Job Discussion Forums

[whitjohn]

Hey, watch an American baseball game on TV and count the number if "spits". Of course, in Singapore, spitting on the sidewalk will get you fined.

[xiaoyu]

writerman-

yes there is definitely a split between the SEZ and the rest of china... although you can still find some cultural trends (such as spitting) even in cities like beijing and shanghai and dalian, simply depending on what area of the city you are in.... certainly the economic affluence of a family/person would determine how they would react to spitting and other "older" cultural practices that are prevalent in smaller cities and villages....

weird though, that while i appreciate cleanliness very much, at times i see these practices as part of the reason i am so intrigued by different cultures.... things that they don't think twice about until influenced by foreign cultures and ideas...

xiaoyu

[Roger]

This thread has gone a little off target, but it is quite hilarious now! The spitting will probably never cease. Proof? My 70'year old neighbours!
Every morning at around 6 a.m. I hear the old woman over there in the batyhroom. It sounds as though she is retching, but she is only removing plegm - about ten times in 20 minutes.
In public, you will never see her do this! She and her husband are my best neighbours.
There are more such quaint habits.
Ever noticed in a public bus that people taking a seat just vacated stand for up to three minutes before they sit down?
This is, so I heard, because the "spirit" of the literally-departed person must "vacate" that seat too!
The spirit could take revenge on the successor!

[whitjohn]

Roger, in the cities that I have been in, if you don't get that seat quick, someone else will!
Underwear? What's that?

[Seth]

Yech, here in Luoyang I can't go a day without seeing at least 20 people horking thier lungs out. Everything 'Chinese' is magnified in a little town like this. Even in class some middle schoolers spit on the floor. I took a hard sleeper train from Luoyang to Guangzhou and in my little cabin thing there were 5 other Chinese men...in the morning the floor was slick with saliva. Now I know why nothing is ever carpeted in China. I have a Swiss friend who owns a restaurant and there are several signs written in Chinese strategically placed: Please, no spitting!
So far I've resisted the spitting urge but I can now spit bones and slurp noodles with the best of them. Once there was a banquet for all of the foreigners in the city for National Day, and I sat at the table for Americans and Russians (all 7 of us). It was then that I realized how truly 'Chinese' my table manners had become and I felt a bit embarrassed! Them: 'This is an interesting dish...what is it?' Me: 'pig's ear' *crunch crunch*.

About buses, why don't Chinese ever want to sit by the window? They'll sit in the aisle seat and make people crawl over them to sit in the window seat. I have seen on occasion people waiting to take a vacated seat. Around here people seem to be deathly afraid of ghosts. There's a little tomb museum not far from my school and I went there once with a Chinese teacher. She was afraid to enter most of the tombs and not far behind us was a group of Chinese men who would clap loudly before entering a tomb, to scare away any ghosts! Once I was talking about ghosts to a 19 year old student and she told me to stop because she was getting scared.

[Freaky Deaky]

Yeah, the thing about ghosts is hilarious. My girlfriend, a grown woman, point blank refuses to watch even the tamest of horror movies. She came home once to catch me watching some teen slasher/horror fest and walked out, hands on her ears, shouting 'bu hao! bu hao!'.


Yes, I did turn it off...

[yaco]

There is standards of etiquette that should be followed in any country.

Having medical staff spitting at your feet whilst undertaking a medical examination is a cause for concern.

Hospitals are supposed to be clean and hygienic places of operation. There must be potential health concerns especially with the worldwide pneumonia outbreak. What is to stop a young child in a hospital playing on the floor and making contact with spittle. Bingo you have a possible transmission of disease. ( This is not criticising the facilities in Chinese hospitals ).

Surely if you need to clear your lungs you can use a tissue or adjourn to the comfort station.

[kimo]

What about the bores now?

[Minhang Oz]

Steven,have you spent more than 3 weeks in China? The thing with rhetorical questions is that they're usually phrased to exclude the speaker from the generalisation. Anyway,you're too conservative.I know people who've spent 3 hours in an airport and become instant experts on a country.

[chinasyndrome]

[quote="steven_gerrard"]

[hubei_canuk]

"There is standards of etiquette that should be followed in any country.

Having medical staff spitting at your feet whilst undertaking a medical examination is a cause for concern." -yako
---------------------
I dunno, yako.
The half dried pools of blood bother me somewhat more.

[yaco]

If I ever dare visit a hospital in China again , I must look for the dried blood.

You learn something new everyday in China.

[hubei_canuk]

half-dried, yako.
Half-dried pools.
Half-dried pools of blood.
...
And the docors and nurses quite oblivious to it...after all it's on the floor, not like it counts for anything.

[MW]

Flexible people do not break.
Go with the flow.
Nothing in Asia is as it seems.

Need anything more?

[Minhang Oz]

Yes please,MW....more! You sound like you have a wealth of platitudes and cliches to make life seem far simpler than it really is.