Running the risk of openly insulting the entire expat community, I would like to take a moment to mock your Chinese. Some of you have acquired a semi, quasi, possibly even complete mastery of the language, while others obstinately declare basic communication in its tongue a feat of herculean proportions. I fall somewhere in the middle, though somewhat closer to the latter group, and so in deriding you, I am in fact scoffing at my own inaptitude.

Nevertheless, despite your (our) deficiencies, I have found one fact to be true –all of you have mastered the pronunciation of the word ‘fuwuyuan’. You have not only become proficient in grasping its meaning and its tones (fu2wu4yuan2), you have also captured the desired pitch and loudness with which to pronounce it with. From the empty-stomached wail when wishing to order, to the belch-like grunt upon paying the bill, you have, through repeated use, honed the word under all its forms.

And ample opportunity you have had to use it, with the quality, diversity and cost of food in China. But have you given thought to the culture that underlies the notion of service in China? For though fuwuyuan (literally service person) and waiter (derived from the 15th century servants who ‘waited at tables’ in inns or eating houses) essentially share the same meaning, our cultural conceptions and expectations of waiters could hardly be described as analogous.

A foreigner’s first forays in the luxuriant jungle of Chinese restaurants will instantly have him gaping at the bustling number of waiters, buzzing dizzyingly from table to table, like bees hovering between honeycombs. Having been greeted and subsequently led to his table, our foreigner will find himself seated, handed a menu and patiently stared at by his waiter. Following his tentative order, he will start to regain from his recent sense of unease before jumping in shock as fellow clients around him bellow the infamous word: fuwuyuan. Finally, after his meal, he may revel wonderingly at not paying a tip, and will exit through the doors with one, but often two or more waiters giving him a parting ‘man zou’.

From beginning to end, there is a ritualized process in which the client is at will to expect and demand service from his waiter, included in the price of his meal.

Service in the West vs. China

In contrast, what service should one expect of North American or European waiters? I was brought to ponder the issue as I traveled to Europe with a Chinese friend to visit my family and travel around. Having lived twelve years in Europe and twelve more in North America, I did my best to remain as impartial as possible as my friend expressed his surprise and ensuing shock at the deplorable, ‘inadmissible’ quality of the service.

In this jungle, the etymological roots of ‘waiter’ took on an ironic twist as we were often left waiting on the waiter – to greet us, to find us a table, to bring us a menu, to get our order, to serve our food. Not to deliver the bill, though. As opposed to the common saying ‘the client is king’, even I was left feeling roles had mysteriously been inversed. Discussions with fellow travelers have brought about differing accounts for this shared perception –cuisine preparation time, number of waiters, prestige – none persuasive enough to dispel the notion of ‘dependence’ from replacing the concept of ‘service’ originally bestowed upon the profession. My friend returned from his European culinary adventures with a blemished perception of waiters: one where the client is at the mercy of the provider – at the mercy of his or her time, indifference and/or anger, as we were also witness to a waiter manhandling a client out of a restaurant in Carcassonne, in Southern France.

Additionally shocking, not only to him but also to me, was the notion of the tip automatically being included in the bill. Again, if service is the topic of discussion, should a tip not be the expression of a client’s satisfaction with the service, and so given in an amount according to his discretion?

Critics will immediately argue this notion of service merely to be an expression of the circumstances, namely that a waiter in China will stand beside you to press you into ordering rapidly; that people feel justified to yell for a waiter because of the level of noise characteristic of most Chinese restaurants, and that fuwuyuans are no nicer than anywhere else.

The aim is neither to discuss people’s fluctuating moods, which are common to us all, nor is it to stereotype. We did, during the course of our European excursion, come across some very able, kind and refined waiters. In the same fashion, I have also been disgruntled a number of times at the abysmally poor service provided in certain restaurants in China.

The aim lies simply in examining whether this concept of service, common in most cultures, expresses itself in different forms, and to ask you, the traveling client: which table would you sit at?
 

Related links
Dream of Good Service? What China Needs to Become a Consumer Society
The Beginning of the End for Lavish Expat Lifestyles?
Food Safety and Consumer Democracy: A Phenomenon on the Rise in China

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Keywords: Chinese restaurant service China restaurant service China waiters china Fuwuyuan China