{"text":[[{"start":6.45,"text":"At an outdoor embassy event in Beijing recently, I was deep in conversation when I fell victim to the Chinese capital’s early summer curse — catkins. "}],[{"start":16.35,"text":"These airborne fluff-covered seeds, dispatched in their billions by the city’s poplar and willow trees, create “snowstorms” from April onwards that clog up drains and car radiators and irritate eyes, noses and throats."}],[{"start":30.8,"text":"In my case, I must have inhaled one of the Malteser-sized frizzy spheres while I was talking — it sent me into an inconsolable coughing fit. I had to flee unceremoniously to a fuzz-free environment inside to recuperate. "}],[{"start":46.4,"text":"So seriously does Beijing take the city’s annual outbreak of catkins, known as “maomao” or “fluff”, that every year it launches a whole-of-government campaign to crush it, even enlisting military units stationed in the capital in the fight. "}],[{"start":62.55,"text":"“Multi-party collaboration and concerted efforts have resulted in a solid defence line for the prevention and control of willow catkins,” said the Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau in April."}],[{"start":74.64999999999999,"text":"Ironically, Beijing’s annual catkin crisis stems from a similarly obsessive central government campaign to solve a separate problem — desertification. "}],[{"start":83.74999999999999,"text":"During Mao Zedong’s rule, Beijing suffered an average of 26 days of sand or dust storms every spring, according to state media. In 1956, Mao initiated the “Making Green the Motherland” movement — a national campaign to plant trees. In the end, Beijing settled on poplar and willow trees as the most drought-tolerant, fastest-growing and lowest-cost alternatives for the drive. "}],[{"start":108.49999999999999,"text":"The frequency of dust storms fell to about three days a year after the 2010s. But they were replaced by “fluff-phoons”, as the maturing new willow and poplar trees let loose their fuzzballs en masse on windy days. "}],[{"start":122.54999999999998,"text":"A survey conducted by the city’s landscaping authorities found there were about 2mn female poplar and willow trees in Beijing’s built-up areas as of 2017. (The female trees shed the seeds)."}],[{"start":133.7,"text":"Catkins did not always have such a bad name in China. Historically, they were even romanticised as a symbol of grace and melancholy. One ancient story tells how a talented female poet, Xie Daoyun, compared floating willow catkins to fluttering snowflakes, winning praise in a family literary contest."}],[{"start":152.75,"text":"But these days, the annual maomao season, which lasts nearly two months, causes such general discomfort in Beijing that the municipal government regularly publishes “catkin alerts”."}],[{"start":164.15,"text":"“During peak periods, reduce opening windows,” it advises. Do not go out between 10am and 4pm and “after returning home, use a nasal irrigation device with saline rinse two to three times a day . . . Seek medical attention if severe itching or rashes occur.”"}],[{"start":181.35,"text":"People go to extraordinary efforts to ameliorate the problem — you can even buy what resembles a face mask for cars, a kind of gauze cover that fits over the front grille to prevent it gumming up with fuzzy matter."}],[{"start":193.6,"text":"As part of its annual campaigns to tackle the issue, which have Maoist-sounding names, such as “Prevent catkins from becoming a disaster”, the government prunes the trees, sprays them with a coagulant to compact the fluffy seeds, launches clean-up operations to sweep them from the ground and is developing new problem-free seedlings."}],[{"start":212.85,"text":"Like the Communist Party’s community surveillance system, known as “grid-based management”, which monitors society for unruly, criminal or dissident elements, the city has rolled out an extensive intelligence network to try to keep the restive fuzz balls in check. "}],[{"start":228.29999999999998,"text":"In 2020, Beijing established 50 manual and 50 video monitoring stations. It also divided the area within the capital’s fifth ring road into more than 280,000 grids of 50 square metres each for tracking purposes, and launched an anti-fluff app for the public to rat on the trees."}],[{"start":247.14999999999998,"text":"With the fluff season coming to an end, Beijingers can breathe a sigh of relief until next year. But this is one enemy of the public order that everyone would like to see quashed once and for all. "}],[{"start":259.29999999999995,"text":"With additional reporting by Wenjie Ding in Beijing"}],[{"start":269.84999999999997,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1781833940_2116.mp3"}