The Chinese act goofy too about climate-controlled offices. Last summer, I made sure the air conditioner stayed on in the office and a group of women, out of protest, dressed up wearing winter coats and scarves. I called them eskimoes. But these same eskimoes who freaked out about air conditioning acted the opposite when the heat in the office got turned on in the dead of winter. They insisted on opening all the windows even when it -10 F outside. And guess what, they didn’t wear coats in the office. Many Chinese would drink boiling water in the summer and room temperature water in the winter. I was curious about these actions and apparently there’s some Chinese tale that airconditioning and heating causes sickness if the windows are closed.
I know a Chinese-American lady who won’t use soap for washing clothes, dishes, or herself, maintaining that it’s harmful. I know it may not be because she’s Chinese but merely crazy.
When I was stationed in Korea, it was a superstition there that leaving a fan on in a room with windows and doors closed would suck the air out of a room.