Chinese Sanitation Worker Squats to Scrape Gum Off Ground

The following was yesterday’s most popular microblog post on the Sina Weibo social network, reshared over 180k times with over 30k upvotes and 20k comments spanning over 1100 pages…

From Sina Weibo:

@人民日报 [The People’s Daily]: A Piece of Gum Made This Sanitation Auntie Squat for 15 Minutes – Several days ago, a Shandong passenger at the airport saw a touching scene: In order to clean up a piece of chewing gum on the ground, a 54-year-old sanitation worker auntie squat on the ground using a razor blade to scrape it off bit by bit for no less than 15 minutes. In less than a second, a piece of gum can be thrown onto the floor, and she has to squat down every day dozens of times every day to clean them up. http://t.cn/z8Aq2fr From this day forward, I will not litter my trash, and by passing this on, I make this promise.

Comments from Sina Weibo:

月光下的蛋蛋：

Character should begin first with civil servants.

经典1038DJ邓蔓：

We should all respect public ethics/civic virtue!!

水青青300：

To respect others is to respect oneself.

muphoon：

Can you promise not to lie?

mysolarrain：

When I throw away my chewing gum in the trash, I always wrap it in a piece of napkin/tissue.

格物柳叶刀：

Denounce uncivilized behavior!

蓝雨蓝心：

Civilization begins with you and me…

何件伟：

I hope everyone can maintain good sanitation and not litter as they please!

上善若水2203：

Good social civility begins with what is around us, begins right now!

慕容穷：

It wasn’t me.

文摘：

The punishment for uncivilized behavior is too light, we should first talk about establishing standards before talking about morality/ethics.

公瑾536：

What was spit out was chewing gum but what was lost was character and civility! It starts with every individual, to make a civilized and harmonious society!

凌波微兔：

I’ve always thought it strange why there are people who throw away gum wherever they please. After chewing gum, you should use a piece of paper to wrap it up. Isn’t this like flushing after using the toilet, something that is necessary [obvious]?

柚子油油油： (responding to above)

Too many ignorant people.

i你别无选择：

Next time organize dedicated personnel to punish such evil people. Every time they litter chewed gum, they must scrape up 5 pieces of chewing gum and stick it in their asshole. Immediate effectiveness.

BubbleCandy：

Touching? This is touching? This is an embarrassment of our countrymen’s characters!

爾東一業子：

Ding! I trust those who see this weibo post will no longer have this uncivilized behavior.

禽兽步儒：

It takes The People’s Daily 15 minutes to write an editorial and just one minute to be criticized for it.

只羡鸳鸯不羡仙1973：

If you have to chew gum, don’t rush to throw away the wrapper, hang onto it to wrap up the gum after chewing it, and then throw it into the trash can.

时越松子：

When discarding chewing gum, remember to wrap it in paper before throwing it away. I remember I once bought a Japanese brand of chewing gum and and inside some small slips of paper were provided, specifically for wrapping [the chewed gum] before discarding. What more, one side was glossy and the other side was rough, the glossy side wrapping the gum making it easier to separate when recycling. They [Japanese people] put a lot of thought into this [which is to be admired].

书法陈德印：

I thought there would be people questioning if scraping off a piece of gum really needs 15 minutes, and whether or not she’s being lazy? What do you think?

我是大男孩了：

If people didn’t litter, then the auntie would have no job.

木子洱：

Chinese people’s character truly need to be raised. In the future, we can copy Singapore, prohibit the sale of chewing gum, or use a real-name registration for sales, in order to regulate it/manage the problem!

piggyprince小猪王子：

Everyone, when throwing your trash, think of the sanitation workers. Once I had thrown a ball of paper into the middle of the road and then saw a sanitation worker ride a small electric moped into the constant flow of traffic just to pick it up. From that point on, I never littered ever again. If I litter, a sanitation worker might suffer an accident just to pick it up… Don’t do something bad just because the harm is small.

棋牌乐的围脖：

We should all consider what trouble our own actions bring to other people.