For the past few months I've been working one day a week teaching a class to Steve's Chinese co-workers and staff. It started out as business etiquette training but has morphed into also including general American culture training as the students bring in topics that they want to learn more about. During our discussions I often learn quite a few things about Chinese culture as well.
Here are a few of the tidbits I've picked up so far. I should mention that this is just their viewpoint, I'm sure some of this differs based on the region that you're from and so forth.
Marriage:
* They normally only wear their wedding rings on special occasions. They treat them like we would treat an expensive necklace, only to be warn for an occasion in which you won't get it dirty, lose it, or have the opportunity to scratch your child with it (yes, they really did give me that as an example).
* Chinese law forbids a woman to be married before the age of 20, and 22 for men.
* Married individuals are not allowed to enter college (graduate school is an exception)
* Gifts are not given for weddings and there are no such things as wedding registries, money is the only gift given.
* There is no such thing as Matrons of Honor in weddings, they have to be unmarried (Maid of Honor). And you can only be a Maid of Honor three times. The Chinese are very superstitious and believe that if you are a MOH more than three times it indicates that you will never get married.
Having a baby:
* The woman is forbidden from washing her hair for 30 days. They tell me that that rule applies to bathing as well but that it is becoming more popular for some woman to take a bath sometime during the month (but not wash their hair).
* In addition to not bathing the woman is to stay in bed those first 30 days and only get out when necessary. She is not supposed to leave the house and she is only to eat warm food. Family members do all the care taking of the baby during this time.
* Eggs are given by elders as a gift to the mother. This helps replace nutrients the mother has lost during birth.
* Maternity leave is 3 months for mothers under 25 years old. For "old" mothers (over 25) they are given 4 months of leave. Mothers of multiples also get more time off.
* Retirement age here is 50 for women and 55 for men so generally either the mother or the father's parents are retired by the time a couple has a baby and they take over for all the care taking.
School:
* It is still acceptable for teachers to strike students as a form of discipline. One of my students said she had heard this was not true in the states and asked me about it, saying "how do they get them to obey if they don't hit them?"
* Before you enter high school you have to decide what you want to major in in college so that all of your high school classes can be catered directly to the classes that will pertain to the college entrance exam you are going to take. From there on our your destiny is sealed. Game over.
*School here is all day, even for toddlers. And by all day I mean they serve dinner too. If you're in high school you normally don't get picked up until late in the evening since after your school day is over, and they've fed you dinner, you have mandatory extracurricular activities.
And a few funny stories...
** I have been asked several times about coffee and what Westerners like about it (they drink tea in China like we would drink coffee). After discussing, EVERY TIME it comes out that they've witnessed some crazy Westerner (probably Steve) running around somewhere asking for coffee in a tone and urgency as if they would die without it. They think it's funny, I think it's embarrassing.
**One day they wanted to discuss McDonalds. They were confused because they were with Steve when he ordered a Chicken Sandwich and not a Chicken Hamburger. They all thought sandwiches had to be cold (like a Subway sandwich) and that anything that was warm was a hamburger. Makes sense when you think about it.
**In a discussion about table etiquette I had to explain that it's not appropriate to pick your soup bowl up and drink the last bit of your soup or chew with your mouth open.
