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Welcome to Takeaway Chinese.
I'm Yong Hong -lin joining me today, Steve Hetharly.
Hello, Steve. Hi, thanks for having me back.
Great to have you. Today we'll continue talking about the things that make people curious.
It's from China. We had a good time last time.
We were only planning on using those questions for one episode of Takeaway Chinese, but we got chatty ourselves.
Because the questions were so good.
And we're going to continue on with more of those questions today.
And I have to say, many of the questions which are answered by a lot of Chinese netizens, those are really good answers too.
They provide examples.
And also some of the answers are funny, and we like to share those as well.
So for our dear listeners, if you're interested in Chinese culture and you want to get a grip on the Chinese language, then this is the show for you.
Stick with us for 30 minutes and you soon see the rewards.
And for more fun Chinese learning, follow our Facebook page, Learn Chinese, to watch many fun videos and live streams.
But now let's provide you with some free Chinese for take away.
So let's now continue what are some fun questions or important and useful questions asked by netizens outside of China.
One question that got my attention was related to gift giving.
It says, hello, I am American.
If I am invited to a Chinese household for a meal, what should I do?
Would bringing something be considered impolite?
In the US, I usually bring wine or spirits.
Yes. What would you say?
well when you visit someone's home in China be sure to bring a clock and an umbrella that is a really good answer you know your way that is an ironic I hope you did not turn off your radio or however your after that sentence I hope you are not packing your luggage right now and not listening because I was being sarcastic those are two things that you should not give to people here in China as a gift, but I don't know the answer to that question.
When you do visit someone's home, first of all, is it, I'm guessing it's polite to bring something?
Does it matter what that something is?
Actually, no, it doesn't matter.
Or let's say it depends on the occasion.
If it's a dinner party, if it's a housewarming dinner party, if it's for two newly wets, if it's for a baby's birthday party.
It just all depends, all depends.
Something appropriate for the context of the situation.
But what you do need to think about is, or one thing that is different or you might find surprising would be the attitude of the receiver, of whoever you are actually visiting.
Because I know in a lot of cultures, it is considered polite to open up the present right at the giver's face, right?
But in China, it depends.
Again, I think started from my generation, for example, it's definitely okay to open it up.
But for my parents, they would not open up the gift right there, right then.
Because it's like I'm only inviting you because I consider you as a very important friend, not because I want your gift.
And if I put too much emphasis on the gift, It's kind of like saying I value the gift more than I value you.
It's that sentiment But for our generation we're like, ah, I like you.
So I like your gift Yeah, right so I guess the key there is if you do bring something for someone and if they don't Open it immediately if they just put it off to the side.
It doesn't mean they don't like ya don't be offended by that Yeah, it's just kind of how people do it here.
Yes. And by the way, in Chinese, present is called Li -u.
Li -u. Yes, Li is the same character with, for example, Li -zhi that is ceremonial, and oo is an object.
Also, Li -u, the Li, he -li, Mao the Li, Shi -huen -gui -li.
So it's the same character in polite as well.
So something to show that you're quite polite.
you're honoring the occasion, that would be a present or a gift.
So, li oo. How do li is polite, li mao is polite.
Li mao. Li mao is polite.
Li oo is gift. Li oo and li mao.
Yes. yeah that's a really good question because you never want to, like I said, the clock or the umbrella.
I mean, I don't know who gives an umbrella is a gift to someone anyway, but anyway just it's good to know, right, so for the context of the situation.
Can I add a question that I get asked sometimes?
I got this question when I moved to Korea.
I got this question when I travelled to Southeast Asia, to Indonesia and the Philippines and other countries.
People often ask me, oh, are the people nice?
And I always thought I was just answered the question like, yeah.
But now the more that I've traveled and the more cultures that I've seen and the more people that I've met, the obvious answer is yeah, but people always ask that question.
Why? You've never heard that question before, like when you traveled to America or somewhere people didn't ask you, oh, what are Americans like?
Are they nice? They didn't ask you that?
Yeah, they ask me that.
Right? I don't know why.
Because people don't know, right?
Okay, let me rephrase my question about this question.
How else would you answer?
Yeah, Right, but people or how do you define not nice?
Do they have to? Stare at you Or attack you or something.
Yeah, no, but it's a common question Everywhere I've gone people have asked me Oh, what are the people like and it's a really common question, but the answer is always yeah, they're nice Chinese people are really really nice if you're out in the streets and you look lost and you ask somebody for help They will 100 % help you out.
Same thing goes in every country I've ever been to.
Why? Because human beings are generally pretty nice.
So that's always the answer.
But I always, you know, yeah, when I was younger and traveling, I would give an answer like, yeah, they're nice.
They're really nice.
You know, if you need help, they'll ask.
Now that I've gotten a little bit older, my answer is, yeah, of course they are.
Of course they are.
Of course everybody's nice.
I think some part of the reasons people ask this question is because Sometimes I feel like on the internet, people are not that nice.
In real life, people are like you said, generally nice and polite and willing to help.
But on the internet, sometimes people can be a little harsh.
Can share some almost vicious comment about strangers.
I mean, I just attribute it to the hou -chi, the curiosity that people have and the number Number one thing that people tend to be curious about is whether or not they're not people just in general.
And I, and I guess if they're looking for a question, then that's just kind of an open ended question that people can ask.
Yes. All right. So another question here is the questions are getting more and more detailed, which is fun because I think detailed questions would actually reflect our daily lives excellent.
And this question is, silly question for Chinese friends, do Chinese people eat a lot of fried foods?
And if so, do Chinese people have health conditions because of it?
Can you answer that?
Part two of your question, I don't have access to the 1 .4 billion medical records that exist here in the country, so I don't know.
But in terms of fried food… By the way, fried food!
yó já xípín literally yó is oil actually both edible oil or I don't know fossil fuel would be yó and the já is fried so deep fried xípín food yó já xípín fried food yes I would say I definitely see fried food Me too, but actually huge fan.
Yeah, as am I But you don't see it that often do you I know dumplings are often fried, but not always Right they can be steamed by or boiled.
Yeah, so but you can get them that way I you it's here Definitely, it's here, but I don't see it that often do you you know better though right?
I don't think it's that often Yeah, and also in China actually my feeling is that people's common perception about you just shipping about fried food is that it's not healthy we know it's not healthy so we control the frequencies of having those though again I actually do enjoy it I'm not having it more than for example once two weeks or once a month yeah I don't see it that often I mean you can definitely find it easily as a matter of In fact, you can go onto your food app and find a fried chicken place in two seconds.
But you just don't see it that often.
And if you go to restaurants and watch what people are eating, you don't see it that often.
But that being said, I do think a lot of the dishes, not all dishes, but a lot of the dishes can be quite oily.
But that's how things are cooked for a lot of the dishes.
And I think one thing is that in a restaurant, unless it's a fried chicken restaurant, then Well, you enter the restaurant herself.
In many other restaurants, you can always order something that is relatively contained mostly with veggie.
And then you can have some boiled dishes and then you can have some steamed dishes and some fried dishes and some pan fried dishes.
It's the choices are various.
Yeah. Are abundant, so you do not have to choose only one kind even for just one meal.
That being said, my favorite restaurant restaurant in our neighborhood is a fried chicken wing restaurant, which is right up the street.
Well, I am from Tai Yuan, which is the provincial capital of Shenxi province.
And one of my favorite, absolute favorite top three restaurants in Tai Yuan is a fried chicken restaurant.
And I have to, one day I'll definitely have to treat you with the fried chicken.
I have never ever find any fried chicken better than that anywhere.
So I find that to be true about Korean food as well as American food, like American food you can find to deep fried food a lot, but it doesn't have to be if you don't want to eat it, you can easily find plenty of other things to eat.
So I think that is partly because people's awareness of keeping ourselves healthy is also rising.
And remember when you, in our previous episode, we talked about an Carolish that is the awareness of keeping ourselves safe.
And would be the awareness of keep healthy.
Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes, yes.
Yes, so yeah, being healthy, very important to Chinese people.
Okay, so next question, Chinese friends as China is so large, do you have different cultures in different provinces in the US, we can have significant cultural differences between the various states.
For example, people in the South and Midwest tend to be more chatty with strangers while people in the Northwest are more reserved and keep to themselves.
I wonder if you have something similar in China.
What do you think? I think it's better if you answer that question.
Well, I just want to know your… but you haven't been visiting too many places.
Right. Maybe it's really unfair.
but I would say, yes, people definitely have different subcultures in different provinces.
And I've asked that question a lot and I'm looking forward to learning about the answer, but it just makes sense that the answer is yes, doesn't it?
Ironically, perhaps, and this is true, yeah I agree with the person who asked the question, I'm not American, but I've traveled to the United States a lot, to different states, and I agree with that, you know, different vibe.
Like if you're in New York City versus Los Angeles, California, or somewhere, yeah, Northwest versus Southeast, it's a different vibe.
Canada, oddly, I don't - it kind of feels the same in the majority of the country.
I mean slight differences.
Like if you go to Quebec obviously, then you're going to encounter French, right, which you may not encounter in other parts of the country.
Montreal is my number one recommended place to go in Canada that in Quebec City, by the way, but just the general vibe of the country from the west to the east to the east of the west is I think it's generally the same.
I mean you might find other Canadians that disagree with me this is just my opinion but back to China is it so obviously different would you say?
Well I think it's definitely differently, but here in China we have a saying So feng soo actually means customs or habits.
And surely is 10 miles.
Bali is 100 miles. Actually it means that if two villages are separated with the distance of 10 miles, they may already have different cultures.
different concepts.
So we cannot really just say, oh different provinces are different.
Actually different tons are different, different villages are different.
Even different families might be different.
I'm talking about those extended, huge families.
So it's even more distinctive than that.
And I think it's partly because China has so long, so long a history.
And for a extended family, for example, maybe the family has its own history, its own stories.
in its own come to being backgrounds and for that extended family which can sometimes be the population of entire village.
It might already have something deeply rooted in this gene in this culture and yeah I think that is why it can be so different.
Yeah and I think that's what makes a place special, right?
I mean, I haven't experienced it in China but that that's one of the very cool things about the United States is that it's the same country but if you go to one city it might have a totally different vibe from another city it makes you feel like oh you're in a different place but in fact you're still within the same borders and it's one of the one of the cool things about it so that that's something to be celebrated yes and by the way culture in Chinese would be well huh when ha well is warning civilization or wen zi, language or wen zien, a document.
You see it's related to words and language and documents and all that and wen huà, together would be culture.
Culture is wen huà.
Wen huà, culture. So another very important reason actually is that China has, well for those of you who are not that familiar, China actually have 56 ethnic groups.
And when it comes to regional differences, different landscape and climates, and those who are living in, for example, Yunnan.
I really enjoyed Yunnan, its climate is very pleasant and it has a lot of different ethnic groups.
Then definitely it would be very, very different, food and festivals, and for those who are, for example in Xizang, and Xinjiang, for example, they also have many many ethnic groups, and one a province, for example, or a city, or a autonomous region, or a prefecture is dominated by a certain ethnic group, then it can be really really different from the others.
Uh -huh yeah. I mean again, that's something to be celebrated isn't it?
It makes it more fun.
There's a dance song, an electronic dance song, from a while ago.
Oh, I forget who sang it, but the lyric says, if everybody looked the same, we'd be tired of staring at each other.
That is a good comment.
So having diversity and having different cultures within your own country is a really cool thing.
Yes, and some other questions are a little bit more specific to the accident happened recently of the so -called TikTok refugee, but we know that TikTok is back in use, but still many Americans specifically went onto Red Note, which is Xiao Hongshu by the way Xiao Hongshu Yes, so Xiao is little, Hong is red, and Shu is a book or a notebook, so Little Red Note or Little Red Book, they went onto Xiao Hongshu to ask all these questions and they are asking about why Chinese people are quote on quote demanding them to post their tat on retino do you know the answer that was called the cat tax the cat tax
why cat tax I don't I don't know I don't know actually why why the cat tax the cats are cute just the answer the reason I'm raising this question is because we've seen some people who are not that familiar with work at all familiar with the Chinese internet or asking whether or not Chinese people are nice to animals to pets.
So, you are now in the office, you know how crazy those cat lovers are, they share their cats even when cat tags does not apply to them.
Oh, 100 percent true, and dogs, too.
At our local shopping mall, as a matter of fact, every weekend, almost every weekend, they have the local animal shelter that comes and sets up a booth for adoption.
And they have, you know, sometimes it's just cats and sometimes it's just dogs and sometimes it's dogs and cats, but there's always a huge crowd around of people looking at the animals.
Yeah. Definitely animal lovers here.
That's for sure. Yeah.
So here in China, a lot of people, I think when it comes to by the way is Pat, not only are more and more people very much openly share their love for their pets.
Actually I've also seen two phenomenons.
One is that like anybody else around the world or any pet owners around the world.
People here in China also treat their pets like they treat their kids.
Family member. Family member.
And that phenomenon is even expanding to our language.
In China we already talked about studying being a pet, but actually both these words, words, or you can understand it as with animal.
So it cares the meaning of object and hear animals.
And is a kind of love, but it's a very specific kind of love.
It's the kind of love that you want to take care of them.
You want to spoil them.
You want to do all the things for them.
It's a bond, isn't it?
It's not only a bond, it's more like you treat it as something that's more vulnerable.
And that depends on you and that is why is also a Chinese word.
It means the kind of love you would give to your favorite pet.
You can also give it to your kid because your kid also depends on you.
Your kid also needs you to take really good care of them.
You might argue more than your pet.
But my point is, it's a very special kind of love.
Sometimes people would even want a little bit that kind of love in their romantic relationship.
I mean, of course, we're all independent, we love each other and support each other, but occasionally pick a day to love your spouse the way you love your pet or love your kid.
That is to spoil them, to take care of them, treat them like they cannot fetch their own water.
They cannot order their favorite dish.
Do that for them. And in Chinese, we call it qong ai.
Yeah, there's a huge animal culture here.
People love their pets and when you go out for a walk, you see a lot of dogs out for their stroll with their owners too.
One little cute thing that I see every single morning, there's a grandma that comes to a local restaurant and she's very old and she has two poodles and when she's eating she ties the poodles up and just leaves them right in front of the window so she can see the poodles and the poodles can see her, she's right in front of them.
And the poodles just sit and watch and wait, and people will come by and look at the poodles and greet them.
And the poodles are really friendly.
But yeah, you see it all day every day here.
Yes, a huge animal culture.
So, yeah, we love animals here.
And another question I've come across, which is also this one is getting, like I said, more detailed and also a little bit more sophisticated, is that general question as a foreigner.
I recently saw a post asking about the different ethnic groups here in China.
Now I've only seen those fair skiing Chinese people and what do minorities or different ethnic groups look like in China?
Do you have an answer for that?
Well, I went to my wife's yoga class one day and one of her classmates walked up and I thought she was, I don't know, Italian or from Europe somewhere.
So I said, Hi, I'm Steve.
And my wife said, Oh, she doesn't speak English.
She only speaks Chinese.
I said, Oh, she's Chinese.
I would never have guessed.
Never in a million years have guessed.
So the answer to that question in my very, very, very limited one time yoga class experience is that, yeah, of course the answer is yes.
Actually when it comes to different ethnic groups, I think one answer from One Medicine is very interesting.
They say that you can kind of understand it as China is like you can compare different ethnic groups in China to different countries in Europe.
They're not that different.
they do not look that different in the sense that they're still the same species, like we're yellow, you're Caucasian, we have people from Africa, we're, China's ethnic groups are not that different in for example, the color of our skin or the color of our eyes or the color of our hair, of course, for Chinese people, we can tell the difference, we can kinda sense but it's only specific to certain ethnic groups, for some ethnic groups we cannot even tell and like you said there's also the occasion that you can never guess it's actually a Chinese person, the one from your wife's Yuga class, so instead
of separating or differentiating different ethnic groups here in China with the color of our skins it's more like the culture and the history of that exact ethnic group.
Yeah, I mean for me, people always think I'm Russian.
Really? Always. Even the Russians think I'm Russian.
It's true. Do you know, well I get Russia and England, English, those are the two that I most commonly get, but I get Russia more than England.
And I was at my apartment building where a lot of expats live and there's a maybe pretty significant group of Russians that live in the building too.
Very friendly, very kind people.
And one day a lady came up to me and she spoke Russian.
And I said, well, oh, whoa, I'm sorry, I'm Canadian.
She said, oh, because my other Russian friend told me there's a new guy in the building, there's a new Russian guy in the building.
And that was you. So I just thought you were Russian.
I said, no, no, but I hear it all the time, all the time.
I cannot tell. I don't feel at all that you're Russian.
Really? That's the thing.
Again, like I said, we don't really, really understand each other's perspectives.
We can't really wear each other's shoes unless we deeply talk to each other and find that feature.
One last reason that I suddenly realized is that for a lot of ethnic groups here in China, we do not really have the idea of I can only marry people from my own ethnic group Which is why after so many years, actually, a lot of those who are, for example, from not the Han ethnic group, they're not 100 percent, or their parents may be from different ethnic groups, and after one or two generations, also the differences in looking or in hair color, eye color, the skin color is not that distinct either.
So, yes, but definitely one thing I have to say, is this is my own stereotype.
And maybe I'm being super biased.
But I feel like, besides the Han ethnic group, which is my ethnic group, all the other 55 ethnic groups here in China, people in those ethnic groups are super talented in dancing and singing.
You're just really good at that.
And I am not. And - Well, that's not your ethnicity.
That's just you. You're right, you're right.
But I feel like they're just really good at it.
So for those of you who are interested in coming to China, taking a tour, visiting different places, yes, the cultures of different ethnic groups, the very colorful, unbelievably beautiful clothing and hair piece and those silver, shiny, the very beautiful silver, I would assume, expensive tiara and everything.
Those are something that are also China.
It's a very important part of China that I encourage you to experience.
Very cool. And that brings us to the end of today's takeaway Chinese.
Thank you very much for being with us the entire time.
This is Neal Hong -Yin with Steve Hatherly.
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