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Strategies & Market Trends : China Warehouse- More Than Crockery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (4023)	12/31/2004 3:33:07 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6370

Don't burp, don't pick teeth Mainlanders upset by HK etiquette book SECRETS Of Europe's Rich And Famous, an etiquette booklet, offended both mainland Chinese as well as Americans with its uninvited tips on how to be more 'European'. The booklet, distributed by ParisExchange, advises that one must not use toothpicks, ask for a doggie bag or hold a wine glass by the stem, reported The South China Morning Post. ParisExchange is an upmarket boutique chain that sells fashion accessories and leather goods from luxury brands such as Chanel, Dior, Hermes and Louis Vuitton. It has branches in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo. The booklet goes on to declare that 'mainland Chinese for some odd reason seem to have no manners at all'. The booklet is distributed unsolicited to many top addresses in the plush Mid-levels district of Hong Kong. 'It's absolutely outrageous how this little book, which claims to teach good manners, is the ultimate in bad taste,' said a Mid-Levels resident who received the booklet. Elbows on the dinner table are a sign their owner is 'probably right off the boat from the mainland' and notes that 'Asian peasants' are famous the world over for being bad tippers. The booklet encourages tipping 'like the King of France' and arriving on time for reservations. ParisExchange chief operating officer John Ho said his booklet had been approved by 'our famous legal firm in Hong Kong'. NOT ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS 'Please keep in mind, the mission of this book is not talking about human rights; it's all about how to have a better life,' Mr Ho said in response to the outrage. Mr David Tang Wing-cheung, founder of the Shanghai Tang fashion chain and a regular on the high-society circuit in Hong Kong and London, said the booklet reeked of 'bourgeois' concepts of etiquette and got many things wrong. 'There is a scientific reason why you should hold the wine glass by the stem - if you are drinking a glass of cold wine and you put your paws around the glass, you actually increase the temperature and make the glass of wine go warm. 'I hold the stem every time,' Mr Tang said. 'Frankly, I really don't care; it is quite nice sometimes to get bad manners to ginger up a bourgeois dinner which is usually excruciatingly boring. 'There is some truth in the proposition that mainlanders have bad manners relative to what's accepted in the West and in Hong Kong to some extent, but everything is different in different cultures,' he added. 'Arabs and Chinese burp at the table but Madame Doo-Dah with her phony French name might not approve.' A note that came with the booklet apologises for a delay in sending it, claiming there has been 'great demand' for it. newpaper.asia1.com.sg