There are two aspects to which left versus right is important in Chinese culture.
The first is that unlike Western society where right is considered the power position, it’s the reverse in Chinese culture. By the power position, I mean both seating arrangements and whether you walk to the left or right of someone else. The core reason is that left is associated with Yang and right is associated with Ying. Being male dominated for much of ancient China, it is not surprising that the left is favoured. So in Australia, Mum always walks on my right but in Hong Kong, she walks on my left. I don’t think she’s doing this deliberately to express power over me or in our relationship because ours for the most part is a relatively equal relationship but it’s just one of these cultural cues that she reacts to.
The second is that being left-handed does have very practical implications on those you dine with in Chinese culture. Essentially, the problem is that if you are left-handed and sit next to someone who is right-handed, it is very likely that the two of you are going to impede each other when you try to reach out towards dishes with your chopsticks. So Chinese parents were known to at least attempt to educate children born left-handed to try to change their habit towards right-handedness in order to avoid this kind of socially awkward outcome.
That’s it for today. Let me know in the comments if you have additional insights or want to know more about something I mentioned here.
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