Why are Chinese people always clearing their throats?

[Dari]

It's really annoying when you're in the library and you here a cacophony of throat-clearing, making it difficult to concentrate.

 

[janas19]

It's really annoying when you're in the library and you here a cacophony of throat-clearing, making it difficult to concentrate.

By Chinese people, you mean generally speaking, a billion people or so?

 

[Dari]

By Chinese people, you mean generally speaking, a billion people or so?

Yes (Han Chinese). And those of Han Chinese descent. It's a nasty and loud habit, IMHO.

 

[IronWing]

They're just choking on a slice of Mandarin.

 

[suse920]

I relative of mine just came back from Bejing and said that people were constantly clearing their throats and spitting on the street. It was apparently socially acceptable.

Pollution was also awful over there. Black snot awful.

 

[eldorado99]

I have this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-nasal_drip and am constantly clearing my throat, but I am not Chinese so I have no answer to your question for the ages.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

How do you know they're Chinese?

 

[Dari]

How do you know they're Chinese?

Because I have never seen any other group of people do that. I've been stationed in Japan and S. Korea and they don't do that.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Because I have never seen any other group of people do that. I've been stationed in Japan and S. Korea and they don't do that.

Where is this library?

 

[Dari]

Where is this library?

Does it matter? It's a freakin library.

 

[Gillbot]

Because I have never seen any other group of people do that. I've been stationed in Japan and S. Korea and they don't do that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lBsZj1mhw8

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Does it matter? It's a freakin library.

Yes, because so far you haven't provided any statement that you've controlled for it being a matter of Asian-American immigrants (i.e. have you been to China?) nor have you accounted for the many other Asian nationalities that exist.

 

[Dari]

Where is this library?

Not that it matters but I heard them here last week:
http://libblogs.princeton.edu/englib/?s=

I heard them again here this week:
http://library.columbia.edu/indiv/business.html

And I heard it here earlier tonight:
http://library.columbia.edu/indiv/eng.html

 

[zinfamous]

in the library, you say?

:hmm:

 

[janas19]

I relative of mine just came back from Bejing and said that people were constantly clearing their throats and spitting on the street. It was apparently socially acceptable.

Pollution was also awful over there. Black snot awful.

Yeah, I have to agree with this. Sadly, the high level of pollution, combined with smoking rates, makes hacking and coughing such a problem over there.

Over here, you're probably just projecting

 

[Imp]

They generally clear their throat to spit... Do they spit? If so, where?

By the way, only older (60+) Asians (sans Japanese) do that from what I've seen.

 

[Dari]

Yeah, I have to agree with this. Sadly, the high level of pollution, combined with smoking rates, makes hacking and coughing such a problem over there.

Over here, you're probably just projecting

I'm not. It's very common. I go to Chinatown often and it's much much worse. But that is outside whereas I'm in a freakin library. Everybody else pretends to not be bothered by it but I've told a few of them to pipe it down. They did.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Everybody else pretends to not be bothered by it but I've told a few of them to pipe it down. They did.

lol

 

[melly]

I sit near someone who does this constantly, but she isn't Chinese. And yes, it is highly annoying. She swallows it after. Yum.

 

[RocksteadyDotNet]

Ohhhhhhhhhhh ching chong ting tong ling long!

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I sit near someone who does this constantly, but she isn't Chinese. And yes, it is highly annoying. She swallows it after. Yum.

What do you expect her to do?

 

[janas19]

I'm not. It's very common. I go to Chinatown often and it's much much worse. But that is outside whereas I'm in a freakin library. Everybody else pretends to not be bothered by it but I've told a few of them to pipe it down. They did.

Wow. You told someone to pipe down in a library? You're a friggin bawse dude.

Seriously, though, the Chinatown part explains it imho. Lots of first gen Chinese there, who lived in China, hence the habits we Americans find annoying.

 

[rh71]

This reminds me of that blond girl in college making that video about Chinese people being loud. You should also make a video.

And yes the older generation loves to spit on the street for some reason.

 

[0roo0roo]

i dunno how much this has to do with it but mao was an ass that liked to think his uncultured lack of manners was something for his countrymen to emulate.

 

[Baked]

The white girls (all the receptionists) who work for me cough a lot more than the asian girls (all the facialists) who work for me, so I don't know WTF you're talking about.