By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: Banquets: why serve twice as much food as people can eat?
I haven't really been in China long enough to be the banqueting queen yet, but I've noticed a tendency toward ordering 2-3 times the amount of food people can actually eat.
Tonight's dinner took the (metaphorical) cake. My table of six, at a function, was served enough food to feed twenty with leftovers. Seriously, the plates were stacked five high and we we all absolutely stuffed by the time we finished, but we'd eaten only a tiny fraction of what was there.
Is this just the way hospitality works here, that this is how the host proves they're looking after guests? Is there another good reason why there always seems to be lots and lots of food left over?
I'd love to know the thinking here.
They do that for anything involving guests. It's a major faux pas to not provide enough food for a guest and they're hedging their bets.
Here's a fun way to see why: go to a restaurant in China with all foreigners. They'll usually order about as much food as they can handle, which will turn out to be too little, and they'll attack the middle of the table like a pack of wolves, and everyone walks away hungry and bitter. The Chinese, who always have a host in such matters, will want to avoid this at all cost.
MissA:
That's a little harsh! The westerners I know have never left a table hungry and bitter :) We just order more food!
If there is no food left over after a meal, it will appear as if the host wasn't a good provider or didn't have enough money to feed everyone. They will lose much face. Conversely, many leftovers imply that the host is wealthy enough to provide more than enough food to feed their guests. They will gain face.
As explained above, it is mostly for the reason called here "face". It is part of their culture, you must provide enough for everyone, in food and also in alcoholic beverages, with left ovwers included.
And in many cases, locals will take the left overs home with them in "doggy bags", and westeners will not ( in general, some may do). That is also a socially acceptable custom here.
