The meaning of“吃饭了没？”or“食左饭未？” Mandarin：吃饭了没？chi fan le mei 你吃饭了吗？ni chi fan le ma Cantonese：食左饭未？shi zuo fan wei 大家似乎都知道著名的中国人的问候语：“你吃饭了吗？” 对此，西方的大部分解读，都是认为之所以有这样的一句经典问候语，是因为中国人常常吃不饱饭。 我在瑞士和美国的房东都曾经告诉我， 在他们小的时候，常在吃饭的时候听父母说，不知还有多少中国人都吃不上饭呢。 我们中国人之所以把“你吃饭了吗？”作为一个日常问候语， 问的不是你有没有吃饱， 而是问你“味道如何？”问你“生活的滋味如何？” ————申荷永，爱诺思东西方文化圆桌会议上的主题演讲，2007 Everybody seems to know the famous Chinese greeting: "have you eaten?" Most of the west think Chinese often do not have enough to eat so we have such a classic greetings. I was in Switzerland and the United States of America ， the landlord told me, When they were young, often listen to their parents said at dinner time , don’t you know many Chinese have no food to eat. Chinese have the "have you eaten?" as a daily greetings, It‘s not about asking you eat or not, But ask you "How does it taste?" or "how about taste of your life"