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Q: What do you do with all the bones?
Do you spit them on a plate like the locals (or just spit them on the table or ground)?
Do you pick them out of you mouth politely with your fingers and place them on your dish?
Or do you try to gnaw off as much meat as you can while holding the piece in your chopsticks so you don't have to put the whole piece (bone) in mouth? Obviously this method does not work when eating fish.
When I first came to China, I pretty much gave up on eating fish. Now, I'm getting a little better with some of the large-boned fish, but still have a very hard time with the small-boned types.
I still can't bring myself to spit the bones on the table yet, probably because I don't want to make it a habit, only to have to break it when I go back overseas, so, yes, I pick them out of my mouth with my fingers and place them on a dish, ONLY after having nawed them to death from between my chopsticks!
With all that, I've really increased my intake of veggies and fruit since living here, not only for the reasons above, but because, sometimes, I'm not really sure WHAT that meat used to be... 
i take the lead of a local... i hate spitting them out, but i follow their lead since i gotta put the shrimp shells somewhere ( but i use my fingers like a heathen)
You know those girls that go "eeewww" whenever they see something icky, well i used to be one of them. I used to say eeewww a lot when i first got here, even at the sight of the bones on the table after a meal...well not anymore 
, now i spit them out (onto a plate) like the rest of my Chinese buddies. I've also become a pro at eating crab the Chinese way
I've started spitting around just Chinese. I remember my first day back in China after a trip home, me and my wife in Shanghai, at a 沙县少吃 by the hotel, eating a meal that would normally be just so-so, but having proper Chinese food again and spitting my heart away felt like just so good.
If there are foreigners around, I'll put the food in my mouth, chew/suck the meat off, then remove the bone with a chopstick.
1. I avoid eating anything with small shards of bones for safety reasons. Small shards of bone stabbing me in the gums is something I avoid at all costs.
2. I rarely eat fish here and I peel my shrimp (which I also usually avoid, simply because it's not very good).
3. When at dinners, people always tell me "When in Rome..." so I bring my own portable vomitorium so I can puke up my dinner and keep on eating.
4. Ok, 3 isn't true, but I'd love to do it ONCE just to see the reaction. "Well, this is what they did in Rome..."
5. I make dinner into a competition to see how disgusting I can make my plate to show how much I enjoyed the food.
I think I should start practicing here at home. How many restaurants do you think I'll get kicked out of?
It depends on the company I'm with for dinner. Couple of guys drinking beer, on a table in the street, I'll spit. In the company of a lady, at a nice business dinner, etc I'll pick it out with my chopsticks.
