squeeze, throw in 4) "Are you married?"

Admittedly, questions 2, 3 and 4 do rattle my cage to some extent.

I guess the bottom line is posters like these are genuinely designed to improve the etiquette of Beijingers when communicating with foreigners. Its part of the other campaigns of learning English and cleaning up bad behaviors that are meeting with some success around the city.

One person's "propaganda" is another person's sincere attempt at a goodwill gesture. A reminder to the Chinese people of cultural boundaries. These questions should not be seen in any other context.

Having said that, there is one thing that bothers me and that is the last of the eight questions. The first seven have pretty much shut down any probing into one's background, or foreground for that matter. But I can't quite figure out how asking about a person's personal experiences can be seen as offensive. Perhaps I'm being naive on this one. One would imagine the personal experiences would relate to life/travel or experiences in China (however brief those may be) as opposed to having any salacious connotations. This could in fact be a good question to reach out and break down some of those cultural differences that the poster is designed to facilitate.

As the poster says, ultimately "A Smile Is Beijing's Best Business Card." But we have to bear in mind that, after having smiled at their new foreign guests, local Beijingers should then say something. With their new "8 Don't Asks," they might end up scratching their heads with not much left to talk about. That couldn't possibly have been the intention in the first place now, could it?