Why Chinese People Cannot Keep Public Property Clean and Well-Maintained

Thee are many similarities between the Russian and the Chinese train systems. Inherited from the soviet system, both feature overnight trains marked by densely packed bunk beds that allow more than fifty people to fit into each train carriage. Ability to crisscross large distances overnight allow such sleeper trains to become a popular means of travel for common people in both countries. The communal nature of the carriages means that individual travelers must be quite OK with lack of privacy for extended period of time.

Here is where the differences end. To handle the lack of privacy, people in both countries behave quite differently. For the Chinese, being loud and boisterous is the default response. As soon as the train get going, eating, talking, and making a general merriment with strangers makes the train a moving noise box until lights are switched off at night for sleep. Russians, on the other hand, keep to themselves, staring out the windows, reading books, and playing around with their phones. Food tends to be simple sandwiches, consumed quickly so as to not bother others.

Perhaps because of the difference, the end result is a drastic difference in cleanliness the f the carriages when the trips come an end. The Chinese carriages are packed high with garbage, with wrappers from snacks, drinks, and even packaging from playing cards and board games inundating the few trash cans on board. Train attendants are seen hauling massive bags of garbage off the trains at the terminal station. Even then, the ground of the carriage is still covered in trash, with spilled drinks, sunflower seed shells, and used tissues swept up nonchalantly by the cleaning crew.

The Russian train remains spotless overnight. Food packaging are rare, with many carrying their trash off the trains. Remarkably, unlike the Chinese, the Russians even fold their own sheets and pillowcases to hand over to the train attendants before disembarkation,so that they can restore their beds to a pristine state.  Not in my dozens of times riding the train in China that I have ever seen anyone cleaning after themselves in the train.  People would only go throw their trash in the trash can when there is no longer sufficient space on their tables to pile up more trash.

And when it comes to keeping the toilets and the sinks clean, there is simply no comparison. It's always unbelievable considering that essentially the same trains in the two countries, with same structures and onboard facilities, can be so different.  While plenty of horror stories about toilets on Chinese trains exist, my experience with Russian trains have shown that passengers are using them with the utmost care, to the point that before and after the journey, the toilets do not look all that different. The sense of order and hygiene on the Russian train was simply amazing.

When talking about the lack of hygiene among the Chinese in public places, people have the tendency to blame communism.  They argue that the Chinese do not take care of public properties because they were too busy fighting over scarce resources both during the times of shortage under the planned economy, and during the period of high growth under the country's more recent market economy era.  The argument goes that that individuals are simply incentivized to disregard public goods because they are too busy abusing them for personal benefits. 

Yet, such argument conveniently ignores the fact that China is not the only country that suffered the negative consequences of communism on the individual mind.  Russians have had to deal with the pains of economic shortages far longer than the Chinese have, and their transition to market economy was even more devastating and abusive by some definition.  At least in China mass manufacturing helped to lift all boats, here in Russia, inequality grew as oligarchs captured resources of the Soviet state for their personal benefits. 

It appears, then, that the Chinese disregard for cleanliness cannot solely be blamed on the country's recent economic history.  The Russians have shown that lack of economic fairness is no excuse to not behave civilly in the public.  An interesting alternative explanation could ironically be that the strength of the communist legacy actually makes the Russians more likely to follow rules.  The train attendants on the Russian trains project their authority seriously, ordering passengers to get up and prepare to disembark even at the most remote signs of tardiness.

In exchange, the Russian train attendants really buy their passengers' obedience with good service.  If anyone need tea at any time, the train attendant is there to help.  Any conflicts with seats or equipments, and the attendants rush to support.  On the contrary, Chinese train attendants do little besides check tickets.  They occupy one of each carriages two toilets for their own use, and for most of the journey, lock themselves in their own room and ignore the passengers, making no attempt to enforce any rules.  It is no wonder that the passengers do not take them seriously.

In essence, the Russian trains are kept clean while the Chinese ones are not is not so much because communism has corrupted the Chinese mind more, but because there is much stronger belief among the Russians that there ought to be some unwritten social norms that govern individual behaviors while in public spaces.  The real tragedy for the Chinese is no one think public goods ought to be treated with care, even among the very people who are hired and paid to make sure the public goods stay in good shape.  It is unsurprising, thus, to see any Chinese public property, no matter how new and advanced, to be quickly damaged by repeated use.