Discussion keeps the worldturning.
This isRoundtable. You're listening toRoundtable.
I'm your only enjoying by Steve and youshould.
Coming up on the second half of theshow, I'd like to invite you to explore an intriguing cultural shift among youngpeople, the growing reluctance to have guests over athome.
Let's talk about how different interpretations of social distance and a clearer distinction between private and social life and the changing importance placed on relationships are influencing thistrend.
Let's unpack these moderndynamics.
And we invite you to take a closer look at the hygiene issues prevalent ingyms.
How significant is the risk of infection from shared equipment andfacilities?
What are some common sources ofcontamination?
How to keep your workout routine as sanitary aspossible?
Stay with Roundtable for all the above andmore.
Andnow, have you noticed that many young people today prefer not to have guests over athomes?
Have you thought about why thatis?
From valuing privacy to redefining socialinteractions?
Let's uncover the reasons behind this shift and what it says about our evolvinglifestyles.
Before asking how muchso, let me firstask, is itso?
Is it true that many young people today prefer not to have guests athome?
I think I'm someone who likes visitingfriends.
But when you're hostingfriends...
When you ask me if I want them to come to myhouse, I'm not as akid.
However, youknow, most of the time I'm apresident.
What do you mean as apresident?
Just sayit.No, I don't want them in myhouse.
Yeah, probably we're going to talk about why young people don't want them to come to theirhouse.
But,yes, ofcourse, cleaningeverything.
Behind. And I think a lot of people will have that kind of sentiment that you need to recoup a little bit after a huge socializationactivity.
I wouldsay... It's like it'sfun, it'sexciting, but it's allabout...
I loveit, but I needrest.
Yeah, it's also demanding in away.
After partying for fivehours, you kind of want everybody to go away and leave you yourself in your space for awhile.
And if your space at that exact moment is messy and with a lot of love toover, it bothersyou.
Especially when it's a private place that youhave.
Basically, it is the place that you think you will feel the most safe environmentthere.
But everybody's getting into there and feel you're basically naked in front ofeverybody.
Yeah, I know what youmean.
Like, your part of your life is just on full display for everyone tosee.
Yeah, I didn't even know that it was kind of common in China for people to hang out at people'shomes, young people'shomes.
Like,hey, come over to myhouse, we'll hangout, we'll eathere,we'll, youknow, I don'tknow, watch a movie together or something likethat.
That's super common inCanada.
I think it's maybe a little less common than it used to be in Canada than it wasbefore.
That's the similartrend.
But, youknow, when I think back to when I was akid, I still havememories.
My parents would host house parties all thetime, but don't get mewrong.
It wasn't like these ragers where you were like 300 people and I wasno,no.
It's like maybe two othercouples, six people intotal.
Familyfriends. They'd have dinner together and have some drinks and then play card games and things likethat.
But Istill, I don't think that's as common as it used to beeither.
So maybe it's not just a trend to change with youngpeople, just a change in general where we just don't want people in our private spacesanymore.
I think one of the reasons behind it is that we do now have a lot morechoices.
We can go to have meals together in really goodenvironment.
We can go hanging out inmalls, in karaoke and we can even go campingsomewhere.
We can traveltogether.
We can even sit andwalk.
Basically, it's like walking in thecity.
Imean, it's like you've got all these choices and it's not necessarily your home is the perfect location for you and your friends togethertogether.
Yeah, but the mall isn'tnew.
Going for a walk isn'tnew.
So, weren't all of those options availablebefore?
I think the malls arebetter.
Imean, Imean, I think the spaces to go arebetter.
Arebetter,yes. I think that depends on how close you guysare.
Because thatactually, Ithink, is the reason whether you want them to come into your home ornot.
First ofall, in recentyears, I feel that sense of boundaries is a kind of a key word or term that is frequently mentioned on Chinese socialmedias.
Because, youknow, a lot of discussion on these platforms like Xia Hongshu or Doban are all talking aboutnowadays.
People are more and more having these kind of sense of boundaries to actually don't trouble anybodyelse.
Yes. And actually experts also have explanations on physicalboundaries.
According to the research of anthropologist EdwardHa, there are roughly four types of interpersonal space distances from intimatedistance, which is 0 to 45 centimeters topublic.
It's also very specific to public distance over 360centimeters.
So I believe that at least in myexperience, I haven't encounteredmany, youknow, unfamiliar people that eagerly want to invade or yourspace.
In otherwords, unfamiliar people coming to visit yourhome, especially among young peopletoday, Ithink.
There is a stronger sense of boundaries towards others and mentality of not wanting to trouble others and to make both parties consciously thinkthat, youknow, if they are not familiar with eachother, they should not visit each other'shomes.
Yeah. It's kind of theopposite,though.
Or at least it can be where it's a way of showing how close you are to eachother.
You ever hear ofNewfoundland, Newfoundland inCanada, it's the furtherfurthest, most eastern province out there in the AtlanticOcean.
And when you go to a house party inNewfoundland, do you know where they hang out in thehouse?
In thekitchen.Why? That's where the partyis.
It's a kitchenparty. So you put on music and everybody hangs out in the kitchen and you have some drinks and that's kind of the way it's a bondingthing.
Yeah. But I wonder how big is thekitchen.
It doesn't have to be very big atall.
The reason why is because the oppositeoption, like going out and meeting your friends for dinner orsomething.
Yeah. People also dothat.
But it doesn't seem asfriendly.
It doesn't seem as bond building as the option of having people in their home and haveit.
Oh,yeah, the Newfoundland kitchenparty.
That's a goodtime.Well, I sense that from yourtone.
It's a goodtime. But according to Oushan'stheory.
Yes, I'm calling it Oushan's theorynow.
If you're in the kitchen and the kitchen is not big enough and you're handing outwith, forexample, more than one group offriends, forexample, we are friends and I invite other friends to come over and you guys don't necessarily know eachother.
Then you're forced to enter each other's private space and the intimate 42kilometers.
42 centimeters backoff.
So the idea is that if you're forced to shrink thelens, the distance between you and someone who you do not know thatwell, you getuncomfortable.
Or at least today's young people getuncomfortable.
That is why they do not also want to hostsuch.
Let's say indoor and actually party in theirhomes.
Maybetoo. Is this COVIDrelated?
Iwonder. Do you know what Imean?
Where we had to isolate ourselves and we couldn't have social interaction and we couldn't have other people come to ourhomes.
Did we get used tothat? Did we complain about it in the beginning and then slowly something happened in our brains where we suddenlysaid,oh, actually this is prettygood.
Oh, wait aminute. I actually preferthis.
Hey, do you want to come over to myhouse?
No. That is now the last thing that I want to do because I'm so comfortable being in my own space that I don't have that social need anymore that I used tohave.
Maybe this is part of coming out ofCOVID.
Maybe I hear thattheory.
And then I think about whether or not it has something to do with the really non-stop digital communication with yourfriends.
When you need to see them in previous days when you really want to have aparty.
You can have a party and have really quality time withthem.
But now since you talk to each other basically all the time online and sometimes I know people that they would watch avideo, watch a movie togetheronline.
That is they watch movies in their separate homes together and share a videocall.
And that's the way young kids are doing nowapparently.
And with that level of intimacy and that level of seeing each other all thetime, they do not really need to have these kind of intimate and concentrated quality time together in theirhomes.
The newfoundland kitchenparty, the people who came to yourhouse, you probably haven't talked to them a lot in the last week or month or who knows maybe twomonths.
So there's a lot to catch upon.
Now it is like you justsaid, I text you in themorning, I text you alunch, I text you in the afternoon and then I saygoodnight.
I don't need you in my living roomtomorrow.
Is that so young person you shouldthink?
Yes, young person please tellus.
Well, at least you guys are close enough to actually you want to catch up because you haven't met each other for a long time or you only talkonline.
But in thiscase, I think a lot of people don't want theguests, quote unquote theguests.
I think they are the relatives that they're not really familiarwith.
Yes, whenever they come to theirhome, they will ask a lot of these personal questions on your salaries or your relationship on how many dates you're going on for a week or something likethat.
Something likethat. And you don't need to getmarried.
A lot of young people will feel uncomfortable aboutthat.
And they basically don't want to you know these kind of a relationship to get into their house and keep that's kind of a fake smile towards them because you cannot say disrespectful words tothem.
Even though they are saying something that you really don'tlike.
So I think that is mainly the thing that Chinese young people don't want when we are talking about you know these kind of a gas or home visitingthings.
I think what you should is trying to say here is I still want my friends to come over to myhome, but I do not want my parents friends to come over to my home tovisit.
Sounds likeit.Yeah, it's kind of like the distantrelatives, yourparents,family,friends, becausepreviously, when I saidpreviously, I mean 20 yearsago, actually the relationship between people are different or at least the way we deal with eachother, we stay in and out with each other is a little bitdifferent.
So you would know yourneighbors, you would leave your kids to your neighbors and when you're in a busy working over timesituation, but now that does not happen thatoften.
And also we would rely on families and also relatives and actually distant relatives quite so much in previoustimes.
We would work together by saying worktogether.
Imean, forexample, if you're gettingmarried, then you would invite a lot of relatives to help you with the wedding ceremony and they would help you to arrange things to maybe get the equipment and household appliances that you need and they would help you to host theguests.
Basically, it's kind of like a project that a lot of people that you might know of or your parents might know of would come together and work ontogether.
Buttoday, I do not see that as prevalent and common as20, 30 yearsago.
And I'm not reallysure, whoever you'relistening, if you're familiar with the traditional Chinese character because now we use the simplified Chinese character and the traditional Chinese character for a scene that is close is combined with the simplified Chinese character and thecharacter, which is see eachother.
Me to eachother. So you have to be able to see each other often enough to have this level ofcloseness.
Yeah, some Chinesephilosophy, throwing in and a screen time countthough.
Because they didn't talk about that when they came up with these Chinesephilosophers, youknow, a long timeago, they didn't think about tablet PCs and FaceTime eachother.
You see thatcoming, but you get what I'm saying here that is without seeing the distant relatives frequentenough, you do not bond with them as close as previous times and that is why you do not want them in your homenow.
But not saying that young people are just so indifferent to their relatives because they family can be so bloodedhumans.
Yeah, the young kids running around the family can be so big andextended, to behonest, they can be your mother's sistersneighbors.
Quite really hard tohear.
So it can be very distant and that's why they want some people that they are not really familiar with to come to theirplaces.
It's just people are so busy thesedays,right?
Youngpeople, olderpeople, you have to go towork, you have tocommute, you have to do yourshopping, you have to take care of all your daily stresses andchores, and your home is yoursanctuary.
It's the only place that you really have that belongs toyou, that nobody can come in and invade and judge you on your socks being on thefloor, your milk that you left on the counter overnight orwhatever,whatever,right?
That's yourspace. And maybe now people arerecognizing,well, I don't necessarily want people to come into my space because I need this private time bymyself.
I need my ownspace. And if I feel likethat, maybe other people feel like thattoo.
So we're not pushing as much to go over and visit other people as maybe we did in the pasteither.
Yes, but that beingsaid, I think young people still have the need for social interaction with theirfriends, withcolleagues.
How are you balancingit, youshould?
It is kind of a relationship that you wouldlike.
And do you care how often you see yourfriends?
Let's put the question likethat, like not just put it in a coldway, buthonestly, does it really make that big of adifference, whether you catch up with your friends once a week or twice a week or once a month or once every threemonths?
Like how frequently do you need to meet your friends to still feel satisfied in the friendshiprelationship?
Oh, I think how a lot of these young people are thinking is that of course they want these kind ofrelationship.
They love to have their friends to visit them and they can be the host to entertain everybody at the party and serve ameal, serve a bigmeal.
But the thingis, a lot of the time after thisactivity, they need a lot of things to do to basically maybe the chores and cleaning upeverything.
It's not about the people that they are meetingwith.
It'sabout, Ithink, the personality or characteristic that you may have because this is when everybody's left and you are being alone in your house and at that moment you willthink, it is another cleaning upsession.
Oh, maybe we can call anotherhousekeeper.
The show comes fullcircle.
Maybe at thatmoment. So what I'm trying to say is that that kind of emotion or feeling that you need to do that alone or the feeling that you just have a fully energeticafternoon, but after that you need to clean it byyourself.
I think that kind of sentiment is something that young people don't want and they are trying to saying that out loud and that kind of social activity plus cleaning session or plus aftermath is something that they areclaiming.
So I guess what you're saying is I'm not coming over to your house fordinner.
That was his long-winded way of saying I'm not inviting youever.
One other thing I actually want to share here is that for those who genuinely do not want people to come to theirhomes, do not want even the closest friends to invade their personalspace.
I'm very glad they're saying it out loud because when I was growingup, when I was ateenager, being outgoing is considered apro.
It's considered something that kids should worktowards.
And no matter if you're an introvert orextrovert, no matter if you're outgoing or you just stay byyourself, all these different personalities are praised and areencouraged.
And at least I believe that is a really good and healthy thing happening for today's young people and also the socialenvironment.
And it is clear that the social preferences of young people are shifting in interesting ways and roundtable is always here toobserve, analyze andreport.
We hope you found our discussion on why young people prefer not to have guests at homedelighting.
You're listening to Roundtable coming upnext.
We uncover the hidden realities of gymhygiene.
Just how clean or dirty are those weights and treadmills we use everyday.
Staytuned. Looking forpassion?
How about fierydebate?
Wanna hear about current events in China from differentperspectives?
Then tune in toRoundtable.
Where East meets West and understand it is thegoal.
You're listening to Roundtable withyourself, Neil HolienSteve, Heatherley andYushan.
Have you ever wondered how clean your local gym reallyis?
As more people return to fitnesscenters, understanding the potential health risks iscrucial.
From sweaty equipment to locker roomgerms, let's talk about what you can do to stay safe and clean while gettingfit.
SoYushan, how often do you go to gyms to startwith?
Never to behonest. I don't have any gymmembership.
I have never seen the inside of agym.
Because it's just so dirty and can I standit?
Is thatwhy? I can see more and more gyms are establishing in theneighborhood.
First ofall, I can see more and more people are going to the gym and realizing that importance of activity andhealthy.
Secondly, it kind of reflects that people's living standards in some way have improved because more people can't afford to get gym memberships not likeme.
Personal trainers are becoming morepopular,right?
Speaking of a lucrativejob, perhaps if you'repopular.
Butyeah, that's becoming more popular these daystoo,right?
Yeah, in Korea where I just moved from the gym culture exploded in the last 10years.
I think they live in the gym and they don'tsleep.
Yeah. I know I'msorry. Those who are listening fromKorea.
Yeah, they always have coffee withthem,right?
Yeah, soyeah, and then withInstagram, socialmedia, posting their images and things likethat.
Butyeah, gym culture has become a lot morepopular.
I think that maybe it used tobe.
And are you a gymgoer,Steve?
You wouldn't know it at themoment.
I knowit. You look veryfit.
I just thought you grow thatway.
I didn't know it's because of your hardwork.
But since you do that hard work ingyms, how clean or dirty you think it can be or it actuallyis.
I prefer not to think about it atall.
No, I think there's there's gymetiquette,right?
So forexample, if you are going to do a benchpress, do I need to define everything for you here to let you know like what a bench pressis?
It'salright. Thankyou.
So if you lay down on thebench, then you should put the towel around where your headis,right?
So that you don't leave a big pool ofsweat, but some peopledon't,right?
And it's just nasty when you go to use it next and you can even see the like the outline ofsweat.
So Iknow, I know there must be just tons and tons of bacteria inthere, but where isit?
Where should Iavoid? I've always thought I can't really avoid it because everybody's holding thebars.
Everybody's touching everything all the time and everybody'ssweating.
So I'm just assuming that the shower that I immediately have afterwards is going to erase all of thatbacteria.
At least that's what I'mhoping.
Yeah, and we can see some personaltrainers.
They carry a bottle of alcohol to actually spray wherever yougo.
And they bring their own towels like Steve did and to actually lay on the equipment and prevent direct contact with sweat andgerms.
And I saw somebody say that make sure your hands are stay away from your eyes and once to stay away from the germs to get into yourbody.
And next when you get homeclean, the towel was in clothing that you have used intime.
These are some really goodtips.
Yeah, don't touch your eyes with your handsafter.
Yeah, it makessense,right?
That's good advice for like the subway to your holding on to the handles or the bus or something likethat.
So it makes sense to not do it in the gymeither.
Yes, I hope this question is not toopersonal.
But have you ever developed any problems because of you go to a not so clean gym and use the bars orsomething?
No,never. That'sgood.
Yeah, you talk about the trainers going around spraying things withalcohol.
That's what I think a good gym willdo.
They'll put their cleanliness on display so that everyone has that comfortlevel.
But youknow, some old schoolgyms, they don't they don't do that atall.
And it's generally myexperience.
People tend to just kind of acceptit.
I don't know post COVID if people are still accepting that probably not as much asbefore.
Because we're a lot more aware now of how clean we need tobe.
Butyeah, I've never had any big issues withit.
And in thatcase, maybe you can share some of the tips that you have besides taking a shower rightafterwards.
What are some other things that you do to start with very polite gymetiquette?
That is to say you do not leave your own sweateverywhere.
And also how to protectyourself.
Is there any tips you want to give the gym goers outthere?
Yeah, Imean, just to bepolite, wipe down your space after you've usedit.
And that's not just where your head is laying down on abench, even after just sitting down on abench.
It's polite when you're done to wipe itdown, wipe the seatdown, and also wipe the bars down aswell.
That's a nice thing todo.
If there's a bottle of alcoholthere, you can even spray and wipeit.
That's being reallyconsiderate.
A lot of people in the gym aren't to that level ofconsideration.
And change your toweltoo.
Don't be afraid the towels that you bring that are there in thegym.
Don't be afraid to get a second one if yours is in need of changing to put itlightly.
Those are a couple of tips I wouldsay.
During Chinaactually, many people would bring their owntowels, many people would bring their own slippers so that they use their own and in a void of any kind ofcontamination.
And also I'm shouting out to the gym owners outthere.
We care about these issues and we cannot really rely on every gym goers to taking care afterthemselves.
So if you're running a gym and you're hiring people cleaning thegym, cleaning the equipment very frequently and also making sure the air in the gym is quite good andfresh, then more people would buy the membership card from your gym and you would be running a good business and these things mattersreally, really alot.
I think that's a good business tip if you're going to open a gym emphasized to potential customers how clean your spaces and that'll be an attractive quality for people Ithink.
Yes and for the gym goers do not worry too much because mostbacteria, mostproblem.
Yeah, they would not actually live on the equipment as in if you touch the equipment for example 10 seconds after the first person has used it even though it's warm and sweaty and nasty anduncomfortable, you will not get in the disease thateasy.
Take Steve for example Steve is a frequent gym goer and he does not have thatproblem.
That brings us to the end of today's round table with love to hear your thoughts on today'stopics, leave us a comment wherever you listen to your podcast or send us an email toeasyfmroundtableatfoxmail.com.
Until next time keep the conversations going and the ideasflowing.
I'm your homie with Steve Hathorley and youshould.
