Learning Chinese: culture — Unit 1

The Unit 1 dialogue revolves entirely around greetings. It's a chance to explore how Chinese people really greet one another — and to clear up a few misconceptions.

1. How did people traditionally greet each other in China?

你好 nǐ hǎo is today the most widespread greeting in China, especially in cities and among younger generations. But this is not how Chinese people traditionally greeted one another.

The customary phrases were far more concrete and rooted in everyday life:

These questions are not real requests for information. They are polite formulas, the equivalent of "hello" or "how are you?" in English. No detailed answer is expected — a smile and a few words are enough.

你吃了吗？ reflects the historical importance of food in Chinese society. Through centuries marked by scarcity and famine, feeding oneself was the central concern of life. Asking whether someone had eaten was the most direct way of showing you cared. The phrase has lost its material dimension to become a social ritual, but it is still very much alive.

These traditional greetings are still in use today, especially among older people and in the countryside. If an older Chinese person asks you 你吃了吗？ or 你去哪儿？, don't try to answer in detail: simply say 吃了！ Chī le ! (I've eaten!) or 出去一下。 Chūqu yīxià. (I'm going out for a bit.) and that does the trick.

2. People don't greet with a kiss in China

In many Western countries, a hug or a kiss on the cheek is an essential greeting ritual between friends, within the family, sometimes even between colleagues. In China, this practice is entirely absent.

To greet each other, people use:

  • A wave of the hand or a slight nod of the head — the most common and most natural form in everyday exchanges.
  • A handshake — now the norm in professional and formal settings, especially in big cities. It is often gentler and more prolonged than in the West: too firm a grip can be perceived as aggressive.

Physical contact during greetings is generally more limited than in the West. This does not mean a lack of warmth — simply a different social code.

3. Pressed palms: a gesture that doesn't come from China

It is very common to associate China — and Asia more broadly — with the greeting made with palms pressed together in front of the chest, with a bow of the head. You see this gesture everywhere: in films, in advertising, sometimes even copied by Westerners to greet Asian people.

In China, this gesture does exist, but in a very different form and in very specific contexts. The 作揖 zuōyī is a traditional Chinese greeting: you join both hands — the right fist wrapped in the left hand — and raise them slightly in front of you. It is a ceremonial gesture, today reserved for traditional festivals (notably Chinese New Year) or martial arts. You no longer come across it in ordinary daily life.

Making the pressed-palms greeting to a Chinese person means offering them a gesture that isn't culturally theirs. It's better to refrain, and to prefer a handshake or a nod of the head.

4. 不客气 — Politeness between close ones

Unit 1 teaches us two essential expressions: 谢谢 xièxie (thank you) and 不客气 bù kèqi (you're welcome). This second expression is very revealing of Chinese social culture.

客气 kèqi means "to stand on ceremony, to be politely formal". 不客气 so literally means: "Don't stand on ceremony."

This phrase says something important: in close relationships — family, friends, classmates — Chinese people make little use of formal politeness expressions. People rarely say "thank you", "please" or "you're welcome" among close ones. Using them all the time can even create an inappropriate distance : it amounts to treating someone intimate like a stranger.

The reply 不客气 to a 谢谢 therefore carries a deep cultural meaning: it invites the other person not to bother with formalities, and to stay within the naturalness of the relationship. It's a way of saying: "Between us, there's no need for all that."