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Lovemore Chikova  China Africa Focus
China is an ancient civilisation aged more than 5 000-years-old, but the country’s culture features and abundance of material and spiritual values have remained unchanged over the many years.

This instalment is not a thesis on Chinese culture, for one needs more than this space to fully explore this rich and diverse culture. The fact is that China is an extremely large country, and the customs and traditions of its people vary by geography and ethnicity.

There are more than 1,3 billion people in China who represent at least 56 ethnic minority groups. The largest ethnic group is the Han Chinese. Today, I am focusing on some practices that are common among the Chinese, which foreigners are always surprised to discover on their first visit.

I must confess that when I stayed in China for almost 11 months last year, my first days were full of surprises upon discovering practices that are unique to the Chinese. I soon discovered that the way I viewed some of the practices in China is the same way the Chinese view certain African and Western cultural traits.

Many Chinese are also surprised at the cultural practices in other parts of the world, which they are not easily accustomed to. In Western culture, Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day and this belief dates as far back as the Middle Ages. In China, one soon discovers that the number 4 is disliked by the Chinese, just like the number 13 in the Western world.

The Chinese language for the number 4 is Si and what makes the Chinese consider this number unlucky is that the word and the pronunciation is the same as the Si which means death.

It is common when a new building is selling space to hear that the 4th floor remains unoccupied, as people opt for other floors. You also discover that some hotels skip the 4th floor altogether, and all other floors with a 4 in them like 14th and 24th. Some Chinese are very careful when choosing a phone number or a vehicle number plate to ensure it does not contain the number 4.

But there are also areas in China where the number 4 does not give a problem, especially in Zhejiang Province because in their dialect the number is pronounced with the same meaning as water.

Another behaviour of the Chinese that surprises some is seeing an elderly person walking backwards for some distance, on the streets or in parks. Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners believe that walking backwards, especially by the elderly, relieves back pain and boosts kidney function.

The superstitious ones believe that walking backwards allows one to reverse their sins of the past, although this is not a common belief among the Chinese.

During my stay in China, in which I had an opportunity to travel to many provinces and cities, I was often surprised to see elderly people slapping themselves hard. They would do it just like a person trying to swat mosquitoes, but with a bit more force.

One of the Chinese officials attached to my group explained why. “They believe that as one grows old, their blood easily clots,” said the official. “By smacking themselves, they are trying to improve their blood circulation.”

I was also surprised during my early days in Beijing that each time I asked for a glass of drinking water it always came scalding hot.I soon discovered that the Chinese prefer drinking hot water even in sultry summer. They believe that hot water helps to digest food.In contrast, they say cold water leads to indigestion because the body uses extra energy to warm it up, leaving little reserved for digestion!

We all like our pets, but it seems the Chinese have a special love for their dogs.

It is common to see a fully dressed dog on the streets of Chinese cities walking besides its owner on a leash or freely.

Although the Chinese do not have a monopoly in this area, it seems the practice is more pronounced in the Asian country as compared to other countries.

While you can find dogs on leashes being walked on the streets, it is also common to bump into a mother walking a child on a leash in Chinese cities.

To a foreigner, the practice of putting children on a leash might look reprehensible, but an inquiry proved that it is actually good for the safety of the child.

Popular streets of most cities in China are always crowded and there are chances that a child can easily disappear and “melt” into the crowd. For a parent to avoid this mishap, one way is to put them on a leash. Imagine carrying your child on the streets wearing split-back pants?

Well, this is common practice among the Chinese. Some parents prefer the split-back pants, which expose the child’s back side, because they make it easier when the child visits the toilet. The split-back pants are said to be far more environmentally friendly compared to disposable diapers.

And also, many of the children who put these type of pants are conditioned to relieve themselves on command, giving them an added advantage over those with diapers who do it willy-nilly.

One of the unsavoury practices among the Chinese that I could not get used to is spitting. Many people walking on the streets of Chinese cities do not give a damn when it comes to spitting in public.

It is common to find taxi drivers with small glasses or tins in which they spit because they cannot constantly open their windows to let out. Some believe that spitting is necessary to clear your lungs, especially after breathing all sorts of dust and pollutants.

China is one country that has managed to maintain a dual medicinal system. In the Asian country, traditional medicine has the same status as Western medicine.

In fact, when one falls sick, they can choose the type of hospital they want to visit, depending on the type of medicine they want administered.

There are numerous hospitals specifically dedicated to traditional medicine in China, in as much there are some dedicated to Western medicine, while others administer both.

There are also a lot of universities that specialise in teaching traditional Chinese medicine. Another aspect of the Chinese culture is the tea-drinking habit.While we drink tea for other reasons, the Chinese take drinking tea so seriously that it is now an embedded part of the Asian country’s culture.

Even high-profile meetings cannot pass without each delegate having a cup of tea by their side, which is constantly filled by waiters. It will be important to dedicate one instalment of this column to the Chinese’s tea drinking habit, which dates back to ancient times.

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