9 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:The man in the story is pictured in liuzhou's story link, and it appears he has been been beaten by the police
Woah!
I don't know what you are looking at but my link only contains a stock photo of a grilled Chinese sandwich. It also has a link to New York Post coverage of the same story, which again has no such image, but a link to a YouTube video, which also has no image of the man alleged to have been involved.
I'd love to know on what you base your theory that he has been beaten by police. Isn't it equally likely that he was given a beating in his local bar and that is what put him in a bad mood before he went home? People who are beaten by the police look different from people who are beaten by other people? Please don't speculate without evidence. I don't know who beat him and neither do you.
As to family style sharing, you wouldn't last ten minutes in China. Among family members and close friends there is no taboo against sharing food using the chopsticks you are eating with. In fact, objecting would be quite insulting.
In more formal settings, separate sharing chopsticks are sometimes used. That started after the SARS pandemic in 2003. I don't recall seeing it before then. It still isn't even nearly universal, yet China has managed to survive.
We don't all have the (mainly American) over-protective "germ phobia" and there are a lot fewer allergy problems as a result. I don't mean there are never problems, but they are not at all common. People get more chance to build up natural resistance and immunity to all but the more serious bugs and they will get you no matter what. In a restaurant, I'd be more worried about the cook's health than my companions', no matter where.
I certainly had no problem sharing saliva with my late wife - we shared a lot more. But never my chips!
