aimarraul
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Chinese officials ought to learn how to speak
* Source: Global Times
* [02:13 May 27 2010]
* Comments
By Chen Chenchen
Zhang Deli, head of a district tourism bureau in Lanzhou, Northwest China's Gansu Province, was recently called, by netizens, Lanzhou's most powerful bureau head.
Last week, Zhang fought with a motorcyclist in the street due to traffic friction, yelling, "Do you know who I am? I'm a bureau head!" Netizens soon nominated Zhang's statement as a strong candidate for this year's most striking quote from an official.
Grass-roots officials have become objects of derision because so many of them seem to have a talent for putting their feet in their mouths. Decision-Making, a Hefei-based magazine, recently interviewed more than 260 grass-roots officials, and 78 percent of them agreed that Chinese officials' speaking skills need to be improved. More than 90 percent said their own speaking skills were in urgent need of improvement.
Many Chinese officials are known for taking a bureaucratic tone in public speech. Browsing online, one can see photos of audience members numbly listening as officials give speeches. Chinese tend to bring newspapers or books to meetings with superiors, who are nearly certain to use formal and drab verbiage.
Many grass-roots officials deem such speeches as matching their identities. They adopt such dull and empty talks to quickly establish a superior-subordinate relationship with citizens, and thus safeguard their authority.
In the traffic conflict case, Zhang was so used to the bureaucratic speaking model, in which he talks while everyone else listens quietly, that he blurted out "I'm a bureau head" to silence a stranger on the street.
A more notorious case is a meeting about housing demolition in Dongning, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province in December 2009.
The head of the local government agency warned potential holdouts against the demolition not to throw eggs against a rock.
It's ludicrous that such grass-roots officials, who have to deal with numerous trivial cases all year long, don't know how to use a more persuasive tone, and instead use such metaphors to depict the relationship between holdout households and authorities.
When officials make such comments, they are not relieving social tensions, but exacerbating them.
Many officials cause their own speaking problems by adopting a viewpoint in which they are the rock and the citizens whom they are supposed to be serving are the troublesome eggs.
Fan Rongqiang, a senior public speaking instructor in Chongqing Municipality, said more and more grass-roots officials with poor verbal skills are seeking his help.
I don't know how their courses have gone so far. But unless they truly intend to serve the people, learning a few linguistic skills will be of no use to officials suffering from logorrhea.
* Source: Global Times
* [02:13 May 27 2010]
* Comments
By Chen Chenchen
Zhang Deli, head of a district tourism bureau in Lanzhou, Northwest China's Gansu Province, was recently called, by netizens, Lanzhou's most powerful bureau head.
Last week, Zhang fought with a motorcyclist in the street due to traffic friction, yelling, "Do you know who I am? I'm a bureau head!" Netizens soon nominated Zhang's statement as a strong candidate for this year's most striking quote from an official.
Grass-roots officials have become objects of derision because so many of them seem to have a talent for putting their feet in their mouths. Decision-Making, a Hefei-based magazine, recently interviewed more than 260 grass-roots officials, and 78 percent of them agreed that Chinese officials' speaking skills need to be improved. More than 90 percent said their own speaking skills were in urgent need of improvement.
Many Chinese officials are known for taking a bureaucratic tone in public speech. Browsing online, one can see photos of audience members numbly listening as officials give speeches. Chinese tend to bring newspapers or books to meetings with superiors, who are nearly certain to use formal and drab verbiage.
Many grass-roots officials deem such speeches as matching their identities. They adopt such dull and empty talks to quickly establish a superior-subordinate relationship with citizens, and thus safeguard their authority.
In the traffic conflict case, Zhang was so used to the bureaucratic speaking model, in which he talks while everyone else listens quietly, that he blurted out "I'm a bureau head" to silence a stranger on the street.
A more notorious case is a meeting about housing demolition in Dongning, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province in December 2009.
The head of the local government agency warned potential holdouts against the demolition not to throw eggs against a rock.
It's ludicrous that such grass-roots officials, who have to deal with numerous trivial cases all year long, don't know how to use a more persuasive tone, and instead use such metaphors to depict the relationship between holdout households and authorities.
When officials make such comments, they are not relieving social tensions, but exacerbating them.
Many officials cause their own speaking problems by adopting a viewpoint in which they are the rock and the citizens whom they are supposed to be serving are the troublesome eggs.
Fan Rongqiang, a senior public speaking instructor in Chongqing Municipality, said more and more grass-roots officials with poor verbal skills are seeking his help.
I don't know how their courses have gone so far. But unless they truly intend to serve the people, learning a few linguistic skills will be of no use to officials suffering from logorrhea.
