Apr 17 2007
The Chinese greeting
Before I began to learn English when I was in Beijing, I’ve never realized just how differently we Chinese greeted each other from the West, for we didn’t say how do you do or how are you up on meeting. Rather, we said 吃了没有chi le mei you - have you eaten yet. It was when food was scarce. After Mao died and Deng took over and coined being rich is fabulous, the greeting changed to li le mei you - have you divorced yet. Now the stock market is flying high, the greeting evolved into - zhang le mei you - have your stock risen, yet.