Once you set foot on foreign soil, you’ll have to know the culture of the new land and adapt yourself to those unique customs. Along with the customs comes the subject of taboos which one should avoid at all cost. So what are the taboos in China? Follow us and you will learn a taboo every day.
Taboo1. Never wear a Green Hat
“Green hat” in Chinese is "绿帽子(lǜ màozi)." Foreigners might think that a green hat is just like any other hat, but not in China. In China, a "green hat" means that a man's wife has been unfaithful to him. There is even a saying: the most horrible color for hat to a Chinese man is green.
Why does “绿帽子(lǜ màozi)” carry such a particular meaning in China? One story is that in ancient China the wife of a merchant had an affair with a cloth seller. She made a green hat for her husband to wear, and when the husband went out for business, the cloth seller would see the green hat and know that he could meet his lover. Since that time, “绿帽子(lǜ màozi)” has been the symbol of a wife betraying her husband. No wonder it is impossible to find a green hat in Chinese markets!
Tags:Teaching & Learning Language & Culture
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Honestly Eorthisio I believe you are the first real masochist I ever met.Spending so much money, effort and time to come to the country which annoys you so much ...There must be a reason behind it and I can hardly imagine, based on your posts, any other one
Jan 12, 2015 23:36 Report Abuse
This is a setup to post endless 'taboos' in a series. Been done 1000 times already.
Dec 21, 2014 22:16 Report Abuse
There are two kinds of people. Those who belive that all people are equal, and those who run people over with tanks.
Dec 21, 2014 21:29 Report Abuse
I admire your bravery to come directly to lion's den! Bravo! But really do not envy you your feeling while being in China. And just out of curiosity can you tell us what made you to connect relatively innocent cultural aspect with unsupported critisism of Chinese tourists? By the way are you aware of the trivial fact, that all European politics (headed by Angela Merkel, by the way) are trying to attract as many Chinese tourists as possible? Anyway: 圣诞节快乐!
Dec 21, 2014 18:55 Report Abuse
Hello gouxiong, That depends on perspective. While Chinese tourists are currently in high demand (for monetary reasons)... many hopitality establishments are currently banning Chinese tourists as their resulted loses exceed their profits from taking in these sid Chinese tourists (for monetary reasons). If more Chinese people would behave more appriopriately while travel or living in other countries, then it there would be more profits, jobs and everyone would be happier. Even the Chinese government is trying to educate Chinese on manners and while I was on the speed train from Taiyuan to Xian, they played a video on the T.V. continously about good manners, how to treat others etc. Personally, I do see some changes after living in China for eight years. Manners are getting better at a snail's pace, but better. BTW - Merry Christmas to you too!
Dec 21, 2014 19:06 Report Abuse
Even though you may be right in certain cases (what in China due to the population quantity always means in many cases :) ) I still fail to see the connection between introducing a relatively innocent cultural topic with raising of criticism towards certain Chinese ... My Christmas were great - now looking forward to the new year celebration :) - happy new year and a lot of success and happiness to all echinacities readers :)
Dec 29, 2014 18:05 Report Abuse
Ah, the old population quantity straw man. Bad manners is nothing to do with size of population but with education & manners.
Jan 08, 2015 12:26 Report Abuse
Dear Hotwater， did you border to read the original article prior to replying my comment? I guess not because otherwise you would realize, that it has nothing to do with goodor bad manners. Nevertheless I still do not exclude the option that you did read it...
Jan 09, 2015 22:25 Report Abuse
Hi Guoxiong. Yes I did read the article before the comments. You are right that Eorthisio's comment here is in no way related to the article & a strange comment on it. Your reply highlighted that but also, to my understanding, also seemed to defend the bad manners of Chinese tourists due to China's high population. I read that poor excuse lots of times on forums when people try to defend the somewhat negative habits of a lot of Chinese people (queue jumping, poor manners, using the street as a toilet, spitting). High population is not the cause of bad manners. Have a good day :-)
Jan 10, 2015 13:17 Report Abuse
Dear Hotwater, thanks for acknowledging the main point of my initial comment and let me now discus with you the bad manners. I usually have a natural suspicion if somebody uses very general and inclusive terms to describe certain, large, group of persons or objects. Eorthisio talked about long term China immigrants to Europe. As I am European myself so I dare to say that the vast majority of Chinese immigrants in Europe does not act in his described way. Therefore I swapped that for tourists (in a view "very short term immigrants"), where, may be, such a behaviour could eventually occur more probably. I was then more referring to the equation which can be briefly simplified into: "I think you do not respect my cultural and therefore I come to your country and will not respect yours" Irrespective if this is what Eorthisio really did (I do not think so as a matter of fact) so such statement sounds to me ridiculous. But coming back to your point of good manners. The question starts with definition of good manners? Certainly different cultures differ in their proper manners definition and therefore they are called different. But I agree that in China there are many poeple behaving not appropriately according to Chinese standards. I never really checked the proportion of these people but as I everyday see a lot very well mannered Chinese so I assume it cannot be the whole population (and not even "overwhelming majority"). What I tried to say by "size of population" is that, neglecting for sake of this example the natural distribution and thus heavily simplifying the issue, if we talk about just 10% of China population so in absolute numbers it's much more people than any EU country has. As China has its honest, dishonest, talented and not talented people in roughly similar proportion like majority of other countries so the group are all preset, but in absolute numbers much bigger. It results in increased frequency of noticing these facts for the outside "bystander". And I do not even discus here the changes on system behavior caused by exceeding certain amount(see economy of scales for instance). I guess the trouble for European is certain, in comparison to EU countries bigger, diversification of population in China. We are not used to that from our home countries and it contributes a lot to so called cultural shock. Nevertheless I would like to clearly dismiss "sweeping statement" that Chinese have in general no manners (or that they are not civilized) as childish, unsupported and wrong.
Jan 11, 2015 11:49 Report Abuse
HM is selling a green hat for women...people bought it too.
Dec 18, 2014 13:23 Report Abuse
As a Chinese person, is it your duty to find aspects of Chinese culture that aren't entirely negative/shameful/revolting, and convince expats that THOSE are the important ones to know? Because the green hat thing is not especially useful knowledge. If your aim is to be helpful to newcomers, you should start with something like "Promises and agreements don't mean anything in China." That's an aspect of Chinese culture that EVERY expat would have benefited from knowing, at some time or other. If you need hundreds more good ideas, just ask.
Dec 17, 2014 23:20 Report Abuse
While what you say is true. Actually, this is useful. I have actually seen Chinese looking at a foreigner wearing a green hat and snickering and laughing. He couldn't figure it out until I told him... While it didn't stop him from wearing the hat, at least he didn't go crazy and physical assault someone from madness.
Dec 18, 2014 17:36 Report Abuse
But... on at least 2,000 occasions I've seen Chinese people snickering and laughing at a foreigner NOT wearing a green hat.
Dec 18, 2014 20:02 Report Abuse
LoL... true. I have as well... but let me tell you... it is very visually worse if you are parading around in a green hat. That's how I could tell he was getting extra feedback for his choice of attire.
Dec 21, 2014 18:58 Report Abuse
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