Is Li Hongzhang's diplomatic joke true?

It's true! Because China was closed to the outside world and didn't know some foreign manners at that time, after opening its diplomacy, there were naturally jokes that didn't understand foreign manners.

For example, eating western food (relatively fresh, after all, the first contact), spitting and so on. I want to say that Li Hongzhang is from pride of chinese, so don't hack him. Any diplomatic historian will joke.