It’s 4pm, you’ve been studying for a while, and you are hungry. In the US, depending on what kind of person you are, you might have a couple of Hershey’s kisses nearby, or maybe some Oreos, Chips Ahoy, Skittles, maybe some gummy treats, or even cereal is also a good option. Our candies are all about sugar: chocolate, cream, caramel, or just plain sugar. We love it, we make it so simple that we couldn’t imagine it otherwise, right?
But, as many things learned in this program (especially about food), the world is a place full of exceptions. Everything that we consider normal may not be even remotely close to the thoughts of people from the other side of the globe. An example of that would be, in this case, China.
We had several opportunities to grab a few snacks while riding the buses and we’d usually also have access to convenience stores close to our hotels. So candies were always near us and we had the opportunity to browse around a little bit and find out more about Chinese tastes.
So what’s a quick snack that I can grab?
You can get a chicken’s foot.
Picture Credit: Alejandro Cuevas
You’d pass on that? Oh, how about some…
Spicy tofu sticks! With just a couple of crabs to complement the taste.
Picture Credit: Alejandro Cuevas
Please note that the spicy tofu writes 126 Celsius. If that is not too bad for you, you might wanna give it a shot. No? How about the spicy crabs next to it? More appetizing?
As shown above, Chinese candies/snacks can be quite wild. I have no power to judge them for what they like and what they don’t. However, please take a moment to appreciate this wide breach between two country’s eating habits! If you gave a bag like that to somebody in the US, they will alt least be freaking out because of what they see alone in these pictures.
But again, the important part is to learn how drastically different can two countries be. It is not about who makes more money, or who gets more credit. In order to thrive in multicultural settings, the first step is to recognize that we all have our differences. They might not make me a better or worse man in my standards, but they do just that, they make you different