Southern Hospitality, 中国 Style

Having been born and raised (for most of my life) in Texas, I learned from a young age the importance of saying please and thank you, and especially remembering to add in those ma’ams and sirs after addressing your superiors. As much as growing up with those rules was tedious, I couldn’t be prouder to be a Texan, because along with all those manners comes the famous Southern hospitality.

While Chinese culture may be completely different, and adjusting to their manners can be extremely difficult, one thing that is comforting to a Southern boy like me is that even though I’m away from home, here in Shanghai , I can find a version of hospitality very similar to that of the South. It’s something I like to call “Southern Hospitality, Zhongguo Style.”

For instance, my phone charger broke the other day, as in the USB thing completely separated from the cord (bummer). I didn’t have time between work and my Chinese lesson to go to the store, and my phone was in desperate need of a recharge. What did my coworker do? She leant me her charger to use that night (another thing I like about China : chargers are usually made by brand type, not specific phone). About a week ago, I needed to get my hair cut, but had no idea how to tell a Chinese how to cut my hair or how short I wanted it. My Chinese friend offered to meet me at the salon and told the hairdresser exactly what I wanted, and then sat next to me to make sure they cut it like I wanted. These are just a couple of examples of the friendliness I have experienced here. And this isn’t just me. The other foreign interns here have had many a similar experience. The Chinese are extremely willing to help you acclimate to their country, and are very interested in learning about your culture and sharing theirs as well. I urge anyone that has ever even slightly wanted to travel to China to do so, right meow!