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 by a local chewing-gum maker showed that only 2 percent of Chinese people smile at strangers.
"We ask all the members to practice smiling at home," team-leader Xu Xiaohong said. "We smile at the mirror to determine whether our smiles are acceptable. We not only smile with our mouths but also with our eyes."
The group carried out their first "smiling task" on Saturday at a local theater, where they grinned at every visitor and asked people if they needed help.
Xu said the smilers would be recruiting more members and teams would be deployed at the 2010 World Expo, which has been touted by the Shanghai government as a coming-of-age party for the east Asian boomtown.
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.
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