All becomes clear

Yesterday in my Chinese lesson I discovered that to greet each other in Chinese you say:

"Ni hao ma?" (How are you)

But this way of greeting is a relativley new thing. In past centuries (and in some areas of China still) the standard way of greeting is to say:

"Ni chifan le meiyou?" (have you eaten)

That explains a great deal about Chinese people and their relationship with food. It also could explain why I have only eaten dinner in my flat about twice in the past 3 months.

bx