Historically, Chinese are obsessed with food. It would not be uncommon for a person to spend two hours cooking a meal, something that would be shocking for the average American. In fact, the most common greeting historically is not the general non-specific “how are you?” (how do you truthfully answer that profound question?), but is actually a very specific question of concern, “chilemeiyou, have you eaten yet?” Which is apparently a hold-over from history, since, generation upon generation, there was always the threat of famine and starvation. So eating is a key issue, especially to ask about.

有史以来中国人对食物是着迷的。一个人花两个小时做饭并不少见，这对普通美国人来说是令人震惊的。在现实生活中，那些英文国家的人会问你“How are you?”但中国历史上最常见的问候并不是这种泛泛而指的“你的情况好吗？”（你该如何回答这样深奥的问题？）实际上“你吃了吗？才是人们担心的一个问题，这是历史遗留问题的一个体现。因为一代又一代，总是有饥荒和饥饿的威胁。所以吃饭是一个关键问题，大家特别关心。

And the question of have you eaten yet is always germane, since it could pertain to have you eaten breakfast, lunch, or dinner; at any moment in time you are always in between any of these 3 meals, so this question is a perfect question to ask at any time of the day. The Chinese language doesn’t have clumsy English past and future tenses, and the Chinese “have you eaten (literally eat, no, yes)?” is actually inclusive of have you eaten in the past or are you about to eat, soon? Got it? The westerner probably is quite confused at this moment, but it is a fact.

“你吃了没有”这个问题一直都是适用的。因为它可以问你是否吃过早餐、午餐或晚餐；不管何时，你总是在这三顿饭中的任何一顿之间，所以这个问题在一天中的任何时候都是一个完美的问题。汉语没有生硬的英语过去时和未来时态，汉语“你吃了没有?”实际上包括你已经吃过还是不久就要吃了？西方人刚听到的时候可能很困惑，但就是这样的。

Looking at travel brochures is a great way to understand culture. Travel brochures in China will list clearly that at each site being visited, there will be a sumptuous meal of some kind, some special menu unique to the local area, or of one of numerous regional dishes of China (think Hunanese, Hainanese, Shanghainese…), and always billed as a fantastic meal. And meals in China are indeed always great meals, often served banquet style, with 12 or 24 dishes (think Chinese buffet lining the rim of a huge round table for 12, but with new substitutes coming at unpredictable times)! In contrast if you look at the usual travel brochure in the West, it’s just about the spectacular scenery and significant historical sites, with barely a mention of a good meal. That would be really strange, and possibly a disappointment, to a person from China.

看旅游手册是了解文化的一个好方法。中国旅游手册会清楚地列出每一个旅游点当地的特色菜，或中国众多地方菜的某一种（例如湖南菜、海南菜、上海菜等），这些都被称为美味佳肴。中国饭菜一直都很丰盛，通常是宴会式的，有12或24道菜（想想中国的自助餐排在一个巨大的圆桌边，而且会不停的换新花样! 相比之下，如果你看一看一般的西方旅游手册，它只是关于壮观的风景和重要的历史遗址，几乎没有提到美食。对于一个来自中国的人来说，这真的很奇怪，甚至令人失望。

We were traveling along the River Lijiang, in Guangxi province, on a boat that was crowded with tourists from various cities of China. The scenery was gorgeous, with the steep cliffs, narrow waters, and half naked men pushing their flat log rafts using long poles poked into the sand. My son and daughter were with me, and we were busy taking lots of photos of unusual karst formations from the deck of the boat. We suddenly realized that we were the only three people watching the scenery. No one else was around, it seemed. Then we realized that everyone was down in the main cabin, busily eating a colorful and huge meal that was part of the service, of course. No one was watching the beautiful scenery, except probably as an incidental background to the fragrant main features on the table, as the boat glided serenely down the river. Except for these three strange people from America, who actually were interested in something besides delicious food.

我们乘着一艘满载中国各城市游客的船沿着广西漓江旅行。景色很美，陡峭的悬崖，狭窄的水域，光着膀子的人把长杆插进沙子推着扁平的木筏前进。我和儿子、女儿忙着在甲板上拍别致的喀斯特地貌照片。突然我们发现只有我们三个人在看风景，周围没有其他人。原来大家都在主舱里，忙着吃包含在旅游项目里的五颜六色的大餐。除了我们三个来自美国的怪人外，没有人在看美丽的风景，大家只会把它当做船只平静前进时，芳香大餐的一个背景.

Food being such an important part of Chinese and Asian life, it is really no surprise that most business is done over a great meal. Thus the term used in English about breaking bread (having a close relation to another person by sharing and therefore breaking the bread together over a meal) has an even deeper emotional significance, in the Asian context. Of course Asians may not break bread literally, but most likely scoop rice.

食物是中国和亚洲人生活中非常重要的一部分，因此大部分生意都在美餐中完成并不奇怪。英文breaking bread在亚洲文化中将具有更深刻的情感意义。当然，亚洲人可能不吃面包，很可能是吃米饭。

The novice westerner who goes to China for a business or joint venture often is surprised initially that the local host does not really seem to want to talk about business. He would love to have dinner with you, and the dinner could indeed be a sumptuous 24 course dinner just held in honor of you. And so you might think that the topic should get to the business, at some point, or points, during the banquet. But the dinner goes on and on, and maybe tomorrow there’s another dinner. And maybe there’s another dinner. You keep thinking, when are we going to get to the business part? Except that it doesn’t seem as if the business topic comes up at all, until at the very end of the very last meal, very innocently and as a matter of fact, the host turns to the westerner and says, “and O, yes about that deal we were talking about (which you don’t really remember was talked about), it’s no problem, we’ll get it done.” It’s just details.

去中国做生意或做合资企业的西方新手一开始常常感到惊讶，因为中国人似乎并不真正想谈生意。他很想和你共进晚餐，这是一顿24道菜的丰盛晚餐，以表达对你的敬意。你可能会认为应该在宴会上的某个时候或者某些时候谈及生意。你们不停在吃饭，今天、明天甚至还有下一餐。你一直在想，我们什么时候开始谈生意？终于在最后一顿饭结束之前，中国人对西方人说，“关于我们讨论的那笔交易（你真的不记得曾经讨论过），没问题，让我们一起完成吧。 剩下的细节以后再说。”

The dinner’s over, and the deal is sealed. No lawyers, no papers. Just trust. He’s been sizing you up for the last few great meals and sense that he can do business with you. He’s likely thinking, “You’re okay, I can trust you, we can seal the deal. No need for those pesky lawyers. I’ve figured you out.”

晚餐结束了，交易结束了。没有律师，没有文件，只有信任。他一直在几顿大餐中观察你，觉得他可以和你做生意。他可能会想，“你人不错，值得信任，我们可以达成协议。不需要那些讨厌的律师，我能帮你搞定。”

For hundreds of years or maybe thousands of years, this has been the way that business was conducted, and it worked well. Trust is what counts. Chinese have often been considered some of the best businessmen in the world, probably because they honed their business skills over deliciously stimulating (and reassuring) food, and did not depend on Harvard educated lawyers. Could be cheaper, also. Unfortunately, today Chinese have started using pricey lawyers too, and maybe indeed it has become more “efficient.” Time will tell. I just hope the food doesn’t become too western.

几百或几千年来，这一直是商业运作的方式，而且运作良好。信任是最重要的。中国人常常被认为是世界上最优秀的商人之一，可能是因为他们通过令人心安的美食磨练了自己的商业技能，因为这是比哈佛大学律师更廉价的办法。遗憾的是，今天中国人也开始聘请昂贵的律师，或许它确实正在变得更加“高效”，让时间见分晓吧。我只是希望食物不要太西化。

Somehow in the West we tend to forget the importance of personal trust, and we think that lawyers will provide us with trust (which I guess they do?). There are many ways to build up trust, and breaking bread or scooping rice are great ways of building friendship, trust, and fun, from which great deals can be made. That’s just another variation of having more coffee with uncle Reggie, I think.

在西方，我们总是忘记人与人之间信任的重要性，我们认为律师会给我们提供信任（我猜他们是这样的？）建立信任的方法有很多种, 比如一起吃面包一起吃饭，从而可以做成大生意。我想，这只是和Reggie叔叔多喝咖啡的另一种变化。