I didn’t learn this until about a year ago, but fine china is a type of ceramic, similar to porcelain or bone china. They differ in what mixtures they are made of and what temperature they are dried at.
My understanding is that china is any type of porcelain made in China.
Sort of how scotch is any kind of whisky made in Scotland.
Edit to include sources:
“Porcelain was a Chinese invention and is so identified with China that it is still called “china” in everyday English usage.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_ceramics#:~:text=The first pottery was made,imperial court and for export.
“Scotch whisky (Scottish Gaelic: uisge-beatha na h-Alba; Scots: Scots whisky/whiskie, whusk(e)y, pronounced [ˈʍɪski],[1] often simply called whisky or Scotch) is malt whisky or grain whisky (or a blend of the two), made in Scotland.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch_whisky Since whisky is always made of grain, it would be any whisky made in Scotland.
Since whisky is always made of grain, it would be any whisky made in Scotland.
You’re completely wrong, but at least you’re confident.
There’s quite a few regulations to be met if you want to legally sell your whisky as Scotch, including the type and shape of your still, which grains you can use, the wood for your casks, the aging process, and who owns the business.
Both of those things are completely untrue
My parents never used their fine china until my siblings and I moved out. Now we use it on Thanksgiving and that’s it. My parents were upset we didn’t ask for china at my wedding. They said we’d “wish we had it”. I have never wished I had a “nice” plate I had to hand wash .
This reminds me that I read an article on this subject some months back. Apparently a lot of boomers don’t understand that their offspring don’t want their china and consider it a waste of space.
Same with guest rooms. In my area, almost all “old” houses have a room that is kept neat and tidy but unused until guests come over - basically wasted space specifically reserved for other people not living under that roof. And the boomers here get confused about why newer houses (especially rental appartements) don’t have that oh-so-important feature anymore.
Imagine an entire effing room and everything in it (furniture included) getting the “fine china” treatment and old people being offended that “the youth today” has the audacity to invite guests into the regular boring non-special living room.
I’m not sure if this is an American thing or not but here in the UK a guest room is just a spare bedroom for when people are staying overnight, I’ve never heard of a whole extra space existing just so that you can invite guests round.
In apartments space is super limited. I get that.
But when you own an entire house sometimes you want a place to invite friends and family to come in to town. It’s nice to to have a place for them without having them pay to stay at a hotel. It’s for people who like to entertain and have visitors.
Remember that houses were much cheaper back then and space wasn’t as limited.
In my time growing up, that was dens. People who had a whole second living room in their house which wasn’t to be touched except to dust it because it’s the den, for guests. Even when I was the guest.
I have forever had a negative connotation associated with the word “den” as a result. Unless we’re talking about non-human animals.
Believe it or not - straight to the estate sale!
That makes me wonder what things we have that will seem similarly pointless someday.
Well, in the '90s, people thought their beanie babies were an investment. I think they have all been disillusioned of that by now.
NFTs? I think most of us already know they’re pointless, though.
Politicians
But very little of it is fine. To such an extent that my nephew thought “fine China” was said tongue-in-cheek to refer to using the disposable plates you wouldn’t mind breaking because a bunch of guests you didn’t know would be eating off them.
How many “fine” things though? As Chinese made goods are notorious for their lack of quality control.
Rubik’s cubes made by Chinese companies are infinitely better than Rubik’s branded products. This is just an edge case, though.
I think that’s only the case with very cheap goods.
