【文稿】遭外邦人吐槽的天朝习惯

Heyang: See if your answer is yes to the following questions: do you store your pans and pots in the oven? Do you put your sewing equipment into a cookie container? Apparently, it's only Chinese people who do it. Here are 7 things that Western people say they are shocked when they hear Chinese people do it. Let's check them out then! What's first on the list for you, Qinduo?Xu Qinduo: I think a lot of them are obviously different practices between Chinese people and Westerners here. Like the container, I love to see that. You put the utensils into the oven. I do see people do that, I do see people do that. I somehow pause a little bit, thought of it, and give it a go. I think it's empty, right?Heyang: Yeah, but the thing is oven is sort of alien or foreign for most Chinese households. But it is a wonderful place to store things if you don't use it, you know. And also, what is it called, yes, a dishwasher, that's something pretty alien and foreign for Chinese households and what better place is it to store some shoes and things in my eyes cause I'm not going to use it. Brian: See, an oven I can get that! Because if you're not using it, you can put pots and pans, they're going to go there anyways, sure, although not a lot of households seem to have them. Dishwasher, even more rare, but a dishwasher is a place for things to be clean. Shoes are not clean, they should not go in there.Heyang: Oh! You have not seen my fancy shoes! They are clean and they are beautiful. I can't think of a better place to store them cause I don't use dishwashers, you know. That is the prerequisite I suppose. But what about dipping your finger into the rice cooker?Xu Qinduo: Well, I have never done that…Heyang: Is it because you never cook, mister?Xu Qinduo: Well, I do occasionally. I just guess it. There is this much rice, I will probably add this much water, yeah enough!Brian: Eyeball it. Yeah, some of these are odd, some of these are normal. This one, your fingers are not always, actually, they are frequently not very clean. So, if you want to eyeball it like Qinduo does and I do myself frequently or mostly, that's fine. But, you can also get a measuring cup like a lot of these rice cookers now; they have those little measuring cups with them. So, you can just use them, figure out how much water you want to put in exactly, how much rice, and there you go. There's no need to go by your finger, varies from person to person anyways. Heyang: But I know exactly how my finger is going to measure in that kind of situation and also reaching out for the measuring cup. Are you kidding me? That is an extra step and you need to store for that cup. So, yeah it could be a little troublesome. But I think joking aside, it shows the very different perception towards cooking and many other things that Chinese people tend to do is that I think we are into abstracts. We are free spirited sometimes. We don't want the specific degrees, the scientific mode towards cooking. No way, we want to do it as what masters do: that is according to our mood, according to our fingers, we know how to cook. Xu Qinduo: or Chopsticks!Brian: Okay, that's all very well and fine. But, you don't have to stick your finger in there with the rice to do that. You can eyeball it.Xu Qinduo: Brian always has a problem with that! Make good use of your chopsticks right with your first knuckle of your finger, maybe next time you use your chopsticks instead of your fingers. It's easy to solve that problem. But, I think it's largely partly not only Chinese and Western different practice, but also its traditional and modern facilities and putting them together somehow, what's the right way to do it? In the past, Chinese don't use modern facilities like the microwave but now we have that, how do we cope with that? How do you put your traditional practices somehow compatible with modern facilities? Also, some of the differences are typically cultural. Chicken feet, we consume chicken feet but it's a shock for Westerners. Brian: But, it's very efficient, it's very efficient making use of something that would otherwise be thrown away. Xu Qinduo: Exactly. I consider it as a virtue of the culture.Brian: Absolutely.Heyang: I don't agree with you guys despite everything. But what about the one that is sticking chopsticks vertically into a bowl of rice is strictly prohibited because it is bad luck? It is attracting ghosts and things, you know attracting substances that you don't want.Xu Qinduo: Do you still do that? But I think in my parent's family, if you do that, probably my parents won't be happy. But in my family, if my kid does that, I will say, it doesn't look good, but I don't associate it with attracting ghosts. Brian: See, again it's this changing: the modern and traditional meeting together and things kind of get diluted over time whether or not this is a good thing, this may vary from practice to practice but you know when your kid grows up Qinduo, she's probably not going to care about doing that or if her kid does that. Xu Qinduo: That's true.Brian: It will just kind of go away.Xu Qinduo: I agree.Heyang: Well, but yes, maybe she will think attracting unclean substance is not the reason why you shouldn't do it. But there's no way she thinks this is civilized right. I sound super judgmental now, but…Xu Qinduo: Not good dinner table etiquette, I would say. Heyang: Exactly. I think it still matters and it is part of the home education that every kid should go through I think.Brian: There are bigger problems in that to deal with table manners, but sure, like for example better to put your cell phone down and away before eating. That's a more important one I would say. Heyang: Also, just turn your cell phone screen down, like that's courtesy to people.Brian: Put it away.Heyang: Also having a sewing kit is kind of necessary in any household but storing it in a cookie container. It used to be that those cookie containers are so fancy and it's like a nice place to store things. Xu Qinduo: Again, making good use of this wasteful stuff.Brian: PracticalityHeyang: But, no longer really is that the case as now you can just get a fabulous sewing kit container from Taobao or wherever these days. So easy and so cheap