Taiwanese Tidbit #8

In many western cultures, it is custom to begin a conversation by asking "How are you?" This phrase exists in Chinese, but it's definitely not used with the same frequency. In Taiwan, it is more common to ask, "Have you eaten?" That's their equivalent of "How are you?" The first time I realized this was when my Chinese teacher called me one evening to change our class time. It was about 9 at night. He said, "Hi, this is Bai laoshi." And then he asked, "Have you eaten?" I was thinking, "Huh? Why is he asking if I've eaten? Maybe he's going to ask me to go get something to eat with him..." But no, he just went on to tell me why he was calling. I thought that was so random, until someone explained it to me. I was talking to him about it last night, and he told me that 40 or 50 years ago, the Taiwanese were poorer and didn't always have enough to eat. And so it became custom to ask, "Have you eaten?"

Interesting, no?