I was walking to the subway last weekend, probably to go buy some cheese (who are we kidding, it's the only reason to take the subway on the weekend), when I noticed a man was cleaning off the telephone poles. I'm still not sure if it's because of a desire for a "harmonious society" free of litter and waste or because marketing is still frowned upon in a society that has a tenuous relationship with the entrepreneurial spirit, but workers will regularly come around to clean the guerrilla-marketing stickers off the sidewalks and telephone poles.
There are many stickers around, mind you. I have no idea what they say, but we're not talking the high art of band posters here. These are square-to-rectangular stickers with some Chinese characters and a phone number. It's the equivalent of "For a good time, call" except they're not selling a good time (probably), but fake iPhones or Chanel handbags (probably). It's not that they're ugly, but they're certainly not pretty. And I guess they don't belong on the street.
I know I've told you how they burn them off of the sidewalk (I've only witnessed the aftermath, not the actual burning), but they scrape them of the telephone poles with long metal scrapers. And then leave the piles of shredded sticker wherever they happen to fall.
Which leads me to believe it has nothing to do about keeping they city beautiful.
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