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Q: Why do the Chinese insist on opening all the windows when it's freezing?
Still with the in-laws (This is beginning to feel like Scott logging his last days in Antarctica. Day 3: It's bollocks cold.) and as cold as it gets they still insist on having everything open. I get that they can't afford to have electric fires on all the time but at least close the back door. Something.
Is it some kind of reverse psychology deal, like 'owning' your poverty? "Screw the cold, I 'want' to live outside" In England you close everything up in the winter and maybe air the house once a day if it gets stuffy. We've got a blizzard blowing through the living room and they're sitting there peeling apples.
Do rich households keep all their windows open through the winter or do they batten down the hatches and enjoy their central heating like sane people?
before the cultural revolution, you slept on wood bed with a pot of charcoal underneath to stay warm, after sucking all the air out of the room and death from the fumes, they learned to open windows,
when all the educated were eliminated in the cultural revolution, the old people said always leave an open window, you could die to the grandchildren who grow up to believe this, the newly educated did not tell their kids this was no longer true because the grandparents raise the kids. so the cycle continues, getting rich without an education is the ultimate thesis to write in china if you study sociology i suppose.
expatlife26:
that makes sense. It's something that WAS true in one specific situation.
but without understanding why it applied in that one specific situation just applied across the board.
Score one for ignoring the scientific method.
ambivalentmace:
well grandma said it was ok to defacate and urinate on the sidewalk, drink hot water, pick your favorite, its all there if you look close enough, but i am confident that it will get better with the parents all out of work and able to spend more time with their kids. the production to service transition is going to help parents spend quality time with their offspring.
Lord_hanson:
@expat, don't you know that information from someone older than yourself is always 100% percent true. Everyone knows an old person who never received an education is more intelligent than a hoghly educated person who is younger.
before the cultural revolution, you slept on wood bed with a pot of charcoal underneath to stay warm, after sucking all the air out of the room and death from the fumes, they learned to open windows,
when all the educated were eliminated in the cultural revolution, the old people said always leave an open window, you could die to the grandchildren who grow up to believe this, the newly educated did not tell their kids this was no longer true because the grandparents raise the kids. so the cycle continues, getting rich without an education is the ultimate thesis to write in china if you study sociology i suppose.
expatlife26:
that makes sense. It's something that WAS true in one specific situation.
but without understanding why it applied in that one specific situation just applied across the board.
Score one for ignoring the scientific method.
ambivalentmace:
well grandma said it was ok to defacate and urinate on the sidewalk, drink hot water, pick your favorite, its all there if you look close enough, but i am confident that it will get better with the parents all out of work and able to spend more time with their kids. the production to service transition is going to help parents spend quality time with their offspring.
Lord_hanson:
@expat, don't you know that information from someone older than yourself is always 100% percent true. Everyone knows an old person who never received an education is more intelligent than a hoghly educated person who is younger.
I kind of like the fresh air, if the air is actually fresh that is. Often I'd rather be a bit chilly to get it. Obviously there are limits and if I was in the far north the window would be well and truly shut.
You say in England we close the windows. You must be from southern England. Where I come from we make fun of the weedy Southerners for always wanting to close the window.
mArtiAn:
You've got me banged to rights. Soft, southern, shandy drinking bastad from north London right here mate.
They also used to have 4 generations under one roof, in close proximity with farm animals, so opening windows cut down on disease and sickness spreading within the family.
Just one of those Chinese peasant superstitions they refuse to modernize. They do this at my office sometimes.
Me, "Why is the window open?"
Boss, "Fresh Air."
Me, "This is Shanghai, there is no fresh air."
Boss, "............"
ambivalentmace:
yes, i was on a bus in jinan my first year and someone opened a window when it was minus 10 outside, when i asked the answer was fresh air, so i asked with a translator, where is the fresh in coal burning winter in the 8th dirtiest city for pollution on earth. the famous blank stare, of course, the good news is jinan has moved down the list to 14th now. the chinese wife will not close the windows in the kitchen, so i have to actually wipe down and clean my coffeemaker ever 3 or 4 days, something i have never done anywhere else, she complains about me not cooking often, well i dont cook in a dirty kitchen, honey dinner will be ready in about 3 hours, i have to clean first.
martian, perhaps we are asking the wrong question, " in china, when are you allowed to close a door or window and under what conditions?",
only in your car and thats optional.
Because the Chinese are a hard to reform people, stuck within old habits and beliefs that are no longer valid.
