I just wanted to comment briefly on something I've noticed over the past several months in China. And I'm not sure whether this is the result of a small but genuine cultural difference or the fact that I just hang around some strange people, but it has been my experience that people in China are much more comfortable talking about poop and especially diarrhea than Americans are.
I mean, I consider myself a pretty bodily-fluid-friendly person. I was a kid who was constantly motion sick, I still sweat obscene amounts, and poop was a not-uncommon topic of conversation in my family and even among my friends. Sophomore year of college, my roommate and I, owing to the fact that we kept just about the same eating schedule and dining hall food didn't exactly agree too well with either of our digestive systems, would frequently find ourselves pooping simultaneously in our dorm and discussing the reddit of the day as we did so. I consider it a a not-insignificant victory that I've made my girlfriend of several years more and more comfortable discussing poop. And a fun game of mine while I was younger was, after throwing up, to describe what parts of my last meal I could identify in my vomit in an (often successful) attempt to gross out all of my nearby friends and family (I admit, I was and am a bit of a weird kid). But all of this is to say I'm pretty darn comfortable with bodily fluids, even of the more gross variety.
Yet I find myself constantly more than a little surprised by the openness with which people discuss their bowel movements in China. Especially women. I've noticed in the US that the comfort level is generally (though, obviously, not completely) split along gender lines: people often attribute the fact that I'm so comfortable talking about poop to the fact that I grew up with only a younger brother and no sisters, so my household was pretty male-dominated. This split is definitely nonexistent in China.
A couple months ago, I was not feeling a little unwell at work and so decided to go to my boss and tell her I needed to head home, rest, and recover. Her first question was “你拉肚子了吗？" Have you had diarrhea? When I answered in the affirmative, she sent me to the pharmacy with one of my coworkers, whom I described my symptom, both vomiting and diarrhea, to, in order to pick up some pills. And then when I returned to work the next day, completely recovered, and met with another professor I work with, his first comment was, "Oh I heard you had diarrhea the other day. Are you feeling better?"
In contrast, with the American friends who were visiting at the time, I simply said, "I'm not feeling so well, I'll probably just sleep the rest of the day." Mentions of my loose stool were avoided.
Then a month ago, I was filling up my water bottle at the office when one of my coworkers noticed I was using the not-boiling water tap. Completely unprompted, she stated: "Oh, you use the cool one? I don't use it in the winter, I'm afraid it will give me diarrhea" (translated from Mandarin). I should note that this water is definitely safe, it's definitely been boiled and purified, and I'm not the only one who drinks it, so it's almost certainly not giving me diarrhea.
But when one of my friends who I was traveling with around Southeast Asia had a stomach bug and was running back and forth to the bathroom for several hours and we were discussing whether or not we thought the four of us would be able to catch the several hour bus from Kampong Cham to Siem Reap, we spent a good 20 minutes talking about the situation without once using the word "diarrhea" or even "poop" or anything related.
And last night, I cooked dinner with a small group of friends. Everyone put together dish and it was generally delicious. We set up a WeChat group to discuss how to make it to the apartment beforehand and send around the pictures that (in good Chinese fashion) everyone took with their phones. This morning, I got several notifications from about half of the attendants, three women, informing the group that they had diarrhea and inquiring if the rest of us had a similar situation (the other five attendees, myself included, were all fine, in case you're wondering).
This has happened both in English and Chinese conversations, so it's not a translation/language issue. Maybe it's the result of the fact that, since China's food safety and cleanliness is not, shall we say, tip-top and drinking tap water unboiled is a good way to give yourself a nasty stomach bug, diarrhea is something that's just more a more common occurrence and closer to people's minds. If I can speak in broad generalizations, China is a more traditional culture than the US. I associate prudishness about bodily functions with a more traditional mindset ("women don't poop!") in the US, so this situation strikes me as even more odd. It's also just really funny.
So poop, and especially diarrhea., and how comfortable people feel discussing it with friends and coworkers. Genuine cultural difference? Or just the result of who I hang around with? A true mystery...
Oh, and the post about Hanoi and what I did there, accompanied by some wonderful photos, will be along shortly. I've written it, but I'm too tired tonight to go through and all the photos. I'll post it later this week.
I mean, I consider myself a pretty bodily-fluid-friendly person. I was a kid who was constantly motion sick, I still sweat obscene amounts, and poop was a not-uncommon topic of conversation in my family and even among my friends. Sophomore year of college, my roommate and I, owing to the fact that we kept just about the same eating schedule and dining hall food didn't exactly agree too well with either of our digestive systems, would frequently find ourselves pooping simultaneously in our dorm and discussing the reddit of the day as we did so. I consider it a a not-insignificant victory that I've made my girlfriend of several years more and more comfortable discussing poop. And a fun game of mine while I was younger was, after throwing up, to describe what parts of my last meal I could identify in my vomit in an (often successful) attempt to gross out all of my nearby friends and family (I admit, I was and am a bit of a weird kid). But all of this is to say I'm pretty darn comfortable with bodily fluids, even of the more gross variety.
Yet I find myself constantly more than a little surprised by the openness with which people discuss their bowel movements in China. Especially women. I've noticed in the US that the comfort level is generally (though, obviously, not completely) split along gender lines: people often attribute the fact that I'm so comfortable talking about poop to the fact that I grew up with only a younger brother and no sisters, so my household was pretty male-dominated. This split is definitely nonexistent in China.
A couple months ago, I was not feeling a little unwell at work and so decided to go to my boss and tell her I needed to head home, rest, and recover. Her first question was “你拉肚子了吗？" Have you had diarrhea? When I answered in the affirmative, she sent me to the pharmacy with one of my coworkers, whom I described my symptom, both vomiting and diarrhea, to, in order to pick up some pills. And then when I returned to work the next day, completely recovered, and met with another professor I work with, his first comment was, "Oh I heard you had diarrhea the other day. Are you feeling better?"
In contrast, with the American friends who were visiting at the time, I simply said, "I'm not feeling so well, I'll probably just sleep the rest of the day." Mentions of my loose stool were avoided.
Then a month ago, I was filling up my water bottle at the office when one of my coworkers noticed I was using the not-boiling water tap. Completely unprompted, she stated: "Oh, you use the cool one? I don't use it in the winter, I'm afraid it will give me diarrhea" (translated from Mandarin). I should note that this water is definitely safe, it's definitely been boiled and purified, and I'm not the only one who drinks it, so it's almost certainly not giving me diarrhea.
But when one of my friends who I was traveling with around Southeast Asia had a stomach bug and was running back and forth to the bathroom for several hours and we were discussing whether or not we thought the four of us would be able to catch the several hour bus from Kampong Cham to Siem Reap, we spent a good 20 minutes talking about the situation without once using the word "diarrhea" or even "poop" or anything related.
And last night, I cooked dinner with a small group of friends. Everyone put together dish and it was generally delicious. We set up a WeChat group to discuss how to make it to the apartment beforehand and send around the pictures that (in good Chinese fashion) everyone took with their phones. This morning, I got several notifications from about half of the attendants, three women, informing the group that they had diarrhea and inquiring if the rest of us had a similar situation (the other five attendees, myself included, were all fine, in case you're wondering).
This has happened both in English and Chinese conversations, so it's not a translation/language issue. Maybe it's the result of the fact that, since China's food safety and cleanliness is not, shall we say, tip-top and drinking tap water unboiled is a good way to give yourself a nasty stomach bug, diarrhea is something that's just more a more common occurrence and closer to people's minds. If I can speak in broad generalizations, China is a more traditional culture than the US. I associate prudishness about bodily functions with a more traditional mindset ("women don't poop!") in the US, so this situation strikes me as even more odd. It's also just really funny.
So poop, and especially diarrhea., and how comfortable people feel discussing it with friends and coworkers. Genuine cultural difference? Or just the result of who I hang around with? A true mystery...
Oh, and the post about Hanoi and what I did there, accompanied by some wonderful photos, will be along shortly. I've written it, but I'm too tired tonight to go through and all the photos. I'll post it later this week.
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