China

Confucianism has a great influence on how the Chinese approach daily life. The elderly in China are respected. The Chinese people are known to have good manners and hospitality and are generally reserved in nature.

The principle of "guanxi" creates bonds between friends and associates so that people commit to helping others when they come to them. Violation of guanxi causes a loss of reputation or honor, which is another important tenet in Chinese society. Keeping it means avoiding shame, failure, defeat, or contradiction.

As economic opportunities expand, society is in a process of evolution. The goal of most families is to build their own home, for which they usually save for several years. Having a home is a symbol of a better standard of living. Most people also want their children to get a good education, go to college, and be more prosperous than they are.

Overall, the Chinese people are very proud of the millennial history of the country and the achievements it has achieved. It is generally recommended that foreigners visiting the country respect these aspects and refrain from making negative comments about the country.

Standard Chinese (putonghua), which is based on Mandarin, is the national language and is spoken by more than 70 percent of the population. Other dialects such as Wu (in Shanghai), Min, Yue (Cantonese), and Kejja are also spoken. Each of the 55 minority groups speaks its own language or dialect. In some cases, for education and official business, the local language is used. The Chinese language does not have a phonetic alphabet; rather it uses characters to express words, thoughts, or principles. The Latin alphabet is used to teach Chinese in schools and for international communication matters. Of the 50,000 characters that exist, only about 8,000 are used. Basic literacy skills consist of learning 1,500 to 2,000 characters.

The Chinese nod or bow slightly when greeting another person. A handshake is acceptable to show respect, especially in formal situations. A greeting common to foreigners is "Ni hao ma?" (How do you do?). While many Chinese accept this term and use it, there are also various, more traditional terms. The Chinese tend to be formal in their introductions; they use the full titles of their guests but are less precise in identifying themselves.

Chinese names usually consist of a one-syllable family name, followed by a one or two-syllable given name. A person is either addressed by the full name or by a title and family name. In lieu of professional titles, the Chinese equivalents of Mr and Mrs are used. Thus, Wang Jian-Jun can also be called Mr. Wang, but never simply Wang and rarely ever Jian-Jun. In place of titles, the terms Lao (old) and Xiao (young) might be used between friends to show special respect.

Except in crowds where physical contact is unavoidable, the Chinese do not like to be touched by strangers. A smile is preferred over a pat on the back or a similar gesture. This is especially important when dealing with older people or people in important positions. The Chinese culture is rooted in the attitude of keeping one's feelings inside rather than displaying emotions openly and publicly. The Western custom of shaking a person's hand upon an introduction is becoming widespread throughout China. Personal space is very limited in China, especially while conversing.

The Chinese use their open hand to point rather than one finger. To beckon, all fingers wave with the palm of the hand facing down. In some regions, it is common for people to spit in public after clearing their throats. The government has tried to curb this behavior with fines, but because it is a custom necessitated by health conditions, it remains common.

It is common in China to show one's surprise or dismay by sucking air in quickly and loudly through the lips and teeth. Silence is respected in China.

When offering a gift, it is common to decline the gift several times before accepting it; as a matter of proper etiquette.

Seating arrangements are important. At a business meeting, the main guest is always seated at the "head of the room", facing the door, with the host having his or her back to the door. When dining, the guest of honor always sits to the left of the host.

Invitations are usually sent for formal occasions, but otherwise, it is common to visit someone unannounced. When invited, one is generally prompt. Being more than a few minutes late is impolite. Guests conduct themselves with restraint and refrain from loud, boisterous speech and actions. Valuable gifts are usually not accepted by strangers, but small gifts may be given by friends. In fact, friends often bring gifts such as tea, cigarettes, fruit, chocolates, cakes, or wine when they visit. Hosts rarely open wrapped gifts until visitors leave. People enjoy gathering for discussions, and playing card and table games.

The Chinese generally wear conservative clothing. In the past, the Chinese people mostly wore the same style of pantsuit because of government policy. Reforms in recent years, however, have led to a wider selection of clothing. Many women wear dresses. Bright colors, Western-style suits, jeans, and jackets are increasingly popular. Nevertheless, styles are not always as modern as in other nations, and Mao suits; are still common. Ethnic minorities wear traditional clothing reflecting their cultural past and the climate in which they live. Despite poor living conditions, the people keep their homes, streets, and towns clean and tidy.

Generally, there is not a wide variety of food available throughout the country, except where private enterprise is encouraged. What the people eat depends largely on what is produced in the region where they live. Chinese cuisine is internationally popular and recognized for its nutritional qualities. It is common to eat a mixture of noodles with a small piece of meat. Meat dumplings typify the hearty wholesome qualities of northern Chinese home-style cooking. In China fruit desserts are often flavored. Jiao Zi Pi (Dumpling skins) are used to make the traditional meat dumplings served in the Chinese countryside.

Chopsticks are used for all meals in China. When finished, a person places the chopsticks neatly on the table; they are not left in the rice bowl. Food which is placed at the center of the table may include more than one main dish to be eaten with rice. Some food is taken to be placed in the rice bowl, which is then held close to the mouth for eating. Bones and seeds are placed on the table or a dish, but never back in the rice bowl. At formal banquets, guests have a short, friendly speech prepared to respond to a host’s remarks. Tipping in restaurants is traditionally considered an insult-something a superior does for an inferior.

Generally, there is not a wide variety of food available throughout the country, except where private enterprise is encouraged. What the people eat depends largely on what is produced in the region where they live. Chinese cuisine is internationally popular and recognized for its nutritional qualities. It is common to eat a mixture of noodles with a small piece of meat. Meat dumplings typify the hearty wholesome qualities of northern Chinese home-style cooking. In China fruit desserts are often flavored. Jiao Zi Pi (Dumpling skins) are used to make the traditional meat dumplings served in the Chinese countryside.

Historically loyalty to the family unit has always been important to the Chinese. During the Cultural Revolution, the state tried to shift loyalty to the government, and families were often split by work or study assignments. Family planning policies limited couples to one or two children, imposing fines or sterilization on violators. At the most recent census, there were 348.37 million (348,370,000) families which is an average of 3.44 persons per family. 37 percent of the people live in urban areas while 63 percent of the people live in rural areas.

Chinese customs stress moral purity. Intimate relations and public displays of affection are discouraged. To help the family planning program succeed, young people are encouraged to marry late. In fact, college students are forbidden to marry until after graduation. The sanctioned age for marriage is 22 for men and 20 for women. Those who marry before that age are not eligible for some of the same benefits as those who wait.

Weddings are simple. A couple first seeks permission from the local governing unit. If granted, a legal contract is recorded without a wedding ceremony. The couple then joins family and friends in a marriage celebration. Wedding rings are traditionally not a part of marriage, but they are becoming more common. The woman retains her maiden name and does not take the family name of her husband.

Table tennis, basketball, and soccer are the most popular sports in China. In warm weather, the Chinese like to relax outdoors by playing games, flying kites, reading, or practicing musical instruments. Mahjong, a game of skill played with small tiles, is making a comeback. Tiaoqi (Chinese checkers) uses marbles on a star-shaped board and is popular with children, whereas xian gi (Chinese chess) is widely played by adults. Many seniors keep birds as a hobby, and traveling has become common for retired urban dwellers with good pensions. Chinese operas are also much loved by the older generation. Young people in cities frequent discos with live bands playing Western music.

School is a very serious thing in China, even for the younger students. If the school is not within walking distance, children will often live at the school in large dormitories—even in the early grades. Because school may begin as early as 6:30 a.m., children get up early for a light breakfast of rice porridge, chicken and noodle soup, or deep-fried pastries that taste something like doughnuts. This will be followed by exercises with their class, often based on a form of martial arts or tai-chi. Then it’s off to class, which will last longer than schools in most other countries.

Most students attending public schools do not have much money and live in large dormitories at the schools. They come home only on the weekends to work during the day and study at night. The majority of Chinese children will walk where they need to go or ride on packed commuter buses with adult workers. If they are fortunate and the family has a little money, they may be able to get a bicycle when they get a little older. Only the wealthy will get a ride to private school and back home with their parents, usually on their way to work in the morning and home in the evening.

Schools in China are an interesting mix of modern and very old thinking. The government is investing heavily in education, but many of the buildings are quite old. Sometimes there is no heating system in the school, even though the temperature might get close to freezing! Still, the students carry on in their disciplined way, determined to do their very best. Schools are beginning to have modern computers installed as the government has chosen to enter the modern world. In fact, the Chinese government even bought an entire division of IBM, the large computer company, which makes Lenovo laptop computers that are sold throughout the world. Though the subjects studied and the methods used to teach those subjects are becoming more open, old ways often persist. For example, teachers used to be the rulers of the classroom and were very strict. Now, many students consider them to be more like friends who are introducing them to a world of learning. But the students still have to memorize large amounts of material and do learning exercises over and over and over because that’s how the teachers learned to teach—and once were only allowed to teach in that way! At lunchtime, students will eat a light lunch of either egg rolls or pot stickers, which are dumplings stuffed with meat or shrimp. At some schools, students will take a nap around noon time for 30 minutes or so after eating. Then they are back in class until around 4:30 or 5:00 p.m.

Chinese students are traditionally very good at memorizing information and understanding how things work. Thus, they are often very good at mathematics, history, and the sciences. But creativity and open discussion can be challenging. The schools and the children’s parents are not used to having such freedom in how the children learn, so it is sometimes difficult to break old habits. Children in China study very hard. Class begins by 7:00 a.m., although some schools are experimenting with letting their students sleep an extra half hour or so and beginning later. It is also not unusual for schools to stay open until as late as 11:00 p.m. for some of the older grades so children can get extra help to learn their subjects better. And children begin early for school. In the 1990s, parents complained that from the age of 4 or 5 the children have no free time and suffer from sleeplessness and depression. Many were unable to tie their shoes or dress themselves, but 90% could play the piano and 70% could recite Tang Dynasty poetry. Some adjustments have been made, but they still feel the pressure to succeed in school. Another fact that students outside of China might find interesting is the strong sense of community that surrounds a school. The children not only study at the school, they also help to maintain it by helping to clean the floors and the desks in each classroom as well as other simple chores. To be a student means studying very hard, but it also means working hard to make sure there is a good place to study. Children begin school at the age of 6 or 7. Primary school lasts for six years, and the children study Chinese, geography, history, math, music, science, painting, physical fitness, and political education. Similar to schools in the United States, after elementary school, middle school will last another three years, in which they will study many of the same subjects they studied in elementary school plus biology, chemistry, physics, law, English, and perhaps another foreign language. Another three years are then spent in high school. The first nine years of school are now required for all Chinese children.

Although physical exercise has been a part of Chinese school tradition for many years, recently sports, in general, have been getting more emphasis among China’s school children. The summer Olympics were held there in 2008, and China wanted to be a good competitor as well as a good host. Standard sports that are played as part of the school curriculum include team sports such as soccer, basketball (Yao Ming of the NBA is a huge hero in China—in several ways!), swimming, and gymnastics. They can also participate in more individual sports, such as martial arts, table tennis, and badminton.

Free time is a rare thing in China, even for children. From the time a child is 4 or 5, he or she must begin preparing for school. Some parents will send their preschoolers to intense five-day-a-week programs from Monday through Friday, and then to another program on the weekends. From the time they are young, they learn the necessity of education to “get ahead” and leave their poor backgrounds behind. They are in school ten hours a day, and when they are not in school they either study or work, often alongside their parents. The same is true of weekends. Even play or athletics is with the goal of improvement and creating an opportunity to create a better way of life. Despite this background or heritage, as the Western culture begins to influence China more, the children are wanting to watch more television and play more games. Some parents find this to be healthy to not feel so much pressure when young. Others are not yet ready for such a change. One recent study found that 88% of elementary school parents and 50% of middle school parents assigned their children extra homework beyond what the school required in order to prepare the children for national exams that determine whether a student is allowed into a university.

Food varies somewhat according to the area of China that someone lives in. However, in most areas, certain foods form the basis of meals, such as fish, chicken, and vegetables, with rice and noodles. Spices can be used to change the flavor from very spicy to sweet. Dinner meals consist of vegetables with bits of meat or seafood, soup, and rice or noodles. Tea is the traditional beverage of China. Although restaurants are becoming more prevalent in the cities as the economy grows, most Chinese families still eat at home because they cannot afford otherwise. Children study in the evenings, often until they fall asleep over their schoolbooks from exhaustion. When they do relax, they play ball, watch television, or play other simple games. But this is not often, as students spend a minimum of 80% of their free time studying, and a good percentage of the remaining time on family responsibilities, such as cooking, cleaning, or helping with the family business.

China has more people than any other country in the world, so educating that many children can be very challenging. In former years, the government spent very little money on education. Even as recent as the year 2000, perhaps as many as two million children were unable to go to school. However, China’s economy, and to some extent the politics, are changing very rapidly and becoming more open to nontraditional ways of learning. In the past, the school system was very strict. The government told the teachers what to teach, and the teachers told the students what to learn. Although students worked very hard to get good grades, there were not many opportunities for educated people to get good jobs, and often the very educated were considered menaces to the very strict government. On the other hand, education was one of the only ways to change one’s life from being one of the millions of people forced to become communal farmers and rise above being so very poor. Gradually, China is seeing clearly that education is a way to improve life—not only for individuals and their families but for the entire nation. In the first years of the reform, local businesses who wanted to improve life for their community would finance most of a school’s expenses. As the government has also joined in big business and is making much more money than before, they are doing more to improve the schools and pay the teachers better. In turn, in their efforts to change the system, teachers are no longer forcing students to learn only what the government wants them to learn; instead, they are teaching the children to be creative, to solve problems, to choose what they want to study and then become the very best at it. But one thing has not changed: Chinese students are very competitive in school, and children study very hard to become the best in their class.