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Q: What do the Chinese think of left-handed people?
Today I saw an article about a left-handed preschool student somewhere in the U.S. He came home with a note from his teacher informing them that lefties were more prone to being sinister and evil, and that it was a sign of the devil. I guess she wanted the parents to "correct" him... I'd thought we'd moved beyond the Dark Ages (?!)
but anyway, it got me thinking about how people in China often comment when they see me writing or eating with my left hand. It's usually surprise as they point it out in their usual Captain Obvious way. Then they make some comments which I can't fully understand and my husband doesn't always translate. ;)
Do they also think it's evil or more just incorrect? For those who teach young kids,do you ever see lefties?
Like anyone else deemed strange or different in China, lefties face intense pressure to be like everybody else. Teachers force their students to write with the right hand. Just like parents who try to force their gay children into loveless arranged marriages. There is no room for individuality in Chinese society.
Wow, you must be so clever! Is what I've had in the past...
i I was about to say that I can't believe an American would think being left handed in this day and age would think it the sign of the devil bit then I read this today....
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34342808
Thick & stupid!
Like anyone else deemed strange or different in China, lefties face intense pressure to be like everybody else. Teachers force their students to write with the right hand. Just like parents who try to force their gay children into loveless arranged marriages. There is no room for individuality in Chinese society.
I am a leftie, mollydooker, kackhander or whatever.
As Mr Hotwater says, the ubiquitous comment when locals notice is "wooo, you must be so clever". They think it is extraordinary that lefties can use chopsticks.
The irony is that although the 'you must be so clever' comment is so common, if their kids are lefties then they will usually take steps to "correct" them to become righties.
I don't know whether I notice more because everyone around me makes a point of it, but I have noticed that there seems to a much larger percentage of lefties amongst expats than there is at home. And of these lefties who play guitar, everyone that I know plays right handed, me included.
On a side note in reference to the links posted; my mother was orphaned in WW2 and sent to a catholic orphanage. They saw her left handedness as a sign of the devil and throughout the day would actually tie her left hand behind her back. At night she would be beaten if she did anything with her left hand. She now writes beautifully with her right hand.
icnif77:
I heard, lefties are smarter, because they use '(w)right' 
side of the brain....
I think a teacher should have the right to object to a student on religious grounds. Her religion says that left-handedness is really creepy and unsettling. That's her right and you PC liberals need to DEAL WITH IT.
Hahahaha just playing. I almost think this is a joke or a cry for attention. Something like 1 outta 9 people are lefties. It's NOT possible this woman worked as a teacher...or really did ANYTHING in her life without encountering lefties.
If this isn't a big joke/cry for attention/grievance mongering...than this woman probably is having some kind of a mental break, if it wasn't this it would be something else. Of course she shouldn't be around children in that case. But lets hope she gets the help she needs.
Around 10% of the human population is left handed. Of this 10%, 63 out of 64 are male. thus only 1 out of 64 are female...ergo, a left handed female is rare indeed. [source: mentioned by my genetics professor in college].
I was born left handed and was forced to use right hand. all the irrelevant people, far away relatives and aunts and uncles and neighbors I've seen just once and all my teachers would 'advice (force)' me to use right hand by telling me, don't be naughty, you have plenty of time to practice left hand when you go to university, now just study hard and don't challenge left hand. So I started to pretend to use right hand when someone was around and use left hand when no one was around. I ended up can use both hands, (to write, use mouse, use chopsticks, stir a cup of coffee, use scissors, play badminton..) equally well (bad). Now I am an adult and I don't give a damn care of what they think so I use left hand when people are around. And the same people who used to gave to advice, now acting totally different when they see me using left hand. they were like, you are left handed? I always thought you WERE a smart kid when you WERE little...
Chinese don't like left-handedness. When my son started doing things left-handed, my wife was not happy. There's probably some criticism of left-handers for being different and bad. I'm frankly not eager to hear what it is, because like many Chinese folk wisdoms, it is best left a mystery.
I write and eat left handed, but for anything else i use my right hand/leg. Even my right eye is dominant.
Hotwater:
I'm similar to you...kack-handed but as a kid most tools, etc were designed for right-handlers and I was shown how to use things right-handed. I'm partly ambidextrous but am right-handed playing pool, cricket, eating, jerking-off, etc!
expatlife26:
yeah I think it's just the way people are here that different = bad unless it's different as higher rank.
Vertical differences are OK because they let us know our relative place.
But lateral differences are just confusing. People across a certain class should try and homogenize as best they can just for convenience sake.
Haha, I hear that from a ton of lefties, just cause so much of the world is designed for right handers.
I heard left handed people live shorter lives, don't know why.
coineineagh:
some studies confirm this. i guess it's not such a big deal from a biological perspective. we only need to be at prime health during reproductive age; that 78-year-old right hamder isn't going to have any more offspring than the leftie who died at 75.
When Aust switched from the SLR to the Steyr in the early 90's I was forced to use a weapon the ejected spent cartridges straight into my face. This was problematical in the extreme.
My wife was forced to change from left to right when she was a girl, that same as David Graham.
Left handed chop stickery is possilbe for me and I sometimes do it to freak out the locals, who have nothing else happening in their lives.
Hotwater:
I always use chopsticks in my left-hand! Quite adept with them now and gets gasps of awe when locals see my skills in picking up peanuts! Bit like a performing monkey
I was not aware that there is something to think about regarding this.
Which hand is stronger, its a personal gift.
The English language is made to be written right handed. It was at one time in Germany forbidden to write left handed. I lost the middle finger on my right hand during WW11 when i I was seven years old, so I had to write left handed for some time while the wound healed.
But soon as the wound healed I was back to writing right handed. Basically if you are born with a tenancy to being left handed, be left handed. The grate majority of people are right handed. That is why the British drive on the left side of the road. In the old days horses and carts where used for transportation. The driver held the whip in his right hand to keep it away from pedestrians and drove his cart on the left side of the street.
what i read about the left handed peoples they are very intelligent and sharp minded.
Bill Clinton and Barrack Hussein Obama both lefties.
