Kissing

Aria Schwartz
Brio
3/6/14
Blog post #1
“I mentioned that, since coming to China, I had never seen two people kiss each other, even in the movies, except for mothers kissing their infant children. Thier eyes opened wide and they nodded vigorously. ‘Of course not! Here in China, it is very different from your country. People don’t kiss here’” (74-75). This quote demonstrates how back then kissing as a public display of affection was discouraged as a cultural behavior. It was not so much that they didn’t have affection for each other but their cultural conditioning was against it. For example, Mark’s students skirted around the topic of kissing and added that it is not acceptable to kiss a child if it is no longer an infant. Shortly after, a different student of his shyly admitted that although he wants to kiss his teenaged children, he can only do it in secret as to not embarrass them or himself. The whole idea of conveying a message through an action is interesting because the same motion could be perceived so differently to different cultures and in different periods of time. An article on the Davidson in China Website commented on the fact that due to culturally embedded beliefs that one's behavior is a reflection of one’s family, proper conduct is required to avoid “losing face.” Also by understanding that one's reputation is at stake, it is easy to comprehend why relationships are regarded with such seriousness. Now, with western influences, kissing in public is culturally accepted but it is also interesting to recognize the cultural interaction between America and China.