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Thread: "Red envelop" and "Kowtow" in Spring Festival
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[quote=SHESGOTTOBE,266738]I thought kowtowing in Chinese is something akin to kneeling on the floor, and bowing with the forehead touching the ground as a sign of reverence and submission to the elders? Respect is shown differently in every culture. The Japanese do the same I think, or bowing in different angles depending on the level of respect warranted. For the Thai, it is placing your palms together and bowing gently. In my culture, it is taking the hand of an elder and gently touching the back of the hand against your forehead. In the West, a simple smile and a greeting or thank you is enough. It’s not that it is undignified in the West. Just that nobody is supposed to bow down on anyone because everyone is considered equal. By equal, meaning we are all human and age is not a big deal. It just happened that some people were born earlier than the others, nothing more. In Asia, age is a big deal. It dictates almost every structure of the society. A junior-senior relationship in school will stick for rest of your life, even job promotions are predicated on age. This is not true for all Asian countries though. Nobody kneels down in the West, unless you are picking up something or working on the floor. LOL! [/quote]
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