A question on etiquette..

[Trigg]

Funny that after my SO and I had been talking about this subject, we were in my therapist office and a picture in a magizine showed  a guy eating with his finger in his mouth up to the first knuckel. It was in Chongqing

 

Trigg, the worst case of westernization occured in Japan where after the occupation, there was no more mixed bathing in Onsens.

172947[/snapback]

NO MORE MIXED BATHING????? OH NO!!!!!!!!!! I'll bet thats why the Japanese developed their 'warrior code'! Makes me wanna cahnge history books. How can we explain to our grnadkids that WE are the cause of this tragedy??????

 

BONZAIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!

[Dan R]

We must take the blame for men not being able to relieve themselves in the open sewers too. The shame we must bear!

[Trigg]

We must take the blame for men not being able to relieve themselves in the open sewers too. The shame we must bear!

172960[/snapback]

HUH???? When did that law start???

[drive_75]

I think the spitting is just disgusting. Last month in Xishuangbanna, our taxi driver sat next to us watching some local girls dance and he begin to eat his fish and start spitting the bones to the floor. I thought it was just disgusting. When I travel with my SO, we always carry napkins and wet cloth for washing hand before we eat anything. I use my hands to take out bones nicely not sticking my fingers inside my mounth. She never said anything. I also never saw her spitting bones. She use her chopstick to pick the bone from her mounth if necessary but mostly she pick only the meat to eat without the bone. I guess it is a lot easier for her since she doesn't like most meats.

 

I think it is okay to use your hand as long as you don't stick it inside your mouth. Putting your hand inside your mouth is disgusting even here in US or anywhere. I guess I've been luck my SO never have problem with my eating habbits.

[ameriken]

My SO loves crab and can shove a crabs leg in her mouth, chew on it like gum, and artfully her mouth can sort the meat from the shell fragments, then eject the shell to the table.

I was shocked to learn about the finger/mouth thing, because she has not said anything about my eating chicken wings with fingers...in fact she told me if I was not comfortable with the chopsticks to go ahead and use my fingers. She seems to understand the cultural difference and was more happy to see that I was eating and enjoying the food.

Edited December 6, 2005 by ameriken (see edit history)

[david_dawei]

Some of us are more refined. Will you be spitting bones with her when she gets here?

171722[/snapback]

Well, David states that he's chosen his wife's customs.

 

Those Sino-Americans whom I know do not continue to spit their bones and have adapted to western ways and customs; however, many in the non-integrated US Chinese communities continue to adhere to their known ways and customs. So, I suppose it depends...

 

Is it a better custom to place your non-clean hands in your mouth to remove your bones? How many of us actually wash our hands prior to every meal? Or is it more hygenic to simply spit your food into a place next to your plate?

 

It's really a matter of perspective and cultural conditioning.

171770[/snapback]

yep.. we still spit them out.. Whether at home or at any restaurant... seems more 'refined' and cleaner then shoving a hand in my mouth.

 

And most everywhere we were, I saw people spitting them out in china.

 

By refined, are we suggesting what others think/observe or what we ourselves think about it?

 

As my SO says constantly to me, "don't think, just act"...

[esun41]

From my experiences recently, table manners are one subject I avoid because the way I was raised. (my mother used to slap my hands for reaching etc...) My SO smacks her food with her mouth open, takes bites of others plates and basically things that would make my mother scream... (ha-ha)

 

I think it is so cool that we are so unadorned with each other's habits. She gets playfully 'angry' when I do things that she is not used to. The shoes on the bed habit that I have had since youth really sets her off but I think she is adjusting as I am. Give and take is crucial and we are both learning that...