Mainland officials warned yesterday of a possible cultural misunderstanding during the Paralympics, which opens tonight in Beijing.
But they also hailed the 11-day Games as the country's biggest opportunity so far to promote tolerance and understanding of the disabled.
To foster a 'positive image', a high-ranking Games official also hinted that organisers would mobilise volunteers to fill any empty seats at the capital's Paralympic venues.
Paralympics organising committee general secretary Wang Wei suggested that many mainlanders did not know how to get along with the disabled and they 'tend to offer help to people with disabilities no matter whether they ask for it or not, which goes against western conventions.
'The public perception here is that they see people with disabilities as in need of help. So sometimes, western visitors might feel that Chinese overdo [it],' Mr Wang said.
China has a disabled population of 83 million, and over the next couple of weeks Beijing will accommodate an influx of 4,000-plus Paralympians, hundreds of disabled overseas journalists covering the extravaganza and tens of thousands of physically-challenged Games spectators.
Discrimination and curiosity, mixed with excessive compassion, remain a deep-rooted part of the country's public relationship with the disabled. Liu Henian, a former disabled welfare official and now the deputy operations director of the National Stadium, said: 'I have spent much of my time in the staff education programme teaching Games volunteers about the long list of don'ts when dealing with the disabled. I have constantly stressed to them that they should avoid treating the physically challenged as peculiar.'