Are You A Noodle or Rice Person?

A great article in the Journal Science talks about how Northern and Southern Chinese have different personalities as a result of what they eat.

Northern Chinese are noodle eating while the Southern Chinese are rice eating. And it seems that what you eat can affect your personality.

According to the study, northerners are more individualistic, show more “analytic thought” and divorce more frequently. By contrast, rice-eating southerners show more hallmarks traditionally associated with East Asian culture, such as more “holistic thought” and less divorces.

Cultivating rice, the authors say, is a lot harder. Rice seedlings require careful tending and many hours of labour as well as reliance on irrigation systems that require neighbourly cooperation. 

As the authors write, for southerners growing rice, “strict self-reliance might have meant starvation.”

Growing wheat, by contrast, the north’s staple grain, is much simpler. One Chinese farming guide from the 1600s quoted in the study advised aspiring farmers that “if one is short of labor power, it is best to grow wheat.”

So, do a personality test or review your eating habit and let's see if you are a noodle or rice person.