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Be Polite; Asian Etiquettes |
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Welcome to our site, we hope you have a fun learning experience! |
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China’s Etiquette |
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Welcome to China! Ni Hao or Hello! Welcome to our page on Chinese etiquettes on business, eating and dining, gift giving, body language, and everyday etiquette. I hope this page really adds to your knowledge on Chinese etiquette! |
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Eating and Dining
1. First of all- Where to sit? No you cannot randomly go pick the best seat, right next to a friend of your host. There is a specific order to where you can sit. 2. The host sits nearest to the door. 3. The guest of honor sits opposite. 4. Other honorary guests sit to the left of the guest of honor. 5. Don’t eat a whole meal, just sample everything on your plate. There will be a lot of courses. 6. Don’t eat everything on your plate, or your host will see to it that you get more food to eat. Instead leave a little bit of food on your plate. 7. Never pour your own drink first. Instead make a toast, about business or friendship. Pour everyone a drink, leave no one out, or it will seem as if you forgot them. Even if the persons cup is filled, pour a few drop in, or give the cup a long stare, before moving on. 8. Don’t take the last piece of food on the platter, as it will seem as your greedy. 9. Don’t take your chopstick and turn them into forks by poking into the food. You must use the chopstick to pick up the piece. 10. If you pick up a piece with a chopstick and drop it, don’t attempt to pick up another piece instead, keep on trying. 11. Don’t start playing the drums with your chopsticks. 12. Don’t use the chopsticks as tooth picks, or suck on them. 13. Don’t vertically place your chopsticks on top of a bowl, it resembles death. |
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Body Language 1. Personal space varies from country to country. The Chinese have less personal space than the westerners, so if you find that they are really close, it is normal. You might step a step back, but they might just take a step closer. 2. If you are in China, and pushed in a line, don’t feel bad, the Chinese aren’t use to standing in lines, and you aren’t required to be polite to strangers. 3. Chinese don’t like when you point your index finger to point, use this only to call a person( use you open palm to point), snap fingers, and whistle. 4. At the same time, westerners don’t like when you slurp your soup, or when you eat and talk at the same time. Yet the Chinese don’t mind. |
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Gift Giving
1. A gift should reflect the interests of the giver and receiver. 2. What should you get for a person? Well it should be based on these things: 3. The Gift should reflect the interests of the giver (that is you) and the receiver. 4. If you are foreign, then consider getting them a gift from your area, or a gift with a companies logo. 5. Think twice about giving food items to the host they might have the impression that you think they are poor! It is okay to bring candy and fruit baskets though. Alcoholic beverages are okay too, as well as cigarettes and cigarette lighters. 6. Don’t wrap the gift in flashy paper, red pink and gold, are best, avoid blue, white, and black! 7. You could give calculators, stamps, cigarette lighters, and kitchen supplies to the recipient. 8. You could ask your gift-receiver what they would like as a gift, and commonly people would ask for tea, or ink pads. 9. Present your gift to your recipient with two arms, and receive it with two arms. 10. 11. Don’t- 12. Give your friend sharp objects, it says that you want to end the friendship. It you really insist on that item, ask your friend for a penny when you give him or her the present, so you would have sold the item to them. 13. Give anything in sets of four, because four in Chinese sounds similar to death. Don’t give anyone anything with storks or cranes on it, anything white, blue, or black, clocks, or straw sandals. 14. Write anything in red ink, even if red is good. 15. Accept gifts offered to you until you refuse it twice before. Chinese do not want to give the appearance that they are greedy , therefore wont accept the gift until you offer it to them thrice. 16. Give gifts to a person without a good reason to do so, and a person watching. |
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Business
1. First of all, remember to dress for success: 2. Woman should wear conservative and dark colored clothing. 3. Men should wear a shirt and tie. ( Tuxedos are not worn) 4. If you are tall, wear flat heeled shoes. 5. Never wear bright colors, or shorts. 6. To be successful business people remember: 7. Always have your gold plated business card with you. 8. Present your business cards with two arms, and receive it with two arms. Take a good look at any business card given to you before putting it away, 9. Always carry twenty copies of any document with you to distribute to everyone. 10. The Chinese might want to wait for a lucky day before making any decisions 11. Always be on time, if not early. |
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Greeting
1. When you first meet a Chinese person, they might seem unfriendly, but that is because they are taught to not show emotions in public, because it is thought to be unacceptable. 2. Chinese like being formally introduced to a person by another person. When being introduced to a person, shake their hands. A smile, a wave, a nod, or a bow are good. At the same time kissing and hugging are bad. You can only do this I you know the person really well. 3. Now you know this person, so give them a compliment. Never, insult a person, do anything to shame them, yell at a person, or try to prove them wrong in front of other people. Instead just pull them over and talk to them privately. 4. Chinese never refuse or say no to anything, but that doesn’t mean they will say yes. That is because they will lose “face” or get shamed, if someone downright says “no”. If you disagree with someone, or have no as an answer say “maybe” or “we’ll see”. |
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Everyday Living
1. At your friend’s house you will be given tea automatically. If your friend asks you if you want tea, that probably means that they don’t want to serve you tea, but they want to seem hospitable. You should know what to do. 2. When you leave your friend’s house, they will “see you off”, meaning that they will accompany you to your car, or elevator. When you get to know your friend very well, all formalities change, and they will say “ I wont be seeing you off “ and in turn you must quickly say ‘ That never crossed my mind!”. |
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In other cultures, it doesn’t matter where you sit, but in China it does. |
