Manners Maketh MAN

While I was having dinner with friends, this topic came up to me as my friends are going to Europe for a holiday and was planning on what to buy. Of course it would be those luxurious brands. Well people would rather buy in Europe as it is cheaper compared to Malaysia! Besides that, they were saying chinese from China were the tourist spot in Europe and they buy A LOT!

Here’s the thing…

Luxury is a necessity in mainland China and motivations are based on functional utilities. It is true that Chinese from China has a powerful demand on luxurious item as they have the money to spend. Sociologists suggest that an increase in social capital boosts people make self-distinction. China has a big social class gap between the rich and poor. Rich people tend to be super rich while the poor are super poor. After the implementation of opening and reform policies in 1978, China’s economy moved from being centrally planned to market-oriented. Private sector began to flourish. People had different rates of increase of social capital, such as personal wealth, education resources and family resources. The needs of social distinction change social structures from a flat equal system to a vertical distinctive system. One of the ways to differentiate oneself in society was through luxury consumption for its rareness and superiority. However, sorry to say that majority of the Chinese are rude, just not because they are born like that but they are not being taught to be courteous.

While I was scrolling on Facebook, this article from bbc.com about social etiquette came to my attention and how it has become a STATUS SYMBOL. So now, even though you own a designer bags, fancy watches, jewellery, cars etc, all of that don’t matter anymore( perhaps we still need a few as self reward or self accomplishment) but it's now all about how you behave!

The article was about how China people behave. My friends visited China before and he said it was normal to talk loud in the public. So, they acted like a Chinese gangster-like throughout the holiday trip shouting in the mall like nobody’s business.. lol.. Nobody would ever think you’re psychotic. Fyi, if u acted like a very civil person, those local Chinese will bully you as an outsiders. Another thing is mostly all of them having a luxury item on hand. Can u imagine, the basic sales promoter in mall carrying an LV? For them, they would save months to own one. (*die die also need one) But yet, I wouldn’t confirm whether it’s authentic or not but still they are using luxurious brand as a status symbol. For a girl like me, I would have think an average class people carrying an LV, what about those rich ones. They would have opt for Hermes! Even in KL, I saw some carrying a Hermes already.

But here’s the thing, good manners plays an important role. If you don’t have manners, it would ruin your image and reputation even though you’re carrying a Hermes.  People would think that, that luxurious brand that you’re carrying doesn’t suit your attitude at all.

          # MANNERS MAKETH MAN -Harry-

‘MANNERS  MAKETH MAN’ which got me inspired from the Kingsman movie *btw great movie. In China, there are now classes that teaches you how to behave well to help improve your business, especially for the nouveau riche,  or to prepare you for holidays overseas so that you won't embarrass yourself for being rude inside the luxurious shops like pasar malam. They will teach you about how to raise your children, proper table manners on how to sit, how low can you bend, how not to break the wine glass if you are about to make a speech and how to pronounce luxury brands so that you won't embarrass yourself. Yes, I must learn to pronounce it right too, not only those Chinese. I myself think that, we must learn more and upgrade ourselves from time to time. There many to learn, including things like which fork to use for which food *especially fine dining where I always mistakenly use the wrong one! There would be 3 forks if not mistaken and spoons and all are for different type of food.

It is great that China now has this kind of class, to help educate people about manners. I hope Malaysia would come up with this concept too as not everybody knows which forks and knife to use during fine dining as they come in a few sizes! *typical Malaysian, just joking=)