Walk through almost any city, town, or village in China and you'll see it: people squatting. At bus stops, outside shops, on street corners, waiting for food, chatting with friends. Full, deep squats — heels flat on the ground, knees wide, completely comfortable.
To most Westerners, this looks unusual. Adults don't squat in public in most Western cultures. So what's going on?
It's Actually the Most Natural Resting Position
Let's start with the biology.
The deep squat — where you descend until your thighs are parallel to the ground or lower, heels flat — is the natural resting position of the human body. Anthropologists call it the "Asian squat" but that's misleading; it's the human squat. Archaeological and anthropological evidence suggests humans squatted this way for hundreds of thousands of years.
The fact that many Westerners can't comfortably hold a deep squat with flat heels isn't normal — it's the result of spending childhood and adult life in chairs, which shortens the Achilles tendon and tightens the hip flexors over time.
In cultures where sitting on the floor, squatting, and low seating is more common — China, much of Southeast Asia, parts of Africa and the Middle East — people simply maintained the ankle and hip flexibility that allows comfortable squatting. It's not a trick. It's just not losing something you were born with.
The Practical History
For most of China's agrarian history, chairs were a luxury. Farming, cooking, and resting happened close to the ground. Squatting was the universal way to wait, rest, eat, and work.
Even as China urbanized rapidly, the habit remained — especially in older generations and in rural areas. Squatting outside a shop waiting for a friend, or squatting around a meal on low furniture, was simply normal.
Squat Toilets
It's also worth noting that China (and much of Asia) traditionally used squat toilets — floor-level porcelain fixtures that require a proper squat to use. Regular use of squat toilets maintains squat mobility in a way that sitting on Western-style toilets does not.
This creates a feedback loop: people who squat daily in the bathroom maintain the flexibility to squat comfortably everywhere else.
Is It Changing?
Yes. With urbanization, Western furniture norms, and generational change, public squatting is declining in major Chinese cities. Young urban professionals in Shanghai or Beijing are less likely to squat at a bus stop than their rural counterparts or grandparents.
In smaller cities, rural areas, and among older generations, it remains completely unremarkable.
The Bottom Line
Chinese squatting isn't cultural performance or an odd habit — it's the natural result of maintaining basic human mobility that sedentary chair-culture lost. The deep resting squat is actually the healthier default position, and the fact that so many Chinese people can still do it comfortably into old age says something worth noting.
Try squatting flat-footed for 30 seconds. If you can't, your chair has been quietly stealing your flexibility for years.