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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: What's good table manners in China?
Things you need to know when attending diner with your Chinese friends/co-workers.
I don't want to get copy and paste and steal someone else's answer. For some of the best advice about table manners see MrTibbles' answer on the question "Anyone want to explain the logic with the toothpicks?"
I think you should wait for the Boss to start eating or wait until someone says it's okay, otherwise do as the Romans Do! I don't mean chew, spit and snort like a pig, though!
Localla:
just out of curiousty, i bet you look like one pig, just foreign tho..this is why you choice to live/eat with pigs here? am i very right?..lol ..but you are right about "bad" table manners in China
Alex66:
I don't choose to eat with bad mannered people, but if someone invites you out for dinner and people on another table snort, chew and spit there is not much you can do. Mostly though, table manners are quite okay. You must of read what I said about a dinner I went to before, that was in a private house and I couldn't really leave. I was stronger then, now I would probably leave!!
Njord:
What's the matter Localla? Sad you like the piggy?!?! No need sad la... No you fault la... 5000 years of culture la... teach you be like this la....
Localla:
Njord creepy..where did i mention "sad"? ..don't ever talk to me like you know something about China, history, culture, people...ok? when you even don't understand/learn it 1/5....you are just one TYPICAL real creepy, freak and dead foreigner here...you are a SAMPLE for Chinese to know how cheap foreigner you can be, not to mention your ugliess and begging state here.... You make me sick and vomit....REALLY...YOUR BRAIN IS FULL OF SHITS..
Wait till the host starts to eat. dont stand your chopsticks up in your food. Always leave a little bit of food otherwise your host will think they did not provide enough. But most of all enjoy yourself in this great social activity.
I think it is difficult to have bad table manners. They will be very happy if you can use chopsticks. You can spit the bones, shells, etc. out on the table. People suck stuff out of shells. They chew with their mouth open. They slurp and burp. I guess there might be some rules in a more upscale setting, but so far I haven't been to a dinner like that. It's true, you probably shouldn't stick your chopsticks upright in your food or point with them. Besides that, all I would say is don't eat the last bit of a dish on the table unless your host says it is ok. And if nothing else, you are a foreigner, they will excuse you of any "bad manners" and will correct you in a friendly way, even helping you learn how to eat certain things with chopsticks.
Don't rest your chopsticks on shared dishes, don't dig into a shared dish with rice on your chopsticks.
Drink as much as the person toasting you, aim a little below the top of their cup to toast unless they insist your cup to be higher.