China is not as monolithic a culture as say, for example, the US. I spent about 5 months in China back in 2001. I spent the almost the entire time in Rizhao, which was a great place, though a little provincial. link Table manners were a little like what was described in the OP, allowing for some significant exaggeration. I got kind of accustomed to it, and got used to putting a chicken foot or a pig’s ear in my mouth, chewing off what I wanted, and spitting the remainder in a neat pile on the tablecloth. Hell, who wanted to be conspicuous?
On my way out of China, I spent a weekend in Shanghai, at the Hua Ting Hotel, a very cosmopolitan location that catered to mainly locals, but some westerners. At the restaurant I suddenly realized that everyone was studiously avoiding eye contact with me while they kept glancing at the pile of bones and debris on the table, and I noticed that all of these local Chinese people were using what I would consider standard manners, and I was coming off as a barbarian. Still, somewhere there’s a Chinese guy telling his friends about the big nose he saw eating like an animal, so there’s something to be proud of.
Ok…so maybe not all mainland chinese eat in a manner which many in the west find off-putting. All I can say is that it’s true for EVERY one that I’ve seen in action.
C’mon, guys…un-pucker. Sometime’s a spade is, well…a spade.
If it’s any consolation, loopydude, most Hong Kong people think that Mainland Chinese are backward, dirty, etc, conveniently forgetting that they were Mainlanders two, three, four generations ago. You go out in Hong Kong and local diners will snigger at the manners of Chinese tourists and give a running commentary on their country bumpkin behaviour. Relations between locals here and their Mainland cousins are so nuanced that as anti-racial discrimination legislation is being discussed here (no, there isn’t any at the moment), it has had to be made explicit by the government that such laws would not apply to Mainland Chinese.
Yes we have hedgehogs. I think they were introduced (by the British) to keep down the snail, slug population.
The Devil’s Grandmother when I say noisy, I don’t mean, roaring like a lion noisy. They snuffle about in the bushes and make little snorts and grunts…it’s just in the dead of night it seems noisy (especially under the bedroom window).
They are ever so cute though. We found a sick baby once and kept it untill it was big enough to let go. Such a sweetie.
I had a pet hedgehog once. She was the African species, not the European. She was remarkably quiet. She was prickly and liked to bite, so I named her Nancy, after Nancy Reagan. (It was the Eighties.)
I’d like to tack on the habit of my chinese office mate of noisily ridding his throat of all the debris that has gathered there during his lunch.
Judging by the length and intensity of the hawking sessions, the “debris” would seem to consist of half-chewed rice, half-chewed cabbage, half-chewed egg, animal exoskeletons, animal endoskeletons, maybe a pus-filled polyp or two, and probably the tip of a chopstick he inhaled.
I do not stereotype here. I make no other claims about how this behavior extends to the rest of the billion chinese in the world, only that it accurately extends to the 3 separate chinese people I’ve lived with and everyone of their friends, and the 15 or so chinese graduate students I know personally, and everyone of their friends.
Some Chinese people eat like that and some don’t. I honestly wouldn’t know because, as a Chinese, we just don’t really notice those kind of things. I admit spitting food out all over the place is something I’ve never seen but I honestly could not tell you if any of my friends ate with their mouths open or closed. For better or for worse, you just have to chalk it up to cultural differences.
I’m finding this thread very interesting. It’s not my intent to dispute anyone else’s experience but I have spent time with Chinese friends and co-workers and I’ve never noticed anything like this. My ex-girlfriend was born and raised in southern China and had only been in the US for several years but she was quite fastidious in her eating manners. She even chastised me once for trying to pick a bit of meat from between my teeth with my fingers (which I admit I shouldn’t have been doing). She always carried toothpicks for that! As others have said, it may be a regional thing. She had lived in Hong Kong for a few years before coming here.
Speak for yourself. I’m as Chinese as you can get without permanent residency inland, and I definitely notice gross-out dining habits whenever we go for the ol’ chopsticks.
And to second davidm there, my wife’s from south China, and her eating habits are fairly meticulous. She’d have freaked out if she had to share a table with the folks in the OP.
Like LoopyDude and others, I have seen some truly outrageous (from an American perspective) table manners from my Chinese co-workers. It didn’t take me long to realize that it’s just a little culture shock and I need to adjust my expectations.
However, I do feel that anyone living in a country other than their native country should make an effort to adjust to the new country’s ettiquette. In several of the links posted here (and many other writings about China), the Chinese drive to fit into a group has been emphasized. I find it hard to believe that when they pick up their bowl to slurp their soup they don’t notice the glares of disbelief coming their way. Do they feel no need to adjust their table manners so as not to offend the other folks in the room? What about the need to be accepted into the group?
Lay 'em along the rim of your plate or use a chopstick rest. If you’re using the disposable jobbies which come in a paper sleeve, fold the wrapper in half, then again down the middle: voila!! a chopstick rest.
Do not, repeat, not leave 'em jabbed into your bowl of rice or food. It’s simply not done.
Catsix, I guess you’re supposed to put them on that little rest thingy, usualy a small rectangular piece of porcelain with a slighly concave upper surface to keep the chopsticks from rolling off.
I have to admit, I’m really pretty fascinated by the question of what makes my fauxes-pas fauxes-pas. I can sort of understand the problem with leaving the chopsticks poking upright out of the rice. If that’s reminiscent of a gravesite, I could see how that would be distasteful.
But pointing with them? Actually, now that I think about it, it’s considered impolite to point at somebody with your index finger, at least in the 'States, and I’m equally mystified by that. What really baffles me is the rooting-around in the bowl thing. Why is it bad to poke around a dish of rice for, say, a peanut? Why must I first spy the peanut and then attack it with laser-accuracy? What if I can’t see the peanut? I want the peanut! Why do I have to munch through a layer of rice before I’m allowed to go for it?
Just a hygiene thing, I think, Loopydude. Though most Chinese are careful not to touch their chopsticks with their lips or tongue when eating (just picking the foof off from between the sticks), this isn’t a foolproof method. So, that’s why poking around is avoided.
Theres the hygiene thing but part of it as well is the message your sending. Remember, Chinese eating is communal so if your rooting around the food, then you send the message that your picking out the best parts of the dish and leaving the filler parts for other people. This is especially prevelant in poorer chinese communities where a dish usually consists of several thin slivers of meat bulked up by much cheap vegtable pieces and sauce. During a banquet dinner involving 20 people and 30 something dishes, my grandmother could give a stunningly accurate summary of exactly how many slivers of meat each person ate from each dish and who was crass and selfish for eating more than their allocated share.
Of course, by now, most Chinese people I know are more than wealthy enough not to have to scrimp and scrounge during meal times but old habits die hard.
What the OP describes is not what I have generally experienced in close to 20 years in China. Of course there are exceptions. But I think it’s a lot of culture shock. Sure, I used to think it was kinda gross when a shrimp goes in one side and the shell comes out the other side of someone’s mouth. But it’s a lot cleaner than using one’s fingers. Different strokes and all that.
I tought an English class in Taiwan about 20 years ago. We were discussing various cultural differences. I said that in America we don’t spit out chicken bones. One of the brightest guys in the class that was bound for grad school in the US, put his hand up with an extremely puzzled look on his face.
“teacher, what do you do in America, swallow the bones?”
