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Q: Why cant Chinese hold doors open?
ECC seems to have been under attack. Simple question to the attackers, Why dont Chinese hold doors open?
I have wondered about this before. Perhaps it is a symbol of being a servant which may also explain why, should you hold a door for someone they seldom make any eye contact or even appear to notice.
That said, in the garden i live in, it is routine for post cultural revolution people to hold the door for others and there is a small nod or a thank you exchanged. My sunny heart believes people are becoming nicer to eachother. At least down this neck of the woods. It's starting to become normal for cars to stop and let bikes and pedestrians cross at corners and busy intersections. Win for China!
ambivalentmace:
The cars stopping for pedestrians and bikes for right turns was a new law with public service announcements and TV commercials nationwide. It has gotten better recently.
I have always been perplexed by the door manners. I went into a KFC the other day and two beautiful ladies were leaving and I walked through the door and noticed the hotties and went back and open the door for them. I think they had never had that experience before which is a shame. My Chinese friend did not understand, I said they were carrying purses and bags and had no free hand to get the door except shove the door in their nice clothes and maybe get them dirty. Poor sap knows nothing about flirting and momma will find him a wife to make him miserable.
iWolf:
I didn't know about the advertising and had attributed it to people just becoming more willing to be nice to each other. Whatever the reason it is a positive thing and it seems to make people feel happy to do something nice for another however inconsequential.
RandomGuy:
Yeah the Chinese are still in that peasant mentality where asserting one's status in society at any given opportunity is like the most important thing in their life. They are pretty pathetic actually and not even subtle about it. In most cases they miserably fail what they were trying to achieve by acting tough or cocky or superior. I look at them and I just laugh my ass when I see how they interact with each others. It's just pathetic, children-like, sometimes I feel like this country is a giant middle school playground.
'cause 'me-me-me .... and nobody behind me ...' 
RandomGuy:
Just today, a bunch of people all going up. First elevator comes, they all cram in, go on different floors, it's going to take forever. Second elevator comes like 15 seconds later, I was the only one staying behind, press my floor, there in 5 seconds. I bet you it was faster than the first elevator. People here don't think, me me me.
icnif77:
You are lucky, you didn't want to exit 
from the first elevator ... 
I have wondered about this before. Perhaps it is a symbol of being a servant which may also explain why, should you hold a door for someone they seldom make any eye contact or even appear to notice.
That said, in the garden i live in, it is routine for post cultural revolution people to hold the door for others and there is a small nod or a thank you exchanged. My sunny heart believes people are becoming nicer to eachother. At least down this neck of the woods. It's starting to become normal for cars to stop and let bikes and pedestrians cross at corners and busy intersections. Win for China!
ambivalentmace:
The cars stopping for pedestrians and bikes for right turns was a new law with public service announcements and TV commercials nationwide. It has gotten better recently.
I have always been perplexed by the door manners. I went into a KFC the other day and two beautiful ladies were leaving and I walked through the door and noticed the hotties and went back and open the door for them. I think they had never had that experience before which is a shame. My Chinese friend did not understand, I said they were carrying purses and bags and had no free hand to get the door except shove the door in their nice clothes and maybe get them dirty. Poor sap knows nothing about flirting and momma will find him a wife to make him miserable.
iWolf:
I didn't know about the advertising and had attributed it to people just becoming more willing to be nice to each other. Whatever the reason it is a positive thing and it seems to make people feel happy to do something nice for another however inconsequential.
RandomGuy:
Yeah the Chinese are still in that peasant mentality where asserting one's status in society at any given opportunity is like the most important thing in their life. They are pretty pathetic actually and not even subtle about it. In most cases they miserably fail what they were trying to achieve by acting tough or cocky or superior. I look at them and I just laugh my ass when I see how they interact with each others. It's just pathetic, children-like, sometimes I feel like this country is a giant middle school playground.
Chinese can hold doors open for other people, but they haven't been schooled by their parents and teachers to use this common courtesy generally given in other countries. The same goes for pushing into an elevator before the people on the lift are able to exit. We can probably attribute this to the "me first" attitude passed on by their parents, who learned to push to the front of a line or risk losing out in times of scarcity. You'd think they'd change this behavior given these more prosperous times, but old habits die hard. Foreign customs aren't taught enough. Perhaps Westerners would act the same (Me-Me) if they lived in such populous places often faced with life-threatening shortages.
Alan, there's no reason to feel paranoid. As the Moderator, perhaps you can be a leader influencing the tone of the discussions here.
ambivalentmace:
Let's put your moderator comment in the perspective of a Chinese mind.
I should show leadership as a moderator because...........
Chinese mind, Wait a minute, what's in this for me?
Maybe, I don't know, It's a thankless job and Alan does it well despite being an extreme leftist because most of them (leftists) are not productive and I have fired many over the years. Great job Alan, having a heart and me having no heart keeps the world in balance.
"ECC is under attack' haha by who? jean.P? That's quite the attack hahahahah You better be careful, he might crash the servers with his massive attack.hahahahah
Manners. I'm not sure, studying society systems never interested me much, but I think I remember reading somewhere that that ol' guy who came up with the idea,,, ummm,, Marx,, or one of them anyway, said something like 'Manners and the fine behavior is one of the things we need eradicated.' Like it was a hold-over from the ruling class they wanted to do away with. I know I'm oversimplifying,,, but it was something like that. Well, I guess his ideas just caught on here,, at least for a while they did.
I see both, big time rudeness/indifference,,, and big time kindness/generosity. The second coming from the quite young, or the very old. Seems the middle-aged are the ones who are the least social. I figure cuz the great multitude of them are living lives that have kinda smushed the soul out of them, and it shows in their general behavior.
ambivalentmace:
I found the lack of manners to be a global thing also, recently I have been defying the monarchy by watching more you tube and notice these videos of what I hate or what I love about a certain country. It's weird as an American to see Russian, Europeans in their top five mention how Americans say hello to strangers and show good manners as if we must all faking it. So all the countries of the world that are rude, and the experts at being rude, Russia and France, all thought America would be just like them.
ecc has some othr attackrs (hidin' among the regulrs) whose doors r sockpuppts. see the thumbin' patttrn on posts. in a fast span they open their doors.. 6-7 up/down votes appear instantly to suit their agenda/hatred or feed their ego's. lol.
