Where's the Fish's Head?

Walking through a Chinese Buffet line, I asked my young friend from Beijing if the food was anything like what she had in her country. She giggled and pointed to the fish. "This isn't Chinese food. It's what Americans think is Chinese food. Where's the fish's head and tail? Where are the fins?"

I learned many things from her.

1) The Chinese do not move their lips so much when they speak. My attempts to learn a bit of Chinese were pathetic.

2) The U.S. seems spacious to them. Her city is wall-to-wall people.

3) After she became a believer, she only read from an English Bible. Her language is all pictures, and she did not know the words relating to Christianity.

Each of us had many misconceptions about the other's culture. It made me think of my writing. When I include characters from a different ethnic background, do I go beyond the surface to get the full flavor of their culture? It's easy to revert to stereotypes if we don't do our homework.

I love it that author, Patti Lacy, actually went to China as part of her research. Other authors saturate their minds with the culture through the Internet, books, and interviews.

What surprising facts have you discovered about another culture during the course of research?