6 hours ago, Smithy said:The refrigerator decoration, although far prettier than my assortment of magnets and notes, looks a bit obstructed for opening and closing. If it had a cloth covering like that in my house, it would discourage people opening and raiding the refrigerator, and we'd claim that it was to encourage our diets.
I suppose they just flip back the part that covers the door?
The thing is Chinese people seldom actually use their fridges in the way we do in the west, so any inconvenience is minimised. At best there may be a few leftovers from last night. Often the fridge is empty.
Freezing dumplings is more common. Go into a Chinese supermarket. There is very little frozen food on sale (mostly dumplings) and even when people do buy say frozen meat or fish, they eat it that day so it is immediately left to defrost without ever visiting their own freezer compartments.
Fridge/freezers are still very much status symbols and are usually parked in the sitting room (often opposite the front door) so that visitors can't miss them. I don't think I've ever seen a fridge in the kitchen of a Chinese home.