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Q: Wasting food - an absolute no-no for Chinese?
I was teaching my kids and during the course of a lesson I brought up the tomato-throwing festival in Spain, showing them some pictures. Most of my classes were pretty vocal in saying they thought it was a pointless waste of food. Not one of them laughed, smiled or saw the fun in it.
These kids are 15/16 for the most part, and I found their reactions fascinating. I don't disagree with it 100%, but it goes to show how important not wasting food was for the past generation, their parents.
Jesus! Have you been to any Chinese-hosted, big, restaurant dinner? They toss out more food in one dinner than I could eat in a week.
My girlfriend's mother doesn't like to waste food and always tells my girlfriend to finish eating everything.. When we go out to any place that is expensive, wasting food is the norm for all Chinese that go there, it's a way of "gaining face" and "showing off" how rich they are..
Back home in the USA, it is also becoming more common to waste food because, women especially, think other people will think they're fat if they eat all that they order. That's true even if they order a little. Also, a lot of "fad" diets say to always leave something behind on your plate.
I never waste food, but I'm also obese. Losing weight pretty quick just living in China though, my girlfriend drives me like a slave worker.
wasting?.....china wastes food like shit.....have you ever been to a Chinese wedding?!!!.........go to a Chinese wedding and you will see that the food wasted in one Chinese wedding can feed a small African tribe.....
Yeh, of course they waste less than we do in the west, China is still a relatively poor country. I've been criticized for wasting water when I do the washing up. I hardly worry about using rubbish bins here, you can put an empty bottle on a wall in the street and it'll be gone in about five minutes.
the reason your students responded you that way was not because chinese dont waste food. it was because they never view food as a toy. something you can play with. using food as a toy is a complete waste to most chinese.
I'd love to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I went to quite a few banquets while I was in China. The host would supply three times as much as the people could eat, just to prove that he could.
I ended up disliking banquets simply because of the food wastage! There was less wastage at less formal places, but even on a normal restaurant visit I'd always see a LOT of food left behind.
