Hi, Aggies,

I am Mengjie. I am interested in the difference between eating characteristics of Chinese and

others. We all know that there is a huge difference between western and eastern culture and

we both are interested in this difference. I am going to introduce to you about my observation

in a restaurant and the social and cultural influence on eating behaviors. During my

observation, two issues stood out: the reliance on the phone and the view on the boundary.

I think knowing the difference could aid to better understand each one better and avoid some

misunderstanding due to cultural difference and maybe we all can reflect something about our

eating behaviors. Besides, it is always fun to see how people differ in some ways.

I choose to spend my two-hours observation at a popular Japanese restaurant in downtown,

Yakitori Yuchan, where people relax and enjoy good food. Also, I could find approximately equal

amounts of Chinese students and domestic students. The way I used to identify them is based

on facial characteristic and their use of language. Also, due to the fact that I am a Chinese and

study at the U.S. for almost three years, I think I have something to say about the cultural

difference between these two countries.

The first difference that I noticed is the different level of reliance on the phone. The social

behavior of Chinese students is somewhat based on the phone. There was a Chinese couple

sitting next to me. The girl had been playing an intense mobile game and completely ignored

the other person ever since she was seated. She still did not put down her phone even after the
dishes were served. The reliance of the phone of the girl made them having no social

interaction at all. Also, there was another groups of Chinese people. Each one of them held a

phone on hand, and their communications also based on what they saw on their phones. As for

the rest of customers who do not speak Chinese, the similar behavior did not happen on them.

They put phones away and barely touched their phones during eating and only checked them

few times. They kept their eyes on people sitting across the table and talked to them. What

caused the difference? According to Fieldhouse, food and acting of eating is a common

everyday practice of social interaction (Fieldhouse, 1995). The three circumstances represent

three different levels of social interaction. The reliance on the phone could be distracted and

have a negative impact on social interaction of people. Dunn, a psychology professor explains

that “technology at the table caused people to feel more distracted and less socially engaged,

leading to a drop in enjoyment equivalent to half a point on a seven-point scale” (Ducharme,

2018). It probably is a better habit to leave the phone off the table when dining out to show

respect.

Wait. When you listening to the last part, did think that Chinese students are rude and

disrespectful to the people who eat with them? What I listed out may be an extreme

circumstance where people do not value the social aspect of dining out in this meal. Eating

behavior is strongly influenced by social context. According to Higgs and Thomas, who we eat

with and why we eat greatly impact how we eat (Higgs & Thomas, 2016). For the first couple,

they may be very familiar with each other, and the reason for coming to this restaurant is just
to feed themselves. I am not here to justifying the behavior of playing phone game in the

restaurant. It is still disrespectful to the people who sit on the same table.

Yet, the social context plays an important role in eating behavior. When dining out has more

social function, people would interact more and focus on the people, instead of other subjects,

like phones. There were another two Chinese in the restaurant, a man and woman, who I sound

like co-workers in the same lab came to dinner after work. They barely touched their phones

throughout the meal, and they always kept eye contact during conversation. The three groups

of Chinese, they may all have the same cultural background, but they behaved differently under

different social context. I believed even with the same girl who kept playing the mobile game

would not behave the same when having dinner with her family.

Besides, the cultural difference cause people with different nationalities have different views

on the boundary. I observed two Chinese girls who shared one serve of katsu curry on one

plate. Also, the boy of the first couple I mentioned early ate the half skewer left by the girl. On

the contrary, I noticed that non-Chinese students tended to order and eat their own plate. I did

not observe that they shared one plate of food. Chinese were taught to cherish every grain of

rice due to the large population and brutal history of famine, and they do not want to waste

food. On the other hand, the serving style is different. The way of serving food in China is to

place dishes in the middle of the table for people to share; in western culture, it is common to

have separate dining (Ma, 2015). Chinese do not view sharing food is impolite since they were

used to eating from a shared plate, while the others may think so since they were used to eat
the food on their own plates. It is not that Chinese do not care about personal hygiene, or

others do not care about food waste. They just have a different cultural background.

Understanding how people with different cultural background behave differently and

respecting the difference are important.

Thank you all for listening to my podcast. After observing the restaurant for two hours, I

noticed that Chinese students are more reliant on their phone, and are more comfortable to

share food. Also, the social interaction, social context and culture play a significant role on

eating behavior. However, the cultural and social behavioral difference between Chinese and

American is a huge topic, and here it is just my small personal perspective based on a short

period of observation. I hope I can share some interesting insights with you about the two

countries and help you to understand them better. I am more than welcome that you share

your valued opinion and I will be your humble listener.

 Work Cited

Ducharme, J. (2018, February 28). Using Your Phone At Dinner Makes You Unhappy, Science

Says. Retrieved from http://time.com/5178352/phone-ruining-dinner/

Fieldhouse, P. (1995). Social functions of food. Food and Nutrition,78-105. doi:10.1007/978-1-

4899-3256-3_4

Higgs, S., & Thomas, J. (2016). Social influences on eating. Current Opinion in Behavioral

Sciences,9(Diet, behavior and brain function), 1-6. doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2015.10.005

Ma, G. (2015). Food, eating behavior, and culture in Chinese society. Journal of Ethnic

Foods,2(4), 195-199. doi:10.1016/j.jef.2015.11.004