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Shanghai goes the extra smile

Eager to put on its best face for foreign guests ahead of the 2010 World Expo, Shanghai is sending teams of “smiling volunteers” onto the streets to teach stony-faced citizens to beam at strangers. Forty university students have signed up to smile at people in public places, after a survey showed that only 2 percent of Chinese people smile at strangers, reports Reuters.

Team-leader Xu Xiaohong said: “We ask all the members to practise smiling at home. “We smile at the mirror to determine whether our smiles are acceptable. We not only smile with our mouths but also with our eyes.”

Attempts to generate warmth among strangers in China have had mixed success. In October, volunteers offering “free hugs” to people in a busy shopping street in Beijing were detained by police for questioning.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .