What the Chinese eat for breakfast
- By Wei Jia
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E-mail China.org.cn, September 7, 2015
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Morning tea |
3. An emperor's quick-thinking servant
For Cantonese (locals of Guangdong Province in south China), having morning tea, a meal that consists of snacks such as dim sum, is part of daily life. In fact, morning tea is more of a social occasion than a hunger-quenching occasion. Cantonese usually spend more than an hour enjoying delicate snacks together with relatives and friends.
Although having morning tea is a relaxed situation, one rule of etiquette is often observed: People whose cup is being filled by another would tap the table with two of their fingers to say "Thanks", or "Xie Xie", in a respectful way. This practice originated from a story about Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty. During one of his many trips to south China in the guise of a common man, the emperor once poured tea for one of his entourage when he apparently forgot about the gap between their statuses. Royal palace rules stated that the humbled servant had to kneel after accepting the tea. But to do exactly that would blow the cover of both the servant and his master. The former kept his calm and bent his index and middle fingers as if they were legs and tapped the table with them in lieu of actually kneeling.
The servant surely wished that such a simplified version of etiquette would catch on upon their return to the palace in Beijing, but probably to no avail.
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