Have the Asians, at any point of time tried to think why these practices exist in Europe? Lets take these 3 examples. European countries have cold climates as compared to the usually warmer South Asia. Lets keep China aside for the moment. Cold climate means a human tendency to keep minimum contact with water. That calls for the use of something that would keep the hands clean and there would be no need to wash them with water every time you have food. May be that was the reason why spoons and forks were used. Also red meat is tough to be seperated by fingers. That must have necessiated the use of knives. Observe that bread is eaten by the Europeans by hand. Now look at the Chinese and Japanese. These countries also have cold climates and harsh winters. They invented the chop sticks. Once again to keep the hands clean.
The same logic applies to using paper tissues in the Kitchen as well as toilets. But without thinking much on this background, rest of the world just blidnly follows the European practices considering them as modern way of life.
Coming to the foot wear. Most of the Asian countries are dusty, have loose soil and heavy winds blowing for most of the year. Also there is a lot of vegetation - natural as well as planted. This means that the chances of dust, mud, insects getting into the house along with the footwear are very high. This problem seldom is seem in Europe where there is greenery or tar roads every where outside the house and hardly any loose sand, soil that can come in with the footwear.
Today, after going through the swine flu experience, all countries as well as the WHO have clearly told to avoid 2 things - hand shakes, normal cheek to cheek kissing to greet each other. It has also been advised to wash ones hands as many times as possible - after eating, touching foreign objects etc. The Indian and largely South East Asian culture always calls for "namaskar" instead of hand shakes, no kisses on cheeks and also use of water to wash hands frequently. All this has been probably been put into religion by the ancestors so that people follow it rigourously. Else explaining scientific reasons might have led to abandoning these practices long back.
In short, there is a need to look at traditions and cultures in the context of the region and the situation in which they are being followed. Had it been only developed vs developing countries, then Japan would not have stuck to the Indian tradition of "namaskar", disallowing footwear inside their houses and use of water in toilets.
Atul
Singapore,
Diwali - 18th October 2009