Chinese Culture – Table Manners II

Following my previous post on Chinese table manners I thought I’d share with you a few more do’s and don’ts while dining in China. Food is a massive part of Chinese culture; in fact unless you’re busy bustling around the tourist attractions you’ll probably find most of your time spent round the dinner table. So, here are a few more do’s and don’ts while dining in China:

Do

Put your own chopsticks into the communal dishes. In the west this may be considered as unhygienic. I for one cannot stand people double dipping at a buffet and in some sense this is quite similar. However, in China this is one thing that you cannot avoid and will have to get over. Also note that it is considered impolite to separate your food from the rest of the communal dishes.

Treat others and be treated yourself. In China the bill is never split the bill so be ready to be treated and be prepared to treat others.

Drink bai jiu 白酒when someone makes a toast to you, and try to drink the whole cup… or at least pretend! This will show respect and give the person who is toasting you face.


Don’t

Try to order your own dish for yourself. All dishes will be put onto the middle of the table and shared with everyone. Sometimes you may order something and not even get a bite if it goes fast. In fact usually the person paying the bill will tend to do all the ordering anyway so sit back and relax.

Tip. Tipping isn’t something usual in China so put your loose change back in your pocket.　The waiters tend to be paid on a monthly wage and tipping is not apart of Chinese culture. If you do tip some people may be a little confused.

Eat everything on your plate. Finishing all the food on your plate is a sign that you are still hungry, where as in the west it is a sign of politeness to finish all the food on your plate. If you do finish all your food your host will continue to top up your plate, so unless you are still pretty hungry try to leave something on your plate.


Also remember to visit part 1 of Chinese Table Manners

Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival or also known as duan wu jie (端午节) is a major holiday in China and Taiwan. It is also known as double fifth day as it falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.

How to Celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival – 怎么庆祝端午节

A must do activity during the dragon boat festival is to eat zongzi (粽子), a traditional Chinese dumpling, rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves usually prepared in triangular shapes, 好吃！

Of course let’s not forget about the dragon boat race itself. Dragon boats are brightly decorated canoes, ranging from about 40 – 100 feet long and the front is in the shape of a dragon’s head. Before any boat can enter the competition the boat must be brought to life which involves painting the eyes in a ceremony. Dragon boat races can now be seen from all over the world during端午节.

Where did the Dragon Boat Festival come from? 端午节从来那里？！

One of the most popular theories is that the dragon boat festival derived from the story of Qu Yuan, a poet known throughout China. Legend has it that Qu Yuan drowned and that fishermen raced to where he drowned. When they couldn’t find the body people started to throw zongzi into the river so that the fish didn’t eat him to save the body.

Chinese Culture – Table Manners

Eating is a big part of Chinese culture and a lot happens around the dinner table from business, to family get together’s and most if not all national holidays. If you go to China to visit a friend or on business here a couple of tips on what you should do when you dine and also what you shouldn’t do!


Do

Shout loud to call the waiter. Fuwuyuan! 服务员！Yelling for a waiter in the west is considered rude, however if you don’t yell in China then it’s likely that you’ll be waiting a long time before anyone comes to see you.

Wait for whoever’s paying the bill or the oldest person on the table to take the first bite. Chinese pay high attention to status or age. So do try to restrain yourselves from digging in to those succulent spare ribs until your host or elder diner begins to eat.

Don’t

Stick your chopsticks in the rice. Sticking your chopsticks in rice is something that often happens when you offer food to the spirits of your ancestors, so sticking chopsticks in rice represents death and which is not something you want to bring up at the dinner table, especially when trying to secure that multi million dollar sales contract.

Blow your nose. In fact this is something you should try to avoid in public all together. Although this is something that probably no one in the world finds pleasant, the Chinese tend to find this more rude and disgusting than westerners.

李华

Mandarin Distance Learning

As the importance of spoken Mandarin increases along with the availability of broadband it’s no wonder that more and more schools are offering Mandarin Chinese via distance learning. Brush High School is the first school is Ohio USA to offer Mandarin Chinese through distance learning.


The school can now offer its Mandarin program across the country. This year five students from Brush High School will travel to China on a school trip to learn about Chinese culture and to practice what they have learnt.

It's estimated that around 500 elementary, middle and high schools in the USA offer Mandarin as a taught language.

Learn Chinese - Easy mistakes to make

The difference between 了 (le) and (guo) 过

Foreigner’s often get these two words mixed up when learning Chinese. 了 and过 both indicate something that happened in the past but they are both used differently.

The easiest way to remember it is that了 is used to illustrate that an action is complete such as：

我去了 – I went

我吃了 – I’ve eaten

The word 过 is used to talk about an experience, for example:

我去过 – I’ve been (I’ve been there before)

我吃过 – I’ve eaten (I’ve eaten this before)

过 does not apply to a specific event, but simply means you have experienced something in the past. This is an easy rule to remember. It does not apply 100% to the Chinese language but is a good rule to use to help you good by.

Good luck Chinese learners,

李华