In the mainland Chinese series that I've been watching, set 1979–92, there's a scene where the woman invites her university ex-classmate out for lunch. (Note: "invite" here = she pays.)
They'd both done their first degree in architecture, with the chap then going on to do post-grad studies in the 设计院 (shèjìyuàn / Design Institute/Group), working on the designs for new buildings, and the woman a job in the 规划局 (guīhuàjú / [Municipal/Urban] Planning Bureau). She then tries to get into his department as the pay is higher.
The small talk preamble bit: after ordering loads of dishes (first clue), she tells him that she'd chosen that small eatery because she'd been there before with her parents (who live in the North East after having been sent there during the Cultural Revolution) and found the food (north-eastern cuisine) authentic (second clue, a lot of background filler talk). Third clue: She starts to pile onto his bowl food from the different dishes, "Try this, try that, eat more food."
The chap decides to get to the point, for he's already seen through what she is doing, and says, "If there's anything you want to ask me, why don't you just come straight out and ask."
She tries to deny it, "Can't I just treat you to a meal?"
He says, "It's not that you can't, it's just that you won't [normally do it]."
One might say, "But this is a drama, it's fiction!" Yes, but I strongly believe in art mimicking life: one doesn't just fabricate things that don't happen in life (apart from science fiction or something), one surely gets the ideas from what goes on around one.
This scene in the drama series features two mainland Chinese people, who are both from the same cultural-behaviour environment -- versus, e.g., Singaporean and mainland Chinese, who might work to different standards and expectations.
(China, c.1990）
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