Chinese Floor Culture

The history of chinese eating culture.

Chinese floor culture.

A business and social guide to china and chinese culture society language etiquette customs. Finally perhaps the most important aspect of the chinese food culture is the importance of food itself in chinese culture. Next to china japan and india south korea is also a country where everything is centred around the floor. A chinese meal is consisted of two parts.

As a result of the inconsistency of two prevalent calendars in china this is a custom that even some chinese people couldn t figure out. Eating a lunch box together is a. Chinese food culture type of courses. But few can take exception to the statement that few other cultures are as food oriented as the chinese.

In chinese culture service of expensive and rare foods usually shows the respect to the guests. Traditionally especially before 1911 when the gregorian calendar was applied in china chinese people have celebrated only the lunar calendar birthdays. Dining etiquette is said to have its beginnings in the zhou dynasty 1045 256 bc. Close friends or colleagues usually go to food stalls for dining and drinking.

Be patient and listen. This is different from western meals which take meat or animal protein as main dish. Traditional chinese dwellings zhongguo chuantong minju a bilingual text has a few line drawings of kangs it says that the kang is used to cook meals and heat the room making full use of the heat retaining capacity of the loess soil used to make adobe the kang produces radiant heat to heat the interior space indirectly in addition to the bed mass itself. In korea floor is used for sitting.

In buildings of malaysia where chinese are significant in population with 25 of malaysians and 75 of singaporeans being chinese the floor number 4 or house address with number 4 is occasionally skipped. Floor culture is daily practiced in south korea. Nowadays it is more common to observe the gregorian calendar birthdays in china just like most of. Staple food normally made of rice noodles or steamed buns and ts ai vegetable and meat dishes.

A usual family dinner serves close friends. Each participant will take an opportunity to dominate the floor for lengthy periods without appearing to say very much of anything that actually contributes to the meeting. Because of the significant population of chinese and influence of chinese culture in southeast asia 4 is also considered to be unlucky. China is a country with a long history of ritual and etiquette and eating is highly important feature of china s culture so naturally dining etiquette has developed to a high degree.