Gone are the days when a pack of Marlboro cigarettes was the ultimate status symbol: now it's the keychain with a BMW logo, or a uniformed chauffeur standing by respectfully at attention while a beefy bodyguard stares at oncomers through his mirrored Raybans. Things here have changed a lot, but one thing has not, namely, smoking habits.
I'm hardly a prude, and I grew up in a house run by two chain-smokers, both of whom reformed after serious bouts of pneumonia (it also helped that my mother was, for a while, in a body cast.) I am no stranger to stink. However, I've had some health issues with second hand smoke as a result, chronic ear infections, tonsillitis, and the like. Also, I can't stand the smell of burning tobacco: the leaf itself is delightfully fragrant, but once the chemically-laden leaf and dioxin-treated paper is ignited, the resultant smudge of stinking smoke is intolerably. I have a keen nose and can track down the last time someone bathed, using which brand of soap: to be seated next to a smoker causes me agony.
Many buildings in Beijing have banned smoking on upper floors, or confined in to a single floor, usually a lobby. This means that EVERYONE is subjected to walking through a wall of smoke en route to other destinations, so I hardly call this a wise move. Worse, most people ignore this, and light up in public places such as classrooms and at the table in restaurants DURING MEALS. I've seen people light up in a neonatal unit next to a sick baby on a respirator. I've seen people light up while pushing babies in strollers into an elevator. The resultant stink is formidable, as it lasts throughout the day. I resent smelling like an ashtray because some asshole lit up next to me. I work very hard to have clean, fragrant hair, and clean, fragrant clothing, no easy task in this climate, and I hate the fact that most days, the freshness and sense of cleanliness is gone ten minutes after I walk out the door, ruined by some businessman puffing away frantically at a cigarette. I won't even go into the effect of second-hand smoke here: if these people care so damn much about the children, why are they lighting up around them? If you can't get these people to STAY IN THEIR DAMN SEATS during an aircraft landing, do you really think they're going to be puffing away discreetly in specially designated outdoor spaces?
I don't begrudge a prisoner or a person suffering from a trauma the relaxing effects of nicotine. I've known people who suffered outrageously awful events who turn to a cigarette for calming and comfort. Many of us need SOMETHING for a while --this is why I am such good friends with Little Debbie snack cakes--it's my therapy. So smoke if you need it, while you need it, and wean yourself away when you're ready. What galls me, however, is the way that smoking copiously--usually foreign brands---has caught on as The New Black. So many more people are smoking, many of them my 16-year old students. It's so very in--it helps the girls to stay slim, as they like to remark--and it looks cool (eg, "Foreign" as in "Korean.") This sort of thinking doesn't end in adolescence. My obnoxious stock broker neighbor, Yuppie Yang, shared his reasons for smoking thus (an altercation may or may not have broken out in the elevator when he lit up and I grabbed it and threw it to the ground in my best Bette Davis style): Only smart people smoke. It's very attractive! Stupid people can't afford it. Just as he finished this pronouncement, the elevator door opened and in walked one of the janitors, dead rat in one hand, a string of fireworks in another, a lighted cigarette dangling from her lip. I smirked at him and flounced out. Sometimes life hands out a punch line, and no other words need to be said.
I'm hardly a prude, and I grew up in a house run by two chain-smokers, both of whom reformed after serious bouts of pneumonia (it also helped that my mother was, for a while, in a body cast.) I am no stranger to stink. However, I've had some health issues with second hand smoke as a result, chronic ear infections, tonsillitis, and the like. Also, I can't stand the smell of burning tobacco: the leaf itself is delightfully fragrant, but once the chemically-laden leaf and dioxin-treated paper is ignited, the resultant smudge of stinking smoke is intolerably. I have a keen nose and can track down the last time someone bathed, using which brand of soap: to be seated next to a smoker causes me agony.
Many buildings in Beijing have banned smoking on upper floors, or confined in to a single floor, usually a lobby. This means that EVERYONE is subjected to walking through a wall of smoke en route to other destinations, so I hardly call this a wise move. Worse, most people ignore this, and light up in public places such as classrooms and at the table in restaurants DURING MEALS. I've seen people light up in a neonatal unit next to a sick baby on a respirator. I've seen people light up while pushing babies in strollers into an elevator. The resultant stink is formidable, as it lasts throughout the day. I resent smelling like an ashtray because some asshole lit up next to me. I work very hard to have clean, fragrant hair, and clean, fragrant clothing, no easy task in this climate, and I hate the fact that most days, the freshness and sense of cleanliness is gone ten minutes after I walk out the door, ruined by some businessman puffing away frantically at a cigarette. I won't even go into the effect of second-hand smoke here: if these people care so damn much about the children, why are they lighting up around them? If you can't get these people to STAY IN THEIR DAMN SEATS during an aircraft landing, do you really think they're going to be puffing away discreetly in specially designated outdoor spaces?
I don't begrudge a prisoner or a person suffering from a trauma the relaxing effects of nicotine. I've known people who suffered outrageously awful events who turn to a cigarette for calming and comfort. Many of us need SOMETHING for a while --this is why I am such good friends with Little Debbie snack cakes--it's my therapy. So smoke if you need it, while you need it, and wean yourself away when you're ready. What galls me, however, is the way that smoking copiously--usually foreign brands---has caught on as The New Black. So many more people are smoking, many of them my 16-year old students. It's so very in--it helps the girls to stay slim, as they like to remark--and it looks cool (eg, "Foreign" as in "Korean.") This sort of thinking doesn't end in adolescence. My obnoxious stock broker neighbor, Yuppie Yang, shared his reasons for smoking thus (an altercation may or may not have broken out in the elevator when he lit up and I grabbed it and threw it to the ground in my best Bette Davis style): Only smart people smoke. It's very attractive! Stupid people can't afford it. Just as he finished this pronouncement, the elevator door opened and in walked one of the janitors, dead rat in one hand, a string of fireworks in another, a lighted cigarette dangling from her lip. I smirked at him and flounced out. Sometimes life hands out a punch line, and no other words need to be said.
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