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Q: How does Chinese public etiquette compare to your home country?
Do people spit in public?
Do they cut in line?
Do they blast the volume on their smartphones?
Do their "conversations" sound like shouting matches/screams?
Do they let their children openly defecate/urinate in public?
Of course, not all Chinese are like this. But the longer I am here, the more frequently
I notice/experience these things, and the greater level of disdain I have for the locals - which I am not
comfortable with.
How does etiquette compare? It's different.
But, that's what anyone leaving their home to live in a vastly different culture signs up for when they buy that plane ticket. There will be cultural norms you don't like.
Once in the country you really have two choices as far as dealing with the differences goes.
1. Be open minded, accept that it's a different culture, focus on the positives rather than dwell on the negatives, have a rewarding experience in a foreign country and leave eventually with great memories.
2. Spend your time stewing over the things you don't like, become bitter and toxic so that at the end of your contract when you (hopefully) leave everyone around you will be glad to see you go.
If you're starting to find yourself uncomfortable with how you're starting to feel about the place the best thing to do would be plan to move on as soon as you can. Don't become that second example.
... what happened to "When in Rome ..."? 
Now in EU, I like to bump with my shopping troley to the back of the last person standing in the register queue ... 
... and I add quickly: "You've never been to China ..." as an excuse ... 
LTA, there was a hit song "Do you wanna bump ...", 
released around 1974 or so ...
How does etiquette compare? It's different.
But, that's what anyone leaving their home to live in a vastly different culture signs up for when they buy that plane ticket. There will be cultural norms you don't like.
Once in the country you really have two choices as far as dealing with the differences goes.
1. Be open minded, accept that it's a different culture, focus on the positives rather than dwell on the negatives, have a rewarding experience in a foreign country and leave eventually with great memories.
2. Spend your time stewing over the things you don't like, become bitter and toxic so that at the end of your contract when you (hopefully) leave everyone around you will be glad to see you go.
If you're starting to find yourself uncomfortable with how you're starting to feel about the place the best thing to do would be plan to move on as soon as you can. Don't become that second example.
Another expat that can not recognize the signs that it is time for them to go. Instead, they will stay, become more and more negative, and place themselves on a pedestal looking down on the citizens.
I actually haven't observed any of those for several years now. I'm sure it's still happening somewhere super rural/backwoods, but generally speaking, it's all gone. In fact, many places will fine you if your phone is blasting music in public, like the Nanjing Metro where a woman got a ¥200 fine for it.
Might be time for you to go home if that's how you feel.
Are there not basic norms of public behavior that every society can generally agree on, especially those that make claims to moderninty (socioeconomic and political)?
Is relativism the only way to defend questionable norms/behavior?
Even the CCP itself seems to reject such lazy excuses, as evinced by its continuous exhorations and various sloganeering on "civilized behavior".
Stiggs:
Basic norms of etiquette? Society? Depending on where you go, those norms change, society changes.
As Spiderboenz pointed out, things are changing but nothing happens overnight. China has come a long way in a very short time though. The changes I saw between when I first touched down there and when I left a few years back are massive.
I've read about some of the reasons behind the etiquette - or lack of. The cultural revolution, the urban-rural divide, the fact that even in the developed cities a lot of the people were subsistance farmers a generation ago, some of them have literally just come off the farms to find work in the cities. It's not as simple as some city people saying 'well now we do it like this everyone should'.
I understand the frustration, I've been there but it's just something you learn to accept, like the weather. You've probably seen people shrug their shoulders and tell you "no why" when you ask 'why the f**k do people ....?'
No why. It is what it is, you can't change it so you deal with it.
