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Q: Are they aware of how rude loudness is considered to be by most cultures?
Horns blaring, music blasting, people shouting into each others' faces. It's all so weird. Was this an innovation by the great helmsman or do you think they were always like this?
I wear earplugs in the house in the evening now too while I'm reading or writing because these nouveau riche villagers use their horns when they're inside the apartment complex. Talk about shitting in your own nest!
'Loudness isn't rude in (almost) deaf cultures.'
It must be something wrong with Chinese ear system for all that loudness. Similar to their eyesight, which is also impaired.
'Our bodies (must be) are different.....'
Spanish people are considered loud, as are Italians: have you ever been present when they talk about football or argued?
In China it is loudness 'with Chinese characteristics'
Yeah, you are right about "MOST CULTURES" 
cuz now I think about it, It was much more louder in my home country 
One thing that surprised me about HongKong was how (relatively) quiet it was compared to here!! (and, by here, I'm also talking about where I live, which I usually consider a quieter area of the city)
It mostly comes from migrant workers. People who come from tiny farmer towns. Old people are so damn loud. Real city folk are generally much more quiet but even then they get louder and louder as they get drowned out.
But no I dont think its considered rude here. people just accept it and turn the tv up louder. We seem to be the only people who complain about it.
Again geography might play a role, but I find Cantonese people under 40 to be very meek and quiet.
Eorthisio:
Culture as well, there are definitely two main cultures in proper China, although the gap is not so obvious nowadays. The North is more confrontational than the South, more group minded as well while Cantonese people seem to be more individualistic. Southern culture is definitely less prone to wankers gatherings (dinners, drinking) and more focused on formal business meetings. People in general are more concerned about personal gains in the South, less about looking wealthy, they do not flaunt wealth as much as Northerners do even though they are usually richer than those Northerners. And of course the resulting behaviors are different.
Nope (to title question).
"Do you think they were always like this?" No, as far as cities streets go with all the bikes it was pretty quiet. Yes, as far as the people goes, most were loud. Their snap remark for people with disgusting manners was "friendship store service quality". The epitome of irony.
The best earplugs I found were those used in airports, by service engineers whose job was to test every plane's engine (imagine the roar) before they take off again. Manufactured by 3M, these are of top quality and comfort. A friend who used to work there gave me one a long time ago. It wasn't expensive at all, the problem was getting it. If you know some air-stewardess or pilot (from your home country, not China), they maybe able to help you get one.
Asia is kinda loud, in general. Nepal have been qualified as worse by some friends. India have its reputation. Vietnam is kinda loud too. Southern Europe is loud but Northern Europe standards. I remember people telling me that the silence here in Europe felt oppressing to them...
I think they enjoy all the noise, it is definitely part of their culture. When they move abroad to say Canada or the U.S.... one of their biggest complaints is that it is TOO QUIET.
My theory is that they equate noise with energy and liveliness. So all the sounds let them know that people are around them and many Chinese feel comfortable and happy when they hear drunk men playing the yelling bai jiu games, fire works, shops blaring songs like "xiao ping guo"...
If it is quiet, it makes them feel lonely or something.
Loud, you want loud??? go to Mexico!!! they play music very loud all hours day and night and coming out of the cars with all the windows down, driving through neighborhoods at 3 in the morning.
It depends on the situations. I know Chinese hate loudness at night. So many people complain about it (I even had one asshole who lived near me in Beijing complain that my room mates and I were loud at night. We were always careful to take our shoes off, keep the TV turned down, and not talk loudly like peasants--but he fixated on us because we were foreigners. He even told me that we should learn to be quiet like the Chinese). And yet, I hear someone hollering in the halls of my complex every night.
When I was teaching relative clauses, I had my students brainstorm lists. One category was 'people who annoy me.' Every group listed people who talk loudly in the libraries and in the dorms at night....but they also admitted that it isn't rare. So, people think that it is rude, but do it anyway. Just like I tell students to be quiet in my class--but have to do so several times.
royceH:
Because they don't care about you, or anyone else either for that matter.
RachelDiD:
Yup that is exactly it. I had a huge problem with the girl above me in my last apartment. Every night, beginning at around 11pm and continuing until the wee morning hours, I would hear her shouting at her boyfriend, stomping around in shoes, slamming doors, and being otherwise obnoxious (sometimes, she turned her stereo system up so loud that the walls in my apartment would shake---at 2am). I showed up to work a shellshocked zombie the whole time I lived there. After leaving a note, having my landlord call hers, talking to the 'helpful' complex management, I stormed up to her apartment one morning at 1:30. She answered the door, recognized me as the woman who was always complaining about her, and said in perfect English, 'Oh, sorry about the noise. I get home from work late.' She knew she was an ass, she just didn't care. And that is why I hate China--it's not the whats, it's the whys. I could live with the noise, but not the self-serving assholry that permeates this culture.
The premise of this question is stupid. Most people in the civilized world believe the death penalty is bad and should be abolished, so should I just change and go along with it?
Just because a behavior or thought is popular around does not automatically mean I should change mine.
Yes I think loudness is ignorant. But that is their choice. There are far worse behavioral problems that should be changed because they have real consequences.
laowaigentleman:
I don't think they should just go along with the herd. They do plenty of that. All I'm asking is whether they're aware of how rude it is so that when they're in situations where rudeness is completely taboo, such as classrooms and lecture theatres, they can check themselves and adjust their behaviour after a little reflection and introspection.
