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What is Rude?
2016-12-10

Early morning, my neighbor clatters down the stairs. Just about when he hits the first landing, right by my apartment door, he makes a great honking sound, snorts, and spits a wad as he descends the last few steps to the foyer. I can hear 'floop!' as he ejects his mucous and the 'splat' as it hits the floor.


A few buildings away, another man engages in a sneezing fit. It seems to be a ritual for him. I can hear him every morning. He does nothing to muffle his affliction.


At noon, a loving and engaged Grandma returns home with her charge. How do I know she is loving and engaged? Because she constantly exhorts the small child, all the way up the stairs (and then down again, after the noon break). She does not do it quietly.


On the bus, a phone jangles. “WEI???”, and thus begins an exchange the entire bus can hear.


In the supermarket checkout line, an elderly woman pushes past to take a place at the front of the line in spite of the rest of us, who have patiently been waiting our turn.


A workman comes to repair a water leak in my bathroom. He smokes as he works and throws his cigarette on the floor when he's done puffing. He squashes it with his boot as he walks out.


Related to cigarettes, a common occurrence: smoking in restaurants where 'No Smoking' signs are prominently displayed.


In restaurants, it is not uncommon to see/hear people loudly smacking their food, open-mouthed.


Every evening at 6:30, save for when it rains, the neighborhood people, from the one I live in and from the community next door, gather to dance. Their music reverberates and echoes through the buildings. Sometimes they dance past 9 PM. Most recently, one of the groups hired a dance instructor whose amplifier is particularly loud.


Mercifully, the drumming team only practices during the summer. This past September and October, it sounded like the two dance teams, the dance instructor and the drum team were competing to see who could be the loudest. In short: only rainy evenings provide quiet.


During evening hours, when the area by the pond is most full of people, I don't suppose anyone does this but, one fine day, holding class outside, my students and I arrived at the pond area to find a woman defecating by the gazebo, in plain sight. Being a stroke victim she couldn't squat down; she stood, with her pants around her ankles, slightly bent over and holding on to a railing. I was mortified but my students shrugged it off, and the woman continued until her bowels were voided, and then sat down next to some of my kids and asked them questions about their teacher.


The questions! “How old are you?”; “How much money do you earn?”; “Where's your husband?”; and the comments: “You're so fat!”; “You're so tall!” and once, a helpful soul dug into my wallet to 'help' me as I was counting out cash at a train ticket window while muttering approvingly about a foreigner who can navigate China independently.


Here I might mention the lack of personal space: the Chinese like to crowd!


According to the customs and manners I was raised with, all of these behaviors are rude. The people practicing them would be considered ill-mannered. Maybe someone would even chide a person who spits in the foyer of their building or is too loud. And woe to anyone who cuts in line!


But these behaviors are... if not accepted, at least condoned in China, in spite of an ongoing campaign for civility.


Since I've been here there have been public service adverts on buses, on television and on the subways: you should give your seat up to the elderly, the frail, expectant women, or parents of small children. You shouldn't eat or drink on the buses or trains, nor should you spit. The city is plastered with '文明' signs! I can't imagine how much the government has spent on these educational campaigns, or on dual refuse bins: one for trash and the other for recyclables, with a small inlet for cigarette butts.


Throwing cigarette butts on the ground is one of my pet peeves. Trash too. Especially since these waste bins are liberally scattered all over China's cities; why throw trash on the ground?


Most parents of young children that I know often chide their progeny after an uncouth act: Is that civilized? (那是文不文明? - na shi wen bu wen ming?In my opinion, that is laudable. We learn our best lessons as children. But the question remains: if children are being taught what is and isn't civilized behavior, and those behaviors mirror the ones I learned as a child, making them easy for me to recognize, how is it that these bad behaviors persist?


And so, I wonder: with the perpetration of acts that would be deemed uncivilized, ill-mannered or downright rude by the apparent guidelines set forth by the government, acts that I understand to be uncouth because of those campaigns and because of my upbringing in a different environment, and these acts are apparently condoned, what would be considered rude, in China?


Please note: in no way am I demeaning China or her people. Never would I say that anyone here is being deliberately offensive. I understand that this is a different culture than the ones I grew up in, with different standards and different norms, and there is nothing at all wrong with that. I am genuinely trying to understand what would be considered rude to a Chinese person, so that I don't inadvertently offend anyone. Please help me!

Comment

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arabchinalover 2017-03-27 15:57

oh dear . I whoheatedly agree with you . I am very tired of uncivilized acts like this . I have seen a video which was filmed by a british man who was hit by a car , he was standing on the sidewalk and a drove into him , he requested him to aologized and the driver refused and said : this is china !!! the act was widely condemned by chinese netizens !!

ratfink 2016-12-16 18:29

That's what I've been trying to get across to many users, simple answers to complex issues never solve anything. One thing I've learned in 50+ years of international travel is that very little should be taken at face value and that we have no right to judge other cultures as cultural diversity is something that enriches and gives us food for thought.  This does not include certain actions that are taboo in the majority of cultures around the world such as murder, affray, the mistreatment of minorities, sexual abuse and genital mutilation, the trafficking of humans, paedophilia and pedastry for example.

Blondie 2016-12-16 14:36

Spitting is unhygienic, especially as it is a means of disease transmission, especially TB.
Ironically there was an extensive campaign in 1950's china to discourage this - see attached link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5YRUspGnag

But it was probably deemed 'capitalist' in the 1960's to stop spitting, during a time in China when many old traditions and many of China's historical monuments were destroyed.

tenith 2016-12-16 09:18

China's social value engineering will take time. Every nation depends on its leader and so happen China's decided that economic survival is more important. The Chinese do know that their approach is not maximising results. But it is still the optimal solution for the Chinese, strictly for them Chinese only. One of the primary factor that made them focused more on their economy is perhaps their earlier failures such as weak economy during the late Qing Dynasty and a severe famine during Mao's time both that cost millions of lives. Their sufferings at the hands of foreign powers instilled and strengthened their need for self-determination before other matters. To the Chinese, there is no possibility of even thinking of social values if they are hungry and continuously weak. In their history, they did enjoy long centuries of social sophistication. This meant the Chinese do have the same qualities as the West in them only that these qualities were almost wiped off during their 150 years of obscurity and hiatus. The Chinese know this. Corruption is caused by economic greediness matched with unsophisticated mindset to a great extend but by greater extend weak social value and understanding. Hence if China is to reduce corruption, it has no alternative but to address its sociology in its entirety through a holistic approach which will see them acquiring the same degree of mental state with the world in perhaps the next generation. About 30 years more at least or so.

1105852048 2016-12-16 03:56

Yes,, That is another thing Chinese people do.. they 'volunteer' another person for something and then become upset when confronted about it. They  hate confrontations and cannot or will not even try to understand  that volunteering another person is just not done. However, they will simply ignore any volunteering arrangement another person has made for them.

1105852048 2016-12-16 03:16

I agree with that!

DMZappa 2016-12-15 22:57

Chinese weddings are quite an experience. I attended one on my last trip to rural China, (Kaili City). Most are very curious and friendly. Being from Hawaii I had to carry a map in my pocket showing it's location since most did not know of Hawaii or it's location. My wife and I are going this January, it's going to be cold!

teamkrejados 2016-12-15 13:32

There is no simple, one-size-fits-all to anything, in China (or anywhere else). That's what makes it so much fun! 

teamkrejados 2016-12-15 13:30

Good point! On the one hand, it is nice to see children being children. On the other, it is not nice to see them disturb the peace. But, by far less appealing are the parents who tolerate such behavior - force it on everyone else. 
In trains, the concept of 'indoor voices' would be good.

teamkrejados 2016-12-15 13:28

I can understand your wife's dilemma. 
America is my country of nationality but I am burdened with shame at some of its doings, so blatantly and publicly displayed. And there, the younger generation is not necessarily the better one.