DATE: Friday, May 16, 1997                  TAG: 9705160040

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: CHRISTINA HU

                                            LENGTH:   49 lines

IN CHINESE CULTURE, IT IS IMPORTANT TPO

HEY, CHINESE people eat first, then drink their soup after the main course of a meal! I just found that out. This is so neat!''

One of my very close friends once said this to me, and all I could think was that I had known this for 16 years. Yes, Chinese culture is different from American culture. Then again, Americans are the only people on earth who do not use the metric system. So let me now introduce you to some of the interesting facts and misconceptions that Americans have about Asian cultures.

First of all, sushi is not raw fish. Sushi is sliced rolls of rice, vegetables and seafood wrapped in seaweed. It may contain fish eggs, but it is not raw fish. Sashimi is the raw fish dish, which in my humble opinion is delicious. I remember in eighth grade when I brought sushi, and one of my friends freaked out. His first reaction was to give me five mint candies.

Another friend of mine was brave enough to try a bite. She learned what sushi tastes like and she learned that sushi tastes good. So she took a whole piece and ate it. Hey, what did Neil Armstrong say? ``One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.''

Watching Americans eat Chinese food is quite a learning experience for Asians. The most obvious difference is that every one at the table is assigned his own plate or meal.

Well, Chinese people don't do it quite the same way. For most Chinese, a meal means a sharing of a table full of different gourmet dishes that are passed around; however, each individual is assigned a bowl of rice.

You might yell ``gross!'' and think about the possibility that saliva might be exchanged. It's true, Chinese people pick up the food with their own set of chopsticks. The more Westernized might want to designate ``serving'' chopsticks to pick up the shared dishes. They believe that is more civilized and clean.

When my uncle at a family dinner asked for a pair of serving chopsticks, my aunt brought a pair just for him. She said, ``Here, you can use this, and the rest of us use our own.''

Their eating habits are just one way in which Chinese people show their cultural emphasis on sharing everything, excluding chopsticks. (Hmm . . . this may be why the Chinese outlasted practically everyone on earth in the communist experiment.)

So the next time you eat Chinese food, remember to share. And eat it the Chinese way - hold that bowl of rice and those chopsticks and eat from the same dish as everyone else. Who knows - you might come to understand the true meaning of the communistic and utopia society. MEMO: Christina Hu is a junior at Cox High School in Virginia Beach.

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