The informant is recounting a folk practice/superstition she learned while at a restaurant with a Chinese friend.

“It’s considered bad luck to have the teapot pointing at you.”

She doesn’t know why her friend believes this and does not believe it herself, though her best guess is just so that if it spilled, it would not spill on her.

Her explanation seems like a plausible reason behind the folklore but I wonder if there is a more spiritual reason commonly accepted.