Spitting, tops Asian peeves

Spitting, tops Asian peeves

Agence France-Presse, Hong Kong

Spitting in public, cutting into a queue and bad driving top the list of irritations for most Asians, according to a survey released by Reader's Digest on Wednesday.

Poor service in shops and restaurants also got on the nerves of 82 percent of 3,600 people surveyed around Asia, said the study due to be published in next month's edition of the magazine.

Respondents in Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, the Philippines and Thailand meanwhile ranked bad driving as their number-one annoyance.

Poor personal hygiene, dog mess in the streets and parks, littering, swearing, smoking and noisy neighbors also made the list -- but the survey found there was lots more, too.

Lack of punctuality, computer crashes, crowded public transport, telemarketers, internet pop-up ads and people talking loudly on their mobile phones were cited.

Although spitting is a common practice in China, it proves to be an extreme offense for more than nine out of 10 people in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Editor-in-chief Jim Plouffe believes the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) crisis raised public awareness of health concerns in the country.

"Although spitting is common in China, since the SARS crisis people have more knowledge about public hygiene and they are more aware of it," he said. "I think this is a new trend."

The survey quoted one young man in Shanghai who said: "Every time I step out of a car, I see a blob of something on the road. It's not just disturbing, it harms the image of our city."

Some people also named parents who don't control their kids in public, leering old men and dirty toilets as their annoyance.

"I've been amazed by the results we've got. I expected computer crashes or crowded public transport would be on the top of our list," Plouffe said.

"But I guess this survey proves human behavior was more irritating. There are things that people do to each other that are annoying, but we can't do anything about it."