Chinese Dining Etiquette: Entertaining Guests

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name's Mark Kemsley. We're talking about the etiquette of meals in China or with the Chinese. And let's talk about what to eat. Let's assume in this segment that the Chinese visitors came from China to the United States. You're here at your home and you want to think, "How do I entertain these Chinese guests?" Well, it's usually done outside in China and when I say outside, I mean at a restaurant. So, if you're in China, normally, you wouldn't be invited to someone's home. They would invite you out to a restaurant. But, if a Chinese person is visiting the United States, they will be curious as to American life and it would be very nice for you to invite them into your home. If you invite some Chinese guests into your home, you can serve whatever you would like to. Whatever you're good at making. It'll be interesting for them to see the culture. In fact, let me give you an example. My mother once invited a group of Chinese people that I was on a tour with in the United States into her home and prepared a meal for them. And they really were interested to see what Americans do. It happened to be Halloween night and the children kept coming to the door to get their trick or treat candy and the Chinese people would always get up and race to the door to open it up and see all of these funny little American kids and sort of enjoy the culture. So it would be interesting in understanding the culture when they come here to America, just like you would if you went to China. So, it'd good to invite them into your home and do whatever you do and just make them feel part of the family. Now, if you invite them outside to a meal, if they have just arrived in China over the last couple of days, they will probably be anxious to try American food. If they have been here more than two or three days, they're probably getting tired of American food and it would be better to take them to a Chinese restaurant. In China, people don't eat a lot of dairy product. They normally don't drink milk or eat cheese, so that might be something you want to avoid. The younger generation of Chinese go to Pizza Hut, so it's okay with them. But, most Chinese people you invite over, you might want to avoid something like that. Anything else, any kind of meat or seafood would be just fine."