Why do people from Mainland China have such bad table manners?

Question

They slurp their soup. Talk with their mouths full of food. They are just noisy in general when it comes to eating.

I work in a place that hires numerous people from Mainland China. When 4 or 5 of them are in the lunch room at the same time it is hard to have a conversation over their slurping sounds.

ps - I don't eat junk food and I do not shop at Wal-Mart,

Answer 1

I agree with everyone else, that it's a cultural thing. I'll just add one comment: Remember that they're from a "recent" communist culture that destroyed all of the so-called bourgeois "manners" of pre-Revolutionary China. Being very "common"--including having a lack of social graces--was applauded by Mao's regime. It will take quite while for that sense of "refined" decorum to be re-instilled in people who really don't know that their culture is clashing. I've not met anyone from Taiwan who fits your description.

Just a thought.

Answer 2

Sounds to me like you've stereotyped them. How many people from mainland china do you actually know? Not only that, but who cares if they slurp their soup, even in they do! They come from a different culture! If we're going to critisize cultures, then we should look at our own for a moment. I'm assuming you're American, so why do people eat so much fast food when they know it's really unhealthy? Also, why do people continue to shop at Wal-mart when they know Wal-Mart employs children in 3rd world countries in order to make their products cheaper? I think table manners pale in comparison to some of the glaring social mishaps that occur in America every day as well.

P.S. I didn't say you did any of those things, but it still happens every day, doesn't it? It's just our culture, is my point. Like some of the other people have mentioned, what you consider 'acceptable' and 'normal' is completely different when you enter a different culture. I'm sure you do things that are considered offensive to a Mainland chinese person as well.

Answer 3

If you're accurate in your assessment, I'm guessing in China it isn't considered bad table manners.

Which makes one wonder why you would consider it necessary to point out that you consider this bad table manners in a public forum? It would have been more polite to pose it as a question, such as: Is it considered to be proper etiquette in Mainland China to slurp ones soup?

It is very distressing to have matters of etiquette turned into a forum for cultural slurs.

Answer 4

Mainland Chinese are some of the most unrefined people you will ever meet. They eat like animals. Even people from so-called higher financial bracket have no clue how to properly conduct themselves at the table. Chinese think culture and refinement is something you can buy at a wine shop or car dealership.

Answer 5

Often times, these strange habits are just cultural. I work with a native Chinese man and he slurps his coffee every morning. It isn't considered inappropriate, it just shows he enjoys his coffee. I believe it's also complimentary of whomever made the dish.

Answer 6

I must agree with the previous person. I am taiwanese, and I have met a lot of rude and culturally inept chinese people. The communism is effecting the mentality of the mainland chinese

Answer 7

well... I'll be dang,
there's rednecks in Mainland China too.

*didn't know we had kin folk that fer east !!!

Answer 8

It is cultural. To them it is normal.

Answer 9

I agree. It's gross, but it's cultural.

Answer 10

whats bad for us or you is good to them