More Chinese Aim to Learn Western Etiquette
Many have riches; now they want Western manners. First step: Don’t rattle the teacup
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“Do you know how to stir your tea, ladies?” Two Chinese women, ages 19 and 23, are seated on a handsome sofa in a 31st-floor hotel suite in downtown Beijing with views of Ritan Park and monument-lined Chang’an Avenue. They sit demurely with their knees together, legs crossed at the ankles—not over the thighs—as instructed. Each holds a black spiral notebook in her lap. They delicately drop lumps of sugar into gold-rimmed teacups, then clank their spoons lightly on the rims.
“Both of you are stirring incorrectly. It should be front and back, not in a circle,” says their instructor, Sara Jane Ho, a 27-year-old Hong Kong native and Harvard Business School graduate. “And no noise. Remember, ladies, don’t make noise.”