In defense of “have you eaten”
This is something that I find I am unable to hold back, about the recent topic.
First, I have to say the Chinese greeting that has been translated into “have you eaten”, is in fact untranslatable, due to its heavy load of cultural information. If you translate it forcibly, then a strange and unpleasant sentence like “have you eaten” is produced.
But here, for sake of convenience, I’ll take “have you eaten” as a correct translation.
I don’t know who first linked the greeting to hunger, but obviously, the idea has taken root in many heads as some of our forum folk show. However, if we examine the idea carefully, we’ll soon find that it is a completely wrong idea. The greeting is impossible to be an impact of hunger. On the contrary, it’s maybe a sign of food sufficiency.
It’s not easy for any words to become a people’s standard daily greeting. These words must have connection with factors that have deep root in a culture and are long enduring. Take English speakers’ weather talking as an example. One reason for such a talking is that, as we know, weather on the island we call Britain, where English is originated, has been affecting habitants’ life much and enduringly. Another reason is that Western culture respects privacy very much. Weather talk violates nobody’s privacy and is something everybody concerns. Well, is the hunger the Chinese people ever suffered as influential as English weather and privacy?
Not at all. Slightest history knowledge will tell us that hungers ever happened to Chinese people were very temporal and were usually restricted to a very small population. How could their impact have been so powerful as to form a daily greeting that has been being used by all Chinese north or south for so many generations? How can you explain that in Shanghai, China’s most modern and rich city, people still greet each other with “have you eaten”? Do they lack food? You may blame that on habit. But there’re many habits that have been discarded, why “have you eaten” alone has survived? Furthermore, hungers happened to every nation, how came China alone has a greeting that records them?
The reason why we greet each other with “have you eaten” doesn’t lie in hunger at all. Just like English weather and privacy, it must relate to something in Chinese culture that is major and exerts enduring influence. What are they? As far as I can make out, there’re mainly two things. One is that Chinese people pay much attention to their meals. The most immediate evidence is that Chinese have invented the most delicate, complicated and varied dishes and many other delicacies. China’s food impresses almost all who ever know a little about China and you can find Chinese restaurants in major cities all over the world. How could such a people have been a starving people? Hungry people tend to grasp at whatever they can stuff their stomach with. Only those who have sufficient to eat are likely to get tired of monotony of their food and have to invent many varieties, you know! There is much other evidence showing Chinese people’s special attention to their meals. For example, when you pay a visit to a house between meals, the first question the host asks you usually will be “Have you had your breakfast/lunch/supper?” If you haven’t, then you must stay and have it in the house. This is a standard way for the host to show his hospitality.
That’s one thing that helps to explain “have you eaten”. The other is, Chinese people care more of other people. It will take much study to determine why they care of others and what they care about, but obviously they care. We greet acquaintances with “have you eaten” because the honest answer to the question will reveal much information about the person. You can imagine that if the person you greet misses his meal, there must something usual happening to him. Maybe he is late from his work; maybe his is sick; maybe he is busy with something. Otherwise, he is all right. A close friend usually will tell you why he has missed his meal.
So rather than an impact of hunger, the greeting “have you eaten” reveals Chinese people’s affluence. For usually only affluent people will grow so fastidious about food and pay so much attention to their meals. Don’t forget our nation had a much longer history of prosperity than not. It is only in recent history that we became poor and subject to little starvation. And the words reveals our care for each other.
Therefore, next time, when someone greets you: “Have you eaten yet?” Please do as Standly does. Accept it gladly and feel free and easy to greet others in the same way.
Just because our recent backwardness, some people seem apt to make negative explanations of some aspects of our culture. I just can’t agree with them. And I think all of us must keep alert of them, lest we be misled. We have every reason to be proud of those things that make us Chinese, Chinese.
Charles
