The Chinese concept of sharing

Several weeks ago, I have a french who was having her birthday celebration. She invited my friends and I to go to her place and have a birthday dinner together. That were three Chinese people and she was very into Chinese food. So we Chinese girls decided to cook a Chinese style dinner for her birthday. It was very interesting cooking Chinese food in a French friend's home. We had to bring all kinds of sources and foodstuff to her place.

We prepare like four or five dishes. Usually in a Chinese way,  we got everything prepared and all the dishes cooked and then we will start dinner. This might be a little different from western diet. She assumed that we serve the dishes one by one. So every time we had one dish ready she tried to serve it on the table for everybody to eat. And when we explained to her how we did in our own culture she seemed very surprised.

That reminded me of another story I read on some book. A Chinese girl who was studying in the U.S. was having lunch with some American friends in a Chinese restaurant. She thought each one of them will pick one food and they share. But what it came out was that everyone was only picking their own dish and eat their own.

In Chinese culture, lunches and dinners are not just for meals. Those are times that people get together to enjoy the good food together and talk about what is going on in life. Usually both in homes and in restaurants, there will be round tables with people sitting around with a bowl of rice in front of them and we share the dishes together.

In this way, each of us can try various kinds of food. Besides, as we sit at a round table, we can see each one's face which is a very friendly way for open converstations. When I am at home having dinner with my firends, we always talk about things that happen in our life to share. Chinese culture values harmony and sharing very much. We think big familes are good and big get-togethers are good all because we have a lot of people together to share the food with and to share the conversations with.

I like this side of my culture and think that it might also work well in a American context. Maybe American people can try it too.

The Chinese concept of sharing