"It does not matter that cigarettes cost so much money," said an older male student on campus, in reply to my essay on smoking. "It does not even matter that they are not good for my health. They are an important part of being sociable with my friends." That cigarettes are an important part of the men's social scene in China today cannot be denied. In fact, one teacher who explained to me this key role of cigarettes here in the 90's---repeating yet another Western cigarette advertisement---stated that cigarettes serve Chinese men as a "passport" to social acceptability. Although this cigarette-passport comparison is stale, it is enough to say that these tired arguments have succeeded in persuading much of the male population to start smoking. In modern China, smoking, like the tough-guy leather jacket, is in style.
"No, of course I don't like it when my boyfriend smokes," remarked a younger female student to me recently, "neither when he's alone with me nor when he's with his friends. But, you see, he has so much stress on him these days, from his studies and from the favors he owes his friends, that I don't feel it's right for me to say something against his smoking." Although she said, I suppose, what a good Chinese girl should say, what I want to know is how smoking ever came to hold this position as both social key and stress reliever. After all, we are talking about the practice of putting a stick of burning tobacco leaves in one's mouth and inhaling the resultant discharge into one's throat and lungs. Does this sound inviting? Do you think this practice would make your boyfriend (or girlfriend) a more socially appealing or more easy-going person? In all honesty, of course not! A person should meet with harsh skepticism when trying to persuade others to accept such rationaliza-tions---that smoking makes a person more sociable and is a good form of stress relief.
The point is this: Who said that cigarettes are the only way for Chinese men to be accepted socially? People in the West are turning away from smoking. As an alternative, some American businessmen are switching to offering sugar-free gum to their clients as a means of demonstrating their friendship. And what about China? Well, we in the West are accustomed to seeing some of the' world's greatest athletes on our television screens, many of whom are Chinese, and seldom if ever do we see them in the process of smoking. Of these young men and women, we are told that many represent modern Chinese heroes. So why don't more Chinese follow these successful role models through recreational sports? Is it because it's simply easier to imitate the image of a scruffy, leather-jacketed film star---one who of course smokes---than a superior athlete? If true, perhaps a modern day Lei Feng should help show how people could follow the later. Furthermore, whoever said that cigarettes are the only way to deal with stress in today's Chinese society? Whatever happened to the more traditional Chinese methods of controlling stress? We in the West have interestingly adopted some forms of stress relief, said to be of Chinese origin, apparently more thoroughly than the Chinese themselves. In America, for example, it is unlikely that a female student would so passively allow her boyfriend to smoke in front of her (as does the student mentioned at the beginning of this article). As a more pleasant, alternative form of stress relief, she might possibly offer to give him a traditional Chinese back or neck massage. (In fact, in Europe today, Raisa Gorbachev's massages are rumored to be one of the reasons why her husband, Mikhail, has managed to be so dominant a leader. Wouldn't that make many of us more efficient after a stressful day at the Kremlin?!) In any case, why haven't the Chinese rediscovered this ancient and highly successful form of stress relief? Isn't it a truly healthy alternative to smoking?
Could it be that Chines men, much like their female counterparts, are simply too shy? and because it's considerably easier to wear a pair of dark glasses and a leather jacket and light up a Kent than to discuss sensitive (or sensual) subjects without such "crutches"? As only a visiting instructor, I'm obviously not in a position to judge, but it would possibly appear to the casual observer, that the image of the tiger-tough cigarette wielding Chinese man may be only a mouse in disguise. Let us remember the old philosopher who once advised not to underestimate the special powers hidden in restraint, or, I might add, in healthful alternatives.