This is Shanghai. Mind your language, please.
China's financial center is mulling over a law against using swear words in public, reports said Monday, in a sign of just how far the city has traveled from its famously profane 19th-century dockside origins.
Newspapers and a government spokesman said the ban could be included in a law targeting spitting, littering, smoking, jaywalking, and other behavior deemed disruptive or anti-social.
PHOTO: EPA
The law, now being considered by the city council, needs to address swearing not only because it is uncouth — but also because it could cause simple arguments to escalate into physical violence, the Shanghai Morning Post newspaper quoted city government adviser Luo Huarong as saying.
A spokesman for the city government's Office of Spiritual Civilization Construction said officials were still looking into the feasibility of a profanity ban.
"It's not certain whether this can pass, or how we would punish people who use bad language even if it is passed," said the spokesman, who like many Chinese bureaucrats refused to give his name.
Shanghai in recent years has sought to boost its quality of life and shake a reputation for rude behavior among its residents.
While the Chinese language contains a colorful range of profanity, bans on such language are notoriously difficult to enforce and have been opposed by free speech and civil liberties advocates in the US and other Western countries.
The measures in Shanghai are reminiscent of efforts being undertaken in Beijing to clean the city up for the 2008 Olympics. Bare-backed Beijing cyclists have been asked to don shirts, and enforcement of laws against spitting and public urination have been stepped up.
(Jason Cox, Staff Writer with ap)
這裡是上海,請小心你說的話。
週一一篇報導指出,中國金融中心上海考慮立法禁止在公共場所罵髒話,可見相較於當初十九世紀那個惡名昭彰的港邊小漁村,上海早已不可同日而語。
各家報紙以及市府發言人表示,這項禁令可能會被納入一項規範不隨地吐痰、不亂扔垃圾、不在公共場所吸菸、不亂穿越馬路以及其他被視為破壞或不合乎社會規範的法規中。
新聞晨報引述市政協委員羅華榮的發言表示,市政協考慮制定這項法規來解決惡言相向的問題,不只因為這是無禮之舉,更因為這會導致一言不合便大打出手的情況。
市府「精神文明辦公室」發言人表示,
辦公室官員仍在考量禁止說髒話的可行性。
如同多數中國政府官員,這名拒絕透露姓名的發言人表示︰「這項法規是否能通過還是未知數,通過後該如何對口出穢言的人進行懲處也還不確定。」
上海近年來不斷尋求生活品質的提振,
擺脫上海人蠻橫無禮的名聲。
中文的粗言穢語無奇不有,要貫徹禁說髒話不僅比登天還難,也遭到美國和其他西方國家的言論或公民自由倡議人士的反對。
上海這項措施讓人想起北京為二○○八
奧運而致力於淨化城市,要求袒胸露背的腳踏車騎士穿上衣服,並且加強取締隨地吐痰和公然便溺者。
(美聯社╱翻譯︰鄭湘儀)
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