Enjoyed your analysis of different approaches to human contact; in Spain cheek kissing on introductions between opposite sexes has become the norm… The socialization of the kiss??
Echo the comments of those who have commented before me. This is one of the most observant and perceptive essays that I have read. One does feel awkward when one ends up doing things that are frowned upon in a different culture. I have had this experience a few times. I guess this is also true of sub cultures within a country-especially between the rural and the urban.
This is easily the best essay I have read on the much-ignored special sense: touch. The others—sight, sound, smell, and taste—hog the limelight in discussions on the topic. Touch is a vital sense that we don't give adequate importance to. I loved the bit about how Westerners react with horror when we reach for their food. In our cultures, food is always shared, regardless of how humble it may be. Thanks, Pallavi, for brightening my day with this evocative piece.
How DO you write so well? Never mind, that was a rhetorical question. But I suppose part of the reason is structure…If you’d not juxtaposed the Japanese/Spanish examples the contrast wouldn’t have been as stark.
Enjoyed this thoroughly. It ranks up there for me with the piece on the story of the ten stone lions (tigers?) and how it can rendered phonetically on paper into a cluster of “shis” 😊
Enjoyed your analysis of different approaches to human contact; in Spain cheek kissing on introductions between opposite sexes has become the norm… The socialization of the kiss??
Such a revealing essay about cultures and written so very well!
This is wonderfyl read
Thank you!
What a wonderfully insightful essay. loved it
Thanks!
Echo the comments of those who have commented before me. This is one of the most observant and perceptive essays that I have read. One does feel awkward when one ends up doing things that are frowned upon in a different culture. I have had this experience a few times. I guess this is also true of sub cultures within a country-especially between the rural and the urban.
Absolutely!
This is easily the best essay I have read on the much-ignored special sense: touch. The others—sight, sound, smell, and taste—hog the limelight in discussions on the topic. Touch is a vital sense that we don't give adequate importance to. I loved the bit about how Westerners react with horror when we reach for their food. In our cultures, food is always shared, regardless of how humble it may be. Thanks, Pallavi, for brightening my day with this evocative piece.
So glad you enjoyed it.
How DO you write so well? Never mind, that was a rhetorical question. But I suppose part of the reason is structure…If you’d not juxtaposed the Japanese/Spanish examples the contrast wouldn’t have been as stark.
Enjoyed this thoroughly. It ranks up there for me with the piece on the story of the ten stone lions (tigers?) and how it can rendered phonetically on paper into a cluster of “shis” 😊
Happy writing!
Thank you!
Such a fresh perspective about national characters, I really enjoyed it.
Thanks!
Loved it ! In a similar vein, your fellow Beijing journalist Poppy Sebag-Montefiore wrote an article on touch in China : https://granta.com/touch/
This is one of the most beautiful things I have read in a long time about places and people. ❤️
Delightful… and so insightful! Thank you for this perceptive piece..