Why do chinese people wear surgical masks when they are in public?

ongonai is right. It is considered very rude in China to go out in public with a cold. So...if you must go out, you were a mask to protect others from your germs. Very different from here in the United States where you are praised if you go to work with a cold (something I never understood).Why do chinese people wear surgical masks when they are in public?
Because of pollution, disease (bird flu, sars).Why do chinese people wear surgical masks when they are in public?
In case they have a cold or a flu, it's common sense to wear a mask to avoid contaminating other people around, especially in crowded environments. Japanese people have been doing that for decades now, and Chinese people likely took the habit after them.
many people from the asian countries does it, but only when they catch a flu, they could not stay away from public area, because of certain reasons, like need to go back to school or work, and do not want to spread it to others, its kind of social responsibility, i think its good practice, the whole world should learn to adopt.
Because of the fear of infection with SARS or bird flu.
Don't know about Chinese, but Japanese do it as a courtesy to not spread germs to others
China has very bad pollution in the major citties
Because of SARS!





[edit] Oh, i see. I assumed they started wearing them because of SARS, that's when i first noticed they wore masks.
There's so many people living in there large cities.That means so many germs in the air. They wear them to protect themselves from airborne illness.
they are afraid of catching any disease not just SARS
Population:


1,313,973,713 (July 2006 est.) think about it.
they dont want to inhale the pollutants in the air.
Never seen that.
its either to stop themselves being infected or infecting others with thinmgs like SARS, but also beacuse of bad pollution.


i have seem chinese men with masks on with holes cut in them for their cigarettes! makes you wonder
They want to make sure they don't get germs that make them sick, and could possibly kill them. Their secret goal, is to over power the world, and take it over, by their birth numbers, and using their population to smother the rest of us. USA is on the top of their list. Why else are they being to VERY friendly to Mexico? It isn't because they NEED their oil.
I guess too many infections in air around china. Have you noticed that Michael Jackson wears one too? well I guess he just want to call ppl's attention dough
because they're scared of szars and the bird flu