At my university I met an American exchange student named Marie who has recently come to China to study, and we have talked several times. Yesterday afternoon I ran into her, and after we talked for awhile, she suggested that we go get dinner. So we went to a little restaurant nearby and we each had a bowl of noodles. After we finished she asked me how much her bowl of noddles cost. I felt that since she was new in China, I should treat her to dinner, so I just gave the waiter money for both of our dinners. When Marie realized what I had done, she seemed surprised and not very happy, and said she wanted to pay for her own dinner. She said that we should “go Dutch.” I kept refusing to take her money, and finally she gave in, but she didn’t seem very happy about it. I found the experience a little awkward and unpleasant -- I didn’t have the good felling that I have when I treat my Chinese friends to a meal.Why do Americans always pay for their own meals? I have a friend who is majoring in English, and she said that Americans pay for themselves because their renqingwei bijiao dan. (I don’t know exactly how to translate this into English -- it means something like Americans don’t emphasize relationships between people as much as Chinese do.) Do you think this is true?