The talent for misunderstanding

“the Chinese have a strong dramatic instinct. The theatre may almost be said to be the only National amusement, and the Chinese have for the theatricals a passion like the Englishman for the athletics, or the Spaniard for the bull-fights. Upon very slight provocation, any Chinese regards himself in the light of an actor in a drama. He throw himself into theatrical attitudes, performs the salaam, falls upon his knees, prostrates himself and strikes his head upon the heart, under circumstances which to an Occidental seem to make such actions superfluous, not to say ridiculous. A Chinese thinks in theatrical terms”

Source:
“Chinese Characteristics” (1894), by Arthur Henderson Smith