136 CultureShock! China
or rice at the end of the meal. Better dinners will end with
fruits as the final dish.
If you are sitting next to the guests of honour, you should
make sure that their cups are never empty and serve them
food before filling your own plate. It is best to ask the
restaurant to provide servicing spoons and chopsticks so
that you are not serving them with your own chopsticks. If
the restaurant does not provide these, turn your chopsticks
upside down to serve food, so that the side that has touched
your mouth is not touching their food.
If the teapot is empty during the meal, bring it to the
waiting staff’s attention. You can do this by either tipping the
lid to the side, or discreetly flagging them down during the
meal to refill the hot water. If you are drinking alcohol, make
sure that there are always full bottles on standby.
Before you are mid-way through the meal, you should
make a small speech thanking your guests for attending the
dinner and offer a toast to them. Look at the most senior
person or people at the table when offering the toast. If there
are multiple tables in the room, go from table to table offering
a toast. Typically if you cannot reach all the people’s glasses
to touch them in toast, you can tap the bottom of your glass
on the Lazy Susan in the middle of the table, to offer a toast
to all around it.
If you are hosting a dinner that requires translation, it is
customary for the translators to sit beside the people they are
translating for at the table, discreetly keeping them informed
of what is being said at the table. If it is a very formal dinner,
the translator may sit a bit behind and not eat during the
meal, but focus entirely on facilitating the conversation.
It is important that you intercept the bill before it reaches
the table in order to assure others that you are able to pay
for it. Others will show their respect for you by being very
insistent that they pay. In order to alleviate the conflict over
paying the bill, it is better to either arrange to have it paid
separately by your assistant or to leave the room briefly
before the meal is finished and take care of the paying at
the counter. Avoid having the bill for the meal brought into
the room in order to keep things under control.