ethnocentrism
The Round Tables
09/04/08 15:56
Perhaps my favorite anecdote about China is the prevalence of round tables in restaurants. I almost never saw square tables, and I quickly learned upon entering a room -- even for a relatively casual meal — to turn to a ranking Chinese colleague and ask, Where do you want me to sit?
Almost invariably we were seated in private rooms with our own set of dedicated serving staff. A rotating lazy susan sat in the middle of each table. All of these features are quite different than in the West, of course. But the seating rank was perhaps the surprising element. Asking where to sit was important because these seating positions are carefully ranked. Some restaurants even had numbers at the seats, and two very nice private dining rooms actually had a small LED screen in front of each chair that could be recalibrated for groups that were smaller than the total number of seats available.
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Almost invariably we were seated in private rooms with our own set of dedicated serving staff. A rotating lazy susan sat in the middle of each table. All of these features are quite different than in the West, of course. But the seating rank was perhaps the surprising element. Asking where to sit was important because these seating positions are carefully ranked. Some restaurants even had numbers at the seats, and two very nice private dining rooms actually had a small LED screen in front of each chair that could be recalibrated for groups that were smaller than the total number of seats available.
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Comments
The Ugly American?
30/03/08 21:01
At least one branch of my family arrived in North America in 1607 -- we are now entering our fifth century on the continent. And several family branches have lived in Texas for almost two centuries. We are truly of the South, intertwined with its colonial development and history. And I am clearly from the US and Texas.
But by my countrymen, I am almost universally considered a terrible example of all three categories and quite unrepresentative. Generally, this sense of being rejected by a region I love and feel electrostatically drawn to saddens me, but I've had a long time to get used to the feeling. About three decades now. Read More...
But by my countrymen, I am almost universally considered a terrible example of all three categories and quite unrepresentative. Generally, this sense of being rejected by a region I love and feel electrostatically drawn to saddens me, but I've had a long time to get used to the feeling. About three decades now. Read More...
I'm not sahib! Right?
30/03/08 15:29
A few weeks after I officially began my job at WWF, I was in a meet & greet call with a staffer from the UK office. He said, We're headed to India in about a week. Perhaps you should meet us there? I was still fairly uncertain what my job was going to be about, but I knew I would be working with Tom and the Indian office quite a bit, so I said, Sure. And booked a ticket.
My arrival and first two days were a whirlwind of meeting and very general discussions, and I'm sure I seemed very nervous. Being 15 hours off of my native time zone didn't help any. And not surprisingly I found myself very awake at 4 am one morning, in a strange hotel in a national park in Rajasthan. Read More...
My arrival and first two days were a whirlwind of meeting and very general discussions, and I'm sure I seemed very nervous. Being 15 hours off of my native time zone didn't help any. And not surprisingly I found myself very awake at 4 am one morning, in a strange hotel in a national park in Rajasthan. Read More...
