified, she insists, because there is so much work to
do.
"Everything is wrong," she explains. "Spitting in the street, emptying out
your nostrils, pushing, talking so loudly. Then there's the long, dirty nails
and picking their nose and teeth at the same time. It's endless."
Chomping on fish by the mouthful and spitting out the bones is a particular
problem. "With fish, they are totally lost. Pork or chicken is bad enough, or
what you do with water melon seeds," she says.
"That's why our course takes 16 hours, and at the end of that you are ready
to dine with Queen Elizabeth II.
"Then there's wine tasting, which they assume should be done by the lady
first. I have to explain that men should taste. It's because of the Duke of
Buckingham. When everyone was fighting, you drank first to protect your wife and
family in case it was poisoned."
Time is also devoted to the thinking behind manners, explaining a philosophy
of thinking of others rather than memorising a set of rules.
In China, many company executives reach the top with the help of well placed
friends and family, or party connections. Others are now trying to get around
this by presenting themselves as a cut above.
"It makes me feel much more confident," says Huang Leting, 32, who deals in
medical equipment. "I have more confidence now in meetings with different
clients or customers."
Ho Genxiang, 56, the founder and chairman of the biggest bookshop in mainland
China, says good manners would also benefit his staff, and he will pass on what
he has learnt to his employees.
"Our staff are mostly service people interacting with customers so they need
manners," he says. "Our company image is very important since we sell the same
stock at the same prices as Xinhua [the largest state-owned bookseller in
China]. The difference between us is the level of service you receive."
A book by Miss Yamada called Tell it like it is, June! was the first printed
by China's People's Press to sell more than 1,500 copies in a month. There is
now a fan club and a television programme scheduled to begin in the spring.
Miss Yamada grew up abroad until her stepfather brought her back to China
when she was in her early twenties, two decades ago.
Her courses cover fashion, make-up, social graces, "image creation" for
business executives, international etiquette, "stylish communication for ladies
and gentlemen" and "finding Mr Right and Mrs Right".
And how long would it take Miss Yamada to transform a humble country girl
into someone altogether more proper, just as Henry Higgins does in George
Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion?
"Peasants have to learn the pleasure of being treated well rather than always
suspecting people want something from them," she responds carefully. "The
surface stuff would take three months. But to really change her to a lady inside
and out - I would say, one year."
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