Slurping... to do or not to do?

I read this article on the Guardian website about how the Chinese government issued a 64-page guide to Chinese tourists about how they should behave when they are travelling abroad (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/03/china-advice-travel-tourism-guide?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487). This came after reports that Chinese tourists were giving China a bad image, due to their behaviour. In China and other parts of Asia, 'keeping face' is very important. People do not wish to look bad in front of others - which is actually a pretty universal human desire.

The guidebook features advice from avoiding teeth and nose-picking in public to not leaving footprints on toilet seats, after some tourists apparently try to re-create the squatting toilet with standard Western seated ones (I'll leave your imagination to paint the rest of the picture). But the guide also features quite bizarre pieces of advice like the fact that if women do not wear earrings in Spain they will be laughed at as if she were undressed in public. Where did they get that from?

But now lets turn our attention to one of the most pertinent cultural differences that I noticed when I first came to China, and one that the guidebook also mentions. That is the issue of slurping. 'When travelling abroad Chinese citizens should refrain from slurping their noodles loudly'.

I must say, when I first landed in this fine land, slurping bothered the hell out of me. Ask any one of my close family members and they will tell you how I would lose my temper faster than they could blink their eyes, if I heard even a little noise coming from their mouth when they ate. 'YOU'RE EATING IN MY EARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR', I would roar as my face puffed red and the vein on the side of my neck would swell to monstrous proportions.

But no noise my family ever made could compare to the slurping and open-mouthed eating that tormented me during my first few days in China. I wanted so badly to rip my ears off my head and throw them at the slurping-fiends. On failing that I just pulled at my hair and smacked my forehead numerous times.

But here's the good news. I'm over it. In fact, if you could hear how I was going at my bubble tea tapioca pearls today, you'd think I would make an excellent contestant at the World Slurping Championships.

I've come to see slurping and other things people do here like spitting on the street, kids peeing wherever they see fit etc. etc. as actually quite liberating. Yes I have spat in streets a few times and some of you may be shocked that I'm letting my Western standards slip, but I say to hell with standards.

'Better out than in', seems to be the running concept here. People here are more relaxed, more natural. They don't pretend to be divine beings that never burp, slurp or kurp (I couldn't think of anything else that rhymed with burp and slurp so I'll leave it to you to decide the meaning of 'kurp'). No, they acknowledge the fact that they are human and as such have bodily functions that need to be addressed.