The Art of Forgetting II

Another kind of willful forgetfulness is to see the 'strangeness' in others while ignoring the same thing in ourselves. Take the dog eating thing during the Japan/Korean World Cup of soccer for example. People in North America expressed much horror in hearing that they dared to eat dogs in Korea. Well, that is quite something special to say for someone who fished the overabundant cod into near extinction while growing up on food that is more a list of unpronounceable chemicals than actual nutrition. For the next major sport event, the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 'how backward are these people' item is the no spitting campaign in China. In Hong Kong, people are talking about it with either glee (“look how silly those people are”) or mock seriousness (“they have to do something about those backward habits”). These people forget that as near as 15 years ago signs posted by the colonial government against spitting, completed with warnings of tuberculosis and hefty fines, were on street corners and restaurants. This is not to mention that Hong Kong is still a rather dirty and very polluted city. To forget the past and ignore the present is very convenient because they can then feel superior to their mainland cousins. Similar things happen here. Television 'news' as wells as newspapers are reporting on the same thing with amusement. It seems to me the sense of amusement is misplaced. As summer is coming up and the baseball season has started, spitting is not at all a taboo but a proud display of manly athletic prowess. Our heroes, may he be an overpaid professional slugger or the can-do-no-wrong hometown high school star pitcher, proudly spit in stadiums and in front of television cameras on floors and wall and into cups and, occasionally, opponent's eyes. We are not abhorred but look with admiration. At least the Chinese spitters are doing it for health and comfort, our heroes do it for suicidal reasons. I am not saying that what they are doing in Beijing is not right, there are definitely much better ways to deal with phlegm, but the enjoyment we got out of it borders on the pathological.