“Doctor, I’ve got a flu.”
“Doctor, I got a fever.”
Illness is a great unifier.
What’s the go-to answer given by all Chinese to this situation? “Drink hot water!” Yes, that’s it! On the other hand, the other answer given by all Western parents is to drink cold water and pop a paracetamol. Cure the symptoms, not the disease itself.
So, does “hot water” actually solve all problems related to health and hygiene or is it the perfect metaphor for the differences in perspective between the Eastern and Western mindsets?
Nowadays, as science and technology develops faster than well-spun rumour, “well-being” has become a popular buzzword worldwide. These concepts of mindfulness, wellbeing and wellness become even more important if we look at the growing life expectancy of the developing world. If we are to live longer, then we need to maintain our operational systems in top condition. A vital part of that is being hygienic.
However, what does “being hygienic” even mean? When a person is sick, for Chinese, drinking hot water and taking immediate medical cures, natural or otherwise, is the tried and tested method; whereas the exact opposite is true for my western friends, who just leave it for the body to react and respond or sometimes, even drink cold water, a veritable death sentence for anybody from the lands of the rising sun.
Drinking hot water is actually a way for Eastern people to be hygienic, since the act of boiling kills bacteria in the water. The most confusing and unbelievable thing is that both ways work, even though they contradict each other, a nod to non-duality and the Eastern philosophies that govern the Chinese mindset perhaps. But if both ways work, then why does the preference for hot over cold even exist?
This led me to wonder, do our beliefs and perspectives of health and hygiene impact our constitution or is it our constitution that is impacted by such?
The actual meaning of constitution is the relatively stable nature of the human individual, in terms of morphological structure and functional activity, formed by innate heredity and acquisition including body development, biochemical functions, physical fitness, mentality and adaptive capacity. So, by definition, the physical constitution of people within a nation is different from that of her neighbour.
As an Oriental person, I have always believed that the way we are built is different. From my experience with Occidental friends, there are indeed humongous differences in what we perceive to be hygienic, what we have been taught is hygienic and how we go about making ourselves and our living environments as hygienic as possible. When I asked my Western friends what they found most unusual about Chinese hygienic beliefs, they came up with the typical answers, mopping the floor with toilet water, inner ear-cleaning with communal instruments in Laomendong, the habit of every Chinese person to hang their bedclothes outside on the bushes every day…
But of course, from our ethnocentric perches inside our own cultures, it can be hard to shift perspective and understand that others operate from different cultural and societal beliefs, and that this is because at a very basic level, we are BUILT differently.
First of all, we can acknowledge that there is indeed a certain difference in the constitution of the eastern and western people. According to Souhu, Eastern civilisation has existed for a long time and has been dominated by farming civilisations under Imperial rule. Under the influence of Confucian culture, people have developed a calm temperament and value peace. Therefore, their diet culture is comparable to that of a herbivore.
Nomadic civilisations in the west, however, were more focused on food gathering and hunting. Hunter Gatherers were brave and aggressive, and had more independence, will and resistance, which cast them more in the carnivore mold.
Scientific research also confirms that the average length of Westerners’ intestines is less than Oriental people, which determines that there is a huge difference in the function of the digestive system of each, resulting in different constitutions. Therefore, Westerners can eat cold food without hindrance but Easterners may suffer discomfort and fall ill if they eat this way. Therefore, if our constitution is essentially different, could this explain all of our behaviour and opinion towards being hygienic?
Westerners love to walk in bare feet when they come home to release the heat from the body but for eastern people, wearing thick socks and slippers is always the safest and best way because to us, the feet are the second heart of the body. It is essential to keep them warm since we believe that as long as they are warm, our body temperature can be kept stable.
It is also grossly unhygienic to wear shoes in the house, and yet many Westerner’s wear shoes inside. To expect them to take their shoes off at the front door, as is the custom in most Chinese houses, would be like asking somebody to take their trousers off in terms of feeling undressed.
My Occidental friends prefer soft beds whilst Eastern people prefer harder beds since from our knowledge, it helps us to release pain and pressure for our spine. Another slumberly concern related to sleeping customs is that it is considered hygienic by Chinese people to air their blankets under the sun once every week or 2 as it reduces the growth of bacteria.
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For women, childbirth points to yet another essential difference. For Eastern women, the need to be in confinement after giving birth means that they should not drink or eat anything cold, since the absorption of cold would affect the body and the infant’s health. A draft could cause colds, rheumatism, joint pain and even diarrhea! Bathing could cause long-term headache, joint soreness and so on. In the West, however, women now go right back to their lives after their child is born, just as soon as they feel able, without any limitations. The days of confinement after birth went out with the oil lamps.
Of course, with the development of globalisation, the difference in the degree of scientific progress between the East and the West is getting smaller. Will the differences in physical fitness and habits between these two polarities gradually disappear?
Water pollution is a global topic and harmful to human health which impacts our way of being hygienic. Currently, less than 2 percent of the global water supply is drinkable. The severity of water pollution depends mainly on population density, the type and quantity of industrial and agricultural development, and the number and efficiency of the waste treatment systems employed.
Therefore, this problem is particularly prominent in developing countries. The level of water purification treatment is indeed different from that of western developed countries. Some believe that the poor water quality in the East is the reason people drink boiled water; in order not to get sick.
Also, there are some problems in household hygiene: such as the storage of raw and cooked foods side by side in refrigerators and keep-fresh boxes. It may be because in the Eastern diet, raw food in not eaten and is always cooked, so some families will ignore basic food hygiene guidelines as regards keeping food chilled.
Insufficient awareness of, and equipment for, the purification, dehumidification or moisturisation of indoor air also leads to the breeding of bacteria. For example, in addition to air purification systems for factories, and filters to clean indoor air, Western countries have long ago employed advanced professional equipment, but they have just begun to spread in China.
Imagine a time when eastern people live western people’s lives and vice versa. Will the result be totally different? Will peoples’ constitutions change when their living conditions and beliefs change? Will the go-to answer be to drink ice water for eastern people then? Perhaps some beliefs are so deeply entrenched, they literally do become part of us.
We are ALL the same in that respect.
