“Eat or not?” That is a normal greeting
when people meet. “Haven’t seen you for a long time” is another
greeting. The former greeting is responded with “yes” or “no”, whereas
the latter is perhaps a prelude for a longer chat. “Hi!” modern young men and women greet each other at first sight. They
then walk away quickly before you even have time to hi back! (Fr Chinese
Way of Greetings, June 15th.2005)

Over the years, my way of greetings is simplified
with a mere nod. Eating is a burden now. Behind“Long time no see”is more often
than not“Reaching in no time” with everybody kept in touch with each other online
every minuet. A loud “Hi”is heard twice in the past year, one is a student I
met for the second time on the university campus last October. Another is a
greeting on the stairs from a young colleague whom I am not familiar - in both
cases I greeted back with a nod. What’s left is a casual “Ni Hao”, a
greeting mostly to strangers or someone
not familiar with an occasional “Ni Hao” response. It seems civilized men greet
each other now without necessarily saying many words.