spitting in china

[gougou]

all people realized that when i say not to spit at my room, i really mean it and no one dares to do it now

Maybe people would have been faster to understand if you hadn't been prohibiting spitting in your room while you were spitting chicken bones into theirs?

[zozzen]

maybe. while i do it for revenge, they may take it as a signal that i enjoy being melted into their habits.

[hefferutd]

not coming across this yet...but i look forward to the day when I do. It's better to spit than to swallow...that's what my mum used to say.

[Cloudll]

It is really a worst habbit if western people see this. How come they spit?

[adrianlondon]

It's better to spit than to swallow...that's what my mum used to say.

Was her cooking that bad?

[owshawng]

adrien,

I think mum may have been doing something other then cooking.

[cdn_in_bj]

I think mum may have been doing something other then cooking.

[adrianlondon]

I think mum may have been doing something other then cooking.

I thought I'd avoid the obvious incest joke and go for something safer ;)

[ABCinChina]

I'm Chinese myself and I just can't understand why everyone here seems to feel the need to spit every five or so minutes while making that annoying "hawking" sound. It gets me mad sometimes, but that's just the way the culture is here.

Just like everybody always honking their horn for no apparent reason even when there's nobody in front of them.

[cdn_in_bj]

Well, it doesn't take long before the pollution here gets to your lungs. I've felt the urge to hork up a big one on many occassions, but have always caught myself everytime. Maybe one of these days...

[jiaseto]

I was visiting Nanning during the summer and I noticed there were electronic signs on the buses and everywhere telling people to be a "civil person" and not spit and throw garbage on the ground; people will be fined from Y50 to Y200 if caught doing that. I think the public campaign works. During the 2 days I was there, I did not see one person spit in public and the city is very clean.

If government is serious about this problem and subject people to fine, this bad habit will go away.

[imron]

Maybe one of these days...

入乡随俗吧. At least that's what the Chinese always tell me I should be doing.

[zozzen]

I begin to believe that Chinese has a real "chinese" view on spitting that no foreigner can really understand.

They think spitting is different from throwing a rubbish on the street. It will be dried, and won't give extra burden to cleaning staff. They don't understand why you're okay with a dog peeing on the street, but not accept they spit.

When I showed my dramatic expression to anyone who spitted in front of me, their response convinced me that they truely believe it's okay to spit like that.

[gato]

I hardly ever see people in spit in public in Shanghai. Maybe you're surrounded by people who just left the farm, so to speak. If you are in the middle of a field, nobody cares if you spit.

Also is air pollution is really bad where you are? Is that what's causing all the phlegm?

[Quest]

Spitting indoors is odd. I only knew one nanny that did that when I was in China (long time ago), in her own room. She was a Hakka nanny and later went psycho. She was a friend's grandma, I found it disgusting at the time, and I wouldn't go into her room. You could see spots all over the floor in her room.

zozzen, you should do a background check on your friend. I agree with Gato, spitting is a prevalent but not a universal habbit in China. Many of us find it disgusting and don't do it. But like many things in China, there's always some thickheaded people that would do them, and as an ordinary citizen, there's nothing you can do about them. Sadly, those in power are among the most thickheaded. It used to be that the more grass rooted your origin the higher your rank in the proletarian communist government.

[gougou]

Spitting indoors is odd.

I've seen it plenty in public institutions (train stations, hospitals...), but never at private homes. I found it odd that spitting was tolerated in the hospital (especially because that was in 华西 hospital in Chengdu, which is a fine institution). Reminded me of the meat counter in the Ito Yokado I used to go to, where a sales clerk would take off her face mask when she had to sneeze in order not to soil it...

[zozzen]

In Henan's Wushu school, students come from different provinces around China. Due to the high school fee (around RMB1000-1200 per month + other expenses), most come from "rich" (relatively) families. In my class, we have Canton, Wenzhou, Teochew, Henan, Guizhou, Sichuan, but no matter where they come from, everyone spits all the time.

The air pollution in Dengfeng is not really severe by China's present standard. Their spitting may be related to heavy workload of exercise, as i can see soccer players spit a lot in a game too....