By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: Why do people have the need to spit all the time?
is it just a habit or do they have too high saliva production because of chewing on some crap or a very unfortunate diet. ?
I don't remember feeling the need to spit, except some few times when disgusting food has been involved, or if someone fell off a chair right after I have taken a big sip of beer.
10 years 52 weeks ago in Health & Safety - China
I read it comes from an old superstition, you breathe in evil spirits so you have to spit them out. This sounds right because of Chinese irrational thinking, who'd know that you could just breathe them back out again.
They just copy what the others do. It's same as when someone yawns.
That's the reaction they have when Westerners are around. They make them sick in their stomach.
Very good question. Surely we have some Han readers here... anybody care to give us a bit of insight into this particular behavior ?
It could also be the air quality as well. Ever since I arrived here, all I have the urge to do sometimes is spit because the air is that bad from all the cars, the street butchers and general minging smells that seem to just rise up from the gutter every now and again. All that and "stinky tofu" wow that stuff is vile!!!
Scandinavian:
yet you don't spit right ? taking a sip of water also solves the feeling of polluted air.
you should try the stinky tofu, taste and smell is not the same, like aging cheese, the taste is better than the smell. stinky tofu only comes second in horridness, Durian can make any man cry, puke and run away.
DaveP84:
No I do not spit, it is disgusting and unhygienic. I would not want to add to the already overwhelming low hygiene standards that so many Chinese seem to take on. I am not saying all. But this last three weeks have certainly been an eye opener for me.
We really do not realise just how much we have until it has gone. I still love it here though, and there is still so much more for me to see and do.
In my four years in Guilin, I had a student spit IN my classroom once.
In my year and a half in Beijing, it has happened FOUR times!
I got so angry at them, it is among the few times I have yelled at a student in the classroom, they looked like they were going to sh*t their pants. They could not understand why teacher was so angry at them.
Of the five times, the first one still makes me angriest. He was a Masters student for "Marxist Thought and Political Ideology". When I told him to clean that up, he was indignant and said " that is ayi's job".
So much for Marxism.....
Probably because of the pollution. One girl said yesterday that it was so windy and dirty outside that some sand/dirt got into her mouth. So you know she had to spit. That happens a lot here.
I am a Chinese and hate people spit very much. Have nothing to do with air pollution or superstition. If my student spits in class, I would slap him on the face and ask him to lick it clean. I consider whoever has to spit often has really bad personal hygiene habit or badly educated by their family.
Because it's not always convenient to urinate or defecate
The pollution causes a huge build up of gunk, and since their immune systems are actively fighting the foreign particles, they need to expel them or it'll make whatever damage they sustained even worse. Smaller particles get stuck inside and can't really be expelled.
They should expel it, just not everywhere. I do it privately, usually in the bathroom.
That's normally why they hawk before spitting. There's a lot of bad crap in there, and it's caught in the mucus.
Scandinavian:
still, when I was a 20 per day smoker, living in a relatively big city (albeit in a place with catalytic converters on cars) I would never have such a need. I am not saying crap from the air is not part of this, but isn't it a matter of, "once you get started"
Hulk:
Not everyone's body is the same. The pollution in Changsha made me need to spit multi-colored gunk constantly.
ElenaDob:
I live in China too, just next to them & I breathe the same air. I never have the need to spit. How come?
Hulk:
Well it's not the only reason they spit, but it's why I spit (not in public, that's gross) and others as well.
