About Hemingway's experience, paragraph three is so common in China, through out Asia. There's nothing that can be done about the personal hygiene issues. Possibly only in the most cosmopolitan areas of the largest cities of eastern China will there be a reduction of some of this behavior.
Later in his message he talks about some of the prejusdicial behaviors of people there, how it probably just happens in the more distant parts of China. Well, once again, guess what? After a year of living in the same place in Suzhou, its the same thing for me, for most all of us all over the country.
We all need to remember that China, only one generation ago, was just giving up on the ideas of the Cultural Revolution. If you are not entirely familiar with the CR, you might want to read up on it. Behavior was strictly controlled, speech, clothing, activities, even hairstyles, were all strictly controlled by the government, to the point of severe punishment if a person did not fit in. For two generations, the Chinese people had basically NO contact with foreignors, personally, publically or even politically.
Now, so many of the younger people feel as though they are quite cosmopolitan, with western-style clothes and hairstyles, and so many cars on the road. But scratch the surface just a bit, and the telltale signs of a turtle-slow emergence are obvious.
But so many of us, thats what makes China intereseting, even intrigueing. At best, it can be quite difficult at times. At worst, we suffer the prejudicial ways of a very ethnocentric society.
They way I look at it, I'm a visitor in their country, and I have to put up with their program, until its not tolerable any longer. All I really want is a smoke free 2 hour block of time at Starbucks every Sunday afternoon!