These 'weird' Chinese eating habits

2. Eating out of a common dish - We use separate serving utensils when getting food from a common dish. We would find 'germ sharing' much more prevalent with people using their eating utensils (chopsticks) and eating food directly from a common dish or plate. Think about it. The chopsticks go in your mouth and you use it again in the dish, potentially putting your germs into the dish. Then the dish is served to several other people at the table. Everyone is sharing everyone else's germs. Westerners would find this unhealthy.