Our resident race expert takes on an ancient Chinese tradition

Dear Ethnicist,

I was in Chinatown last week getting my girlfriend some fish pills (don't ask), and noticed a disturbing number of people hawking up enormous loogies and spitting them on the sidewalk—what's up with that?

—Deep (and Dry) Throat

Well, Deep, looks like you've stumbled upon one of life's enduring mysteries. Apart from string theory and Kevin Costner's career, there are few subjects that tickle the brain quite like the Chinese propensity for expectorating.

"There is a traditional Chinese health notion that to void one's rheum is healthy. That's the polite way of saying spitting" Here, however, are some of the excellent explanations I've heard over the years. Several spitorians have suggested that because China's major cities are so heavily polluted, modern citizens have little choice but to energetically expel smoggy dust particles from their lungs. (When such citizens relocate to places like NYC's Chinatown, well, the habit sticks). Others believe the extreme spitting was brought on by post-Communist urbanization. China is in many ways still a nation transitioning from a predominantly agricultural system to one that's more industrialized. As farmers have flooded megacities like Beijing and Shanghai, some experts believe they've brought their unsophisticated, country ways with them.

Another idea I've seen floated is that the Chinese quite simply do not consider spitting to be poor form; in fact, they find it preferable to sneezing and nose-blowing. (And if you've ever shared the "cat's cot" with my fat Uncle Todd when he gets on one of his room-shaking sneeze jags, you can understand where they're coming from.)

But I digress. Orville Schell, dean of UC-Berkeley's graduate school of journalism, and author of nine books on China, says Mao's Cultural Revolution is critical when considering China's surge in saliva.

"In general, manners declined during the revolution and in the post-revolution period," Schell told your Ethnicist. "There was an erosion of politesse, which was considered an upper-middle class affectation."

The dean suggests there are at least two reasons this behavior has persisted. "The first thing I'd have to say is that there is a traditional Chinese health notion that to void one's rheum is healthy.That's the polite way of saying spitting," he adds, cheekily.

And the other reason? "This is a poor country with hundreds of millions of peasants for whom spitting is the same as breathing."

While there are multiple theories on how the Chinese originally became so adept at phlegm expulsion, everyone seems to agree that the love affair has been long and meaningful. As far back as the 17th century Qing Dynasty, emperors expected to have golden spittoons placed before them at important public functions. An appreciation for the receptacle would last well into the mid-20th century, when, during the height of the Communist era, porcelain spittoons were placed throughout Chinese cities and in many a comrade's home. This was thought to be an excellent hygienic solution to the problem of too much throat juice. In the winter, however, these structures became icicled monuments to mucus.