为什么中国人吃东西时把盘子举到嘴边？ [美国媒体]

Why do Chinese lift their plates to their mouth when they eat?

为什么中国人吃东西时把盘子举到嘴边？




Jamie Wang, studied at Glion Institute of Higher Education (2010)
Answered Jul 12
Above photo is a typical scene which we call a household banquet. As you can see, plates are for dishes, and dishes are usually shared by everyone on the table. We use bowls to hold pieces of food which we pick up from the plates. And we use bowls to hold rice.
Besides what do we lift to our mouth, the question of why is also not quite correct as well. There are many factors which effect how we eat, such as culture, type of food, type of container.
From the cultural point of view, both lift the bowl up and leave it on the table are table manner in different regions
(Above picture is from a Japanese TV series). In some regions of China, eat this way means one can sit straight, to avoid stooping down, which looks not nice. The picture below is considered as rude in some places.
As in some other regions, people have different opinion about lifting the bowl up. If China, beggars usually hold a bowl lifting up to ask for food or money in the old times. It’s a bad omen to one’s future, so it’s forbidden. (the picture below is just a demonstration, she’s obviously not a beggar)
Instead of lifting up the bowl, you are suppose to lift up the food in these regions as below. But sometimes it’s very difficult when the food is to fragile or has dripping sauce.
In eastern Asia, people often eat soup noodle. God knows how much we love hot food, which means the bowl is usually hot, like boiled water hot. Obviously you don't want to lift up a large bowl with hot soup in it. So we don't lift bowls up to eat noodle.
Also, when we eat in a canteen, the food are usually in a big plate with slots. Obviously no one wants to lift it up.
There are some other reasons about whether we eat with bowls up or down. They are really depend on different locations and conditions.
China is roughly 9.6 million square KM large, about the same size as the whole Europe. You shouldn’t expect the same rule being applied to everywhere in China.

以上这张图是典型的中国家庭宴会情景。正如你所见，盘是用来装菜的，而菜一般是桌上所有人一起吃。我们从盘里夹菜，然后放到碗里。然后碗也是用来装饭的。我们吃饭的方式受多种因素影响，比如文化，食物类型，容器种类。
从文化角度看，在不同的地区，把碗举起来或者放桌上都算是桌上礼仪。

（以上图片来自日本电视剧）。在中国某些地区，这么吃饭意味着你可以坐直，避免了弯腰，因为那不好看。以下照片在某些地方被认为是粗鲁的。
正如在其他地区，人们对举碗有着不同的看法。在中国，古时的乞丐会拿着碗，举得高高的，乞讨食物或者金钱。这是个不好的征兆，所以被禁止了。
所以在某些地区，你不应该将碗举起来，而是应该将食物举起。但是有时候很难，因为食物太脆或者有酱料要滴下时。
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Yves Shen
Answered Jul 11
Well, apparently you don’t really know how Chinese eat, because Chinese do not use plates to eat. More precisely, the plates are only for (shared) dishes and are put in the middle of the table, while each person has a bowl with rice or congee etc. to eat. So there is no “their plates”, there are only “their bowls”.
Whether people should lift their bowls when eating is mainly a cultural thing. Different parts of China have different etiquettes, and it is not always that people should lift their bowls. This is actually also the case for other East Asian countries. For example, Koreans do not lift their bowls while Japanese do.

显然，你并不了解中国人的饮食习惯，因为中国人不会用盘子来吃东西。盘子是只用来装菜的，放在桌子中间，然后用碗装米饭或者粥吃。
人们在吃东西时是否应该将盘子举起，这主要是一个文化问题。中国的不同地区有不同的礼仪，所以不一定要举起碗。其他东亚国家也是如此。比如韩国人不会举起自己的碗，但是日本人会。