QINGDAO: Census takers in east China's Shandong province are brought together to watch cartoons, not for fun, but as part of their training for the once-a-decade census in China, which begins in November.

The census is to be carried out using door-to-door surveys to obtain accurate information about China's population.

With the skills learned from watching the cartoon, door-to-door workers will become acquainted with households more easily and learn to ask unwelcomed questions more tactfully, said Zhang Jing, one of the census takers in Licang district, Qingdao city.

"What a lovely child, how old are you?" asked a uniformed census taker when an elderly lady with a baby opened the door for her.

"I am a census taker of the sixth national census and I need your cooperation," she smiled.

This is from a cartoon that nearly 60,000 census takers watch to learn communication skills in the city.

The cartoon, lasting for over 32 minutes, consists of the theory and demonstration of census taking, elaborating on communication skills and techniques to properly ask sensitive questions.

"It's interesting and impressive to learn how to communicate through a cartoon," said Zhang.

"Communication is important for us to let residents trust us and tell the truth," she said.

"For example, I learned that 'is there any population change in your family' is more proper to 'did any one die or pass away', which is more irritating," she added.