Janice is an American engineer working in Nanjing. She and her husband George, who is teaching English at a university, have been eager to get to know Chinese people better, so they were pleased when Liu, Janice's young co-worker, invited them to her home for dinner. When they arrived, Liu introduced them to her husband Yang and asked them to sit down at a table containing eight plates of various cold dishes. Half an hour later she came back and sat down and the three began to eat. Yang came in from time to time, putting hot dishes on the table. Most of the food was wonderful, though neither George nor Janice could eat the fatty pork, and there was much more than they could eat. They kept wishing Yang would sit down so they could talk to him. Finally he did sit down to eat a bit, but soon it was time to go home. Janice and George felt slightly depressed by this experience, but returned the invitation two weeks later. They decided to make a nice American meal and felt lucky to find olives, crackers , tomato juice, and even some cheese in the shop. They put these out as appetizers . For the main course they prepared spaghetti and a salad. When Liu and Yang arrived and began to have dinner, they took small tastes of the appetizers and seemed surprised when both George and Janice sat down with them. They ate only a little spaghetti and didn't finish the salad on their plates. After a while, George cleared the table and served coffee and pastries . Yang and Liu each put four spoons of sugar into their coffee but didn't drink much of it and ate only a bite or two of pastry. After they left, George and Janice were upset. " We left their place so full but they're going to have to eat again when they get home. What went wrong? Why did the American couple feel a bit depressed after dinner at Liu's home?
They received a cold welcome. The fatty pork was not delicious. The dinner was not well prepared. Yang spent little time talking with them.