# Why does Asia seem to be so nasty and filthy? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 22, 2013, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192 "2013-07-22T14:26:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/41 "2013-07-23T11:39:14Z")
Americans shit in the same room where they supposedly clean themselves. Seriously. There are no separate toilet and bathing rooms in any American home I’ve ever entered. If they ever actually take a bath and properly soak instead of just sluicing water over themselves, they “wash” in the tub they soak in, spreading the filth over their entire bodies instead of properly washing off the dirt thoroughly and then entering the tub. They wear their shoes inside the house. The same shoes that walked over streets where their dogs shit, and people hock up loogies. Their feet are encased in the same stinking shoes all day and they usually leave them right beside the same bed where they sleep. Sometimes, they even put their feet up — still wearing those nasty shoes — on places where other people sit and lie down, and sometimes even where food is placed. Ugh. They wipe their asses with dry paper. The only time they ever wash their asses is when they take a shower, or a bath. Some people complain about “skid marks” which are actually shit stains on their underwear. Americans don’t compost their garbage. Most of them have something called a “garbage disposal” which chops up organic waste and simply dumps it into their water systems. * * * See, this works both ways. I grew up in the US, but have lived in Japan for a long time. Some of these things I thought were kind of gross before, but now I think are absolutely disgusting. That’s just the personal hygiene and a bit of waste disposal. I could go on for thousands of words about some differences between the way the two cultures gross the hell out of each other. And that’s even granting the shitting in public point. Ever been to a major city in the US? You’ve seen human shit in the street at one point or another. You just thought it was dog shit. I can virtually guarantee it. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/42 "2013-07-23T12:24:44Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > That’s still technically “meat” right? I think by most definitions. In the abstract, how weird is it to say that eating animals’ muscles, skin, eggs and milk is civilized, and normal, but any other part is savage / unclean? That’s the thing with meat. For many people, whatever animal or part their parents didn’t feed them triggers the disgust reflex. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/43 "2013-07-23T13:24:10Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > It’s been processed to make it safe for use That’s really the defining characteristic here; we use treated sludge on farm fields and even sell stuff like “Bay State Fertilizer”, “Dillo Dirt”, “Milorganite” and “Hou-Actinite” (Boston, Austin, Milwaukee and Houston respectively). But it’s been processed- biologically treated then heated to some ridiculous temp like 900 degrees as it’s being dried out. No pathogens or anything like that. ---
**Author:** ![newcomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e5b9ba/32.png) [@newcomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcomer)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/44 "2013-07-23T13:30:52Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Two things are at work here. One is just plain population and poverty. Poverty is dirty, as the truly poor often have to prioritize other things and governments often don’t provide much in the way of sanitation services. Cities are also dirty, even in rich countries. Parts of Asia have lots of big, poor cities. > > The other factor is different concepts of what is a “clean” space and what is a dirty space. In China, for example, the floor of your house is very much a clean space, and you would never want to walk across it with your shoes (which are dirty) on. But the floor of, say, a cheap restaurant is not considered a clean space, and it’s okay to throw your used paper towels and bones on it, because you don’t expect it to be clean any more than I’d expect a back ally to be clean. Conversely, in the US we might sweep up a restaurant floor at the end of the night, but in China you’d expect a restaurant floor to be swept up continually through the day to clear away the debris. Often, it’s not really that one place is cleaner or dirtier than the other, but that we get thrown off by seeing spaces we consider to be “clean” dirtied, and we don’t really notice when spaces we keep dirty are kept clean. I can understand this behavior back home (as we all say) but… you don’t have to do this in Canada. I’ll never get fascination with Chinatown or Chinese grocery stores. It’s not just a couple of notches below standard – it’s like there’s no standard. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/45 "2013-07-23T13:37:23Z")
A lot of these comments prove that much of what the OP describes is just confirmation bias: a guy in this thread saw poop in Korea, so Asia is dirty. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/46 "2013-07-23T16:04:57Z")
> [@newcomer](#): > > I can understand this behavior back home (as we all say) but… you don’t have to do this in Canada. > > I’ll never get fascination with Chinatown or Chinese grocery stores. It’s not just a couple of notches below standard – it’s like there’s no standard. Yeah, I was in one of the really big Asian markets in Houston, and this huge fucking rat just was running around in the open in the produce section, and nobody seemed to give a shit at all. I’m pretty careful to only get packaged stuff at that store now, and check for rat bites. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/47 "2013-07-23T16:15:21Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Yeah, I was in one of the really big Asian markets in Houston, and this huge fucking rat just was running around in the open in the produce section, and nobody seemed to give a shit at all. More confirmation bias. Did you actually point the rat out to make sure nobody noticed? Or did you think the staff didn’t need to be informed of such a thing? Marvin Zindler, you are not. Go to H-Mart. Pretty friggin’ clean. It’s also relatively new instead of being 30 years old. Head to one of several Fiestas that are not exactly paragons of cleanliness. Likewise some of the older HEBs in older neighborhoods. Guess what? Stores and restaurants that are new and in richer parts of town are cleaner. Store and restaurants in older and poorer parts of town are not. Funny how that works, isn’t it? I would have had a harder time believing some of these posts are for real and not some (not particularly) subtle racism, except I’ve met too many (not particularly) subtle racists. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/48 "2013-07-23T16:18:28Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Yeah, I was in one of the really big Asian markets in Houston, and this huge fucking rat just was running around in the open in the produce section, and nobody seemed to give a shit at all. > > I’m pretty careful to only get packaged stuff at that store now, and check for rat bites. Hey, you still shop there and buying high-markup packaged goods no less so… I’ll chalk that up as a win for the Asian grocer. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/49 "2013-07-23T16:37:53Z")
Upvote for the Marvin Zindler reference. MARVIN! ZINDLER! EYE! WITNESS! NEWS! ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/50 "2013-07-23T16:48:48Z")
SLIME! IN THE ICE MACHINE! He sure did show that you can find filthy, disgusting practices pretty much anywhere you went in Houston. ETA: Rest in Peace, you magnificent bastard! ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/51 "2013-07-23T17:53:34Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > More confirmation bias. Did you actually point the rat out to make sure nobody noticed? Or did you think the staff didn’t need to be informed of such a thing? Marvin Zindler, you are not. > > Go to H-Mart. Pretty friggin’ clean. It’s also relatively new instead of being 30 years old. > > Head to one of several Fiestas that are not exactly paragons of cleanliness. Likewise some of the older HEBs in older neighborhoods. Guess what? Stores and restaurants that are new and in richer parts of town are cleaner. Store and restaurants in older and poorer parts of town are not. Funny how that works, isn’t it? > > I would have had a harder time believing some of these posts are for real and not some (not particularly) subtle racism, except I’ve met too many (not particularly) subtle racists. Stop… I’m not racist, but that’s the ONLY time in my life I’ve seen a rat in a grocery store, and I’ve been in quite a few sketchy Fiestas and ethnic markets, thank you. And sketchy non-ethnic markets as well. And conversely, some of the cleanest stores I’ve shopped in have been Mexican groceries- there’s a La Michoacana on the way home from work here in Dallas that’s super-clean. I have no idea why some stores are dirty and others aren’t - the HEB Pantry on Westheimer @ Kirkwood that I lived by when I last lived in Houston (1998) was a dump, while the Randalls down the street at Dairy Ashford was very clean, with the Kroger across the street being somewhere in the middle. Same area, different clientele, I suppose. This was at the Hong Kong Mall grocery (12000 block of Bellaire, I think - just west of Boone, anyway) in Alief, if you care. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/52 "2013-07-23T18:46:44Z")
Different cultures, different standards. I just returned from my second trip to Haiti. We go to help out in a remote mountain villiage, completely off the grid. There is no sanitation service, but there are ways to start a fire. Still, only a very few people burn their trash. None, to my knowlege, bury it. The vast majority just drop it where they are. That is the one cultural difference I have a hard time with - even moreso than the whole “relieve yourself anywhere, anytime” part. Port\_au\_Prince is the same, but I can almost understand that. In the city there is not only no sanitation service, but not many places to burn garbage either. Trashing a pristine landscape when there are other options just makes me shake my head. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/53 "2013-07-23T19:05:50Z")
> [@Tracijo67](#): > > … or that we consume far more than we produce and tend to believe that this is our right. I think that if we pay for something, it IS our right to consume more than we produce. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/54 "2013-07-23T20:16:27Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Yeah, if you look at Singapore, for example, it’s one of the cleanest cities you’ll ever visit. I’ve spent a lot of time there and you don’t even see cigarette butts on the sidewalk. Singapore is much cleaner than most American cities. There are some good [reasons](http://www.hotelclub.com/blog/singapore-weird-laws/) for that. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/55 "2013-07-23T20:20:42Z")
On the other hand, I’ve heard Houston is crawling with rats. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/56 "2013-07-23T20:45:10Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Stop… I’m not racist, but … Ah yes, the old, [“I’m not racist, _but_…”](http://justkickthecan.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/funny-accept-yourself-guy.jpg) If you don’t want people to think you’re racist, stop saying racist shit. I read just the _title_ of this thread and my face looked like 0.0 ; reading the thread has changed it to ¬\_¬. “Asia” covers 30% of the earth’s land area and has roughly 2/3’s of the human population. The Abrahamic religions began in Asia, along with Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Confucianism, and on and on. Yet you lumped 4.3 billion people into one single category _and_ did so to ask why they’re just so disgusting and filthy. \*\*You may not have intended to be racist or didn’t/don’t see how what you said was racist, but that doesn’t magically make your question not racist. \*\* Intent does not absolve hurtful actions or words. Digging your heels in when people point out why your posts were problematic looks like you’re more concerned about _people thinking you are racist_ instead of _if you said something racist_. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/57 "2013-07-23T21:26:05Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Stop… I’m not racist, but So, the only time in your life you’ve seen a rat was in North America. In the USA, in fact. Actually, make that Texas. And the 4th largest city in the US to boot Houston. And this says something about Asia instead of the USA, why? > [@bump](#): > > I have no idea why some stores are dirty and others aren’t - the HEB Pantry on Westheimer @ Kirkwood that I lived by when I last lived in Houston (1998) was a dump, That was my local grocery store more recently (mid 2000s). It’s actually pretty clean now. They renovated. And that’s really all it takes. By contrast, the Randall’s down at Wilcrest at Westheimer is getting long in the tooth (but is still mostly serviceable). The grocery at the new Target at Westheimer and Dairy Ashford? Sparkling clean. It’s also only a few years old. Put in some time and effort to clean a place up and suddenly it’s not so bad. Fancy that. > [@bump](#): > > This was at the Hong Kong Mall grocery (12000 block of Bellaire, I think - just west of Boone, anyway) in Alief, if you care. I didn’t really need to know, but for what it’s worth, that particularly grocery was in my top 5 guesses. Why was it in my top 5 guesses? Not just because it’s an Asian grocery. But because it’s one of the dirtiest groceries I’ve been to. Full stop. Ethnicity had nothing to do with it. It hasn’t been renovated in literally decades. And while the Houston Chinatown has seen a bit of an economic boom, that hasn’t translated into pouring money into older stores. Rather, newer stores open up. Ones that have seen a contractor more recently than 5 years ago. Every Asian grocery in Houston that’s had more than just minimal repairs done in the last 10 years is at least acceptably clean and good to shop in, if not considered one of the better stores in Houston. But _some_ people have to conflate one example with the ethnic makeup of the proprietors and clientele. Like I said, go to H-Mart. They took over an abandoned Randall’s, but instead of slapping a coat of paint on, they completely renovated the interior before moving in. And it’s a popular grocery store for people of pretty much any ethnic background. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/58 "2013-07-23T21:26:31Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > \*\*You may not have intended to be racist or didn’t/don’t see how what you said was racist, but that doesn’t magically make your question not racist. \*\* Intent does not absolve hurtful actions or words. Digging your heels in when people point out why your posts were problematic looks like you’re more concerned about _people thinking you are racist_ instead of _if you said something racist_. I said “seem to be”. Not “Why IS”. Huge difference there. Maybe it is that filthy, but it probably isn’t. I was more curious as if it’s a cultural thing and it really is as filthy as it appears, or if it’s selective story choice that makes it look that way, or somewhere in the middle. The fact remains, in the media, which is how the vast majority of the people in the world get their information, the overwhelming majority of stories about really gross, filthy and unsanitary practices seem to be about things that occur in Asia, and I was curious why. Some people understood, and others girded up to point the racism finger at me. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/59 "2013-07-23T21:32:10Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > On the other hand, I’ve heard Houston is crawling with rats. Not particularly more than some cities I’ve been to. Now, _cockroaches_ and _mosquitoes_ on the other hand… ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192/60 "2013-07-23T21:33:10Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > So, the only time in your life you’ve seen a rat was in North America. In the USA, in fact. Actually, make that Texas. And the 4th largest city in the US to boot Houston. > > And this says something about Asia instead of the USA, why? Never said I haven’t seen rats before- I’ve seen plenty. I said I’d never seen a rat actually in a grocery store before, and certainly not running across the ice and produce before, which is something that I suspect the vast majority of people haven’t ever seen either. > [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > That was my local grocery store more recently (mid 2000s). It’s actually pretty clean now. They renovated. And that’s really all it takes. So was that before it was turned into a Sports Authority? It was a monstrous dump the entire time I lived in the apartments behind it.(1997-1999). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-asia-seem-to-be-so-nasty-and-filthy/664192.md?page=4)