你吃饭了吗 ?

Ni chi fan le ma?  Have you had your rice today?  This expression draws smiles today in China, since it is rather quaint, old fashioned.  When I first went to China, Ni Hao, or roughly "how are you?" was immediately followed with ni chi fan le ma?  "or have you eaten today" or have you had your rice today?  Such were the food shortages of the previous 40 years in China that in the 1970s this kind inquiry was still common.  Today I use reflexively that phrase, learned long ago, to the amusement of the young who have never experienced hunger.

Today China is following the path USA used to get rich, as USA follows the path old China used to get poor.  I hope I don't live long enough to hear "have you eaten today" commonly used in English.

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