I had two Asian friends in college who were prone to that kind of reaction (one was Chinese, and the other was half-Japanese, the latter born and both raised in America). I'm not sure I ever saw either of them literally spit, though--that seems like more something that happens in elementary school or in movies/tv.
Umm... the TV Tropes page on spit takes (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpitTake) has a whole section for anime/manga, which, given that anime and manga are by Japanese people and intended for Japanese audiences, I think is pretty good evidence that it's a cultural phenomenon that exists in Japan, at least. The movie section of that same page also lists a Japanese movie. The live-action TV section of that page lists a Korean show. TV Tropes in general is very strongly biased toward media in English or that have an English-speaking fanbase, so that I even found any hits at all (other than anime) says something, I think. Googling ["spit take" martial arts movie] I get some kung-fu movie database that lists two things under the keyword "spit take," one of which is an American movie, but the other is a Hong Kong movie.
So I think whether or not any individual Asian does it (and really, how many people have you ever seen do an unintentional spit take at all in real life? I've probably only seen it happen a handful of times), we can at least say it's a phenomenon that Asians might be expected to be familiar with, presumably because at least some do it.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-05-19 05:33 am (UTC)Umm... the TV Tropes page on spit takes (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpitTake) has a whole section for anime/manga, which, given that anime and manga are by Japanese people and intended for Japanese audiences, I think is pretty good evidence that it's a cultural phenomenon that exists in Japan, at least. The movie section of that same page also lists a Japanese movie. The live-action TV section of that page lists a Korean show. TV Tropes in general is very strongly biased toward media in English or that have an English-speaking fanbase, so that I even found any hits at all (other than anime) says something, I think. Googling ["spit take" martial arts movie] I get some kung-fu movie database that lists two things under the keyword "spit take," one of which is an American movie, but the other is a Hong Kong movie.
So I think whether or not any individual Asian does it (and really, how many people have you ever seen do an unintentional spit take at all in real life? I've probably only seen it happen a handful of times), we can at least say it's a phenomenon that Asians might be expected to be familiar with, presumably because at least some do it.