Two smiling faces. According to a recent online survey by Extrawhite, a maker of chewing gum, a quarter of the people in China never smile or smile less than five times a day. The survey found that only 2 per cent of Chinese people are willing to smile at strangers. To reverse this situation, a group of 40 students from the Humanities and Communications College of Shanghai Normal University launched a team of "smiling volunteers" last month. Their technique is simple enough: they smile at people. They carried out their first "smiling task" on Saturday at the Shanghai Film Art Centre, where they smiled at all the visitors and asked if anyone needed any help. "We started to prepare for this special team back in October," said Dai Ningning, a teacher at the college who is in charge of the team. But the team's work is not all fun and games. Dai suggested that the team's work also had a professional component. "Most of our students will be teachers after they graduate. Smiling is necessary for good teachers. We hope they will learn how to smile at each other properly before they become teachers," she said. Dai added that she had high hopes for the "smiling volunteers" team. "The team will recruit more members in the future. We have no special requirements for the students who want to be members of the team. The only requirement is that they have sincere smiles and helping hearts, and are always ready to assist other people," she said. Xu Xiaohong, a first-grade post-graduate student at the university, leads the team. She said that not all students found it easy to smile all the time. "When volunteers help other people, smiling is the best way to make other people understand that the volunteers are ready and sincere," she said. "Smiles can also erase a sense of strangeness among people who do not know each other." 點擊查看更多雙語新聞 (China Daily)

益達口香糖公司近日開展的一項在線調查顯示，四分之一的中國人從不微笑，或每天微笑不到5次。此外，只有2%的中國人愿意對陌生人微笑。 為了改變這一狀況，上海師范大學人文與傳播學院于上月成立了一個由40人組成的“微笑志愿者”小組。他們所需要的技能很簡單：微笑對人。 上周六，“微笑志愿者”小組在上海電影藝術中心執行了第一個“微笑任務”：面帶微笑詢問來訪者是否需要幫助。 “微笑志愿者”小組的負責人戴寧寧老師說：“我們10月份就開始籌建這個小組了。” 但“微笑志愿者”小組的工作并不只是笑一笑這么簡單。戴老師說，這一工作對他們今后的職業發展有很大好處。“我們學校的大多數學生畢業后都會當老師。微笑是一個好老師的必備素質。我們希望他們在走上工作崗位之前學會如何得體的微笑。” 戴老師說，她對這個“微笑志愿者”小組抱有很高的期望。 她說：“這個小組今后還會招募更多的成員。我們對想加入這一小組的學生沒有什么特殊的要求。唯一的要求就是，他們要有真誠的笑容和一顆樂于助人的心。” “微笑志愿者”小組的學生負責人、研一學生徐曉紅說，大家發現保持微笑并不是一件簡單的事。 她說：“在我們幫助他人時，微笑是得到別人信任的最好方式。此外，微笑還能夠縮短我們和陌生人之間的距離。” （英語點津姍姍編輯）