Well, that would get rid of most of the smell, so I'd say yes.
It's a mainland China thing, not really a Chinese thing. Look at their history, in particular the Cultural Revolution, and you can start to understand why older mainland Chinese are so utterly fucked in the head.
A relatively mild look at the subject is "Red Scarf Girl" by Ji-Li Jiang. "Life and Death in Shanghai" is a somewhat sterile (because the author was isolated in prison) adult take on it. The actual "Red Guard" cadres who went around beating people to death because someone owned an heirloom piece of furniture don't write memoirs because they are psychotic murderous scum and no one wants to remember their murderous rampages.
