China teacher slams student’s complaint about lack of benches in smoking area, reignites debate

A Chinese student’s complaint about the lack of benches in a university smoking area has been strongly rejected by a teacher, reigniting discussions on smoking publicly in China.The student at the Xian International Studies University, in northwestern Shaanxi province, made the complaint in the school’s internal feedback channel.The complainant said the lack of benches made smoking too “exhausting” and asked the school to provide more.A university teacher responded with a lengthy letter saying that making smokers feel tired was exactly why the area was designed in the way it was.Two female students enjoy a cigarette in a campus smoking area. Photo: Handout“The smoking area is not a resting area. We set them up to provide a transition space for those who temporarily cannot quit smoking, to smoke away from the crowd and reduce the influence of second-hand smoke on other people,” the letter said.It further slams the student’s request by saying: “When you complain about feeling ‘tired’ smoking while standing, have you thought of how tired other people are withstanding your second-hand smoke?”“What really makes you tired is not the lack of benches, but your dependence on cigarettes. If you feel tired, then smoke less. If you want comfort, you can go to the library, classroom or the playground.”At the end of the letter, the teacher also offered help to those who want to quit smoking.The teacher’s reply won widespread applause on mainland social media.“This is a perfectly written letter, logical, comprehensive, thoughtful. I hope more students can realise the harm of smoking,” said one online observer.A young person puffs on a cigarette on the street in Shanghai. Photo: Shutterstock“This is what true education is like,” said another.Further Reading“What really shocked me is there are smoking areas in universities. I thought smoking is banned everywhere there,” said a third.Another disagreed: “If there is no smoking area, then everywhere will be smoking area.”China does not have a national smoking-law" class="entity-link entity-topic" data-entity-id="130479" data-entity-type="topic">anti-smoking law and smoking-control" class="entity-link entity-topic" data-entity-id="130480" data-entity-type="topic">smoking control work relies mostly on city-specific or partially national regulations.After Shanghai first released smoking-regulations" class="entity-link entity-topic" data-entity-id="130481" data-entity-type="topic">anti-smoking regulations in 2010, other Chinese provinces followed suit, gradually prohibiting smoking in indoor public spaces.Universities are one of the institutions that reacted most actively to the regulations.In the 2010s, many universities tightened controls on smoking on campus, issuing bans on smoking across the campus, banning school shops from selling cigarettes and setting up smoking areas away from the student living quarters.Some, such as the Peking University, also linked smoking to teachers and student appraisals.The Xian International Studies University’s response chimed with the increasingly radical opposition to smoking publicly on social media.Many people complain about suffering from second-hand smoke in public areas such as train platforms and call for stricter bans.Some also used artificial intelligence (AI) to generate images of smokers wearing an astronaut helmet while smoking, sarcastically suggesting that the smoking area should be fully enclosed for the benefit of non-smokers.Meanwhile, conflicts between non-smokers and smokers are constantly in the news in China.A no smoking sign attached to a lamp post in China. Photo: ShutterstockIn one famous case, Chinese actress Xu Jiao, who starred in the 2008 Stephen Chow Sing-chi film CJ7, tried to stop a man from smoking in an indoor restaurant in Changsha in the central province of Hunan and was attacked by the man, who threw his cigarette butt in her bowl.Xu called the police who said they could not help because Changsha did not ban indoor smoking.However, Xu received widespread support after exposing the matter online, and pushed the restaurant to post a no-smoking sign.According to the 2024 China Adult Tobacco Survey carried out by the National Health Commission, the smoking rate among people aged 15 and above is 23.2 per cent, a decrease of 0.9 from 2022.The smoking rate among men was 43.9 per cent, and 1.8 per cent among women.