China series, Part 8: Party time!

[Prometheus]

It's time to rock out with your cock out in the Middle Kingdom!

Drinking Culture:

Let's start with dinner.

I mentioned dinners in the "guanxi" post as a venue for making friends for business, but not all dinners are about business. But they ARE about drinking.

Before bars and clubs started sprouting up like weeds, dinners were (and still remain for many) the preferred form of entertainment, particularly among the over-40 crowd. A group of friends gets together to talk, joke, and laugh over food and copious amounts of alcohol. These dinners rarely take place in a person's home unless they are very wealthy and have the space to seat 8 to 12 people (or more).

Restaurants here will have the usual 2-top and 4-top tables, but there will also be large round tables capable of seating many more and most of the middle and upper scale restaurants will have private rooms where you can host your dinner. These big, round tables have a massive lazy susan... turntable... in the center as Chinese meals are served family style with everyone taking what they want from the dishes in the middle.

Cases of beer will be within arm's reach and there will be bottles of harder stuff on the table. "Harder stuff" may include wines or a brandy, but will almost certainly include baijiu. Baijiu is a clear, distilled spirit made from a variety of grains and available in a variety of ABV percentages. 40% ABV (the standard for most whiskys around the world) is a bare minimum for baijiu with most "good" baijiu being 50% or higher. Baijiu will be poured into a small 2 to 4 ounce glass... as close to the rim as possible unless the recipient intercedes and the toasting will begin.

Sipping the liquor is absolutely acceptable unless you are invited to "ganbei" or simply "gan" which is to empty the glass. Ganbei literally means, "bottom of the cup." Alternately, you may defer and suggest, "Yi ban bei" (half a glass), to which the toaster will usually acquiesce, but not without some good-natured ribbing about your inability to drink like a man.

If baijiu isn't to your liking - and it certainly is an acquired taste - it is certainly acceptable to drink beer (usually from the same size glass) instead. However, it is expected that you will "gan" the beer even though they are sipping the baijiu. For this reason, beer in China is often served at room temperature to make it easier to gan as frequently as will be required at such a dinner party.

An aside:

Touching glasses when toasting.

In western culture, we generally lift our glasses high. In China, you hold your glass lower than the person making the toast or any other person due your respect. In a show of mutual respect, they will often lower their glass so that they touch equally. If they are giving you props, they will make sure their glass is lower than yours. You always lower your glass for a woman and may end up touching glasses while they are both resting on the table as she will lower her glass to show you the respect due a man.

When seated at these large round tables, clinking glasses with everyone might not be possible, so tapping your glass audibly on the table and then raining it slightly will be sufficient as long as you are not the subject of the toast.

With all of this toasting and drinking, dinner parties rarely last longer than 2 hours, but if they do, there's no need to worry. There will never be any wait staff or manager telling you to move along as they need the space for other customers (even at the regular tables) as meals are meant to be enjoyed and you can't enjoy a meal when you're worried about being rushed out of the restaurant. If you want to sit at your table long after the food is finished and chat while sipping on some beers or tea, you just go right ahead. The only time someone is going to bother you is when you're the last ones there and they want to close up.

Clubs

As in most other countries, clubs are mostly the province of the young: loud music, dancing, and drinking. Let's talk about club drinking.

You can sit at the bar if you're a lone wolf on the prowl or at a small table if you're a couple or on a double date, but if there's a group, you will need a couch, and couch seating requires a minimum purchase. A menu of "sets" will be provided so that you can easily order a bottle of outrageously priced whisky, mixers, and beers, or whatever. The set will be delivered to the table at your couch along with one or two empty pitchers so that you can pour in the contents of the whisky bottle and the mixers. This is a club, not dinner, but the toasting will still happen and if you want to spend more than a couple of hours, cutting your hard liquor with mixers is a must... even if it's as abhorrent as pouring sweet tea into a pitcher with Hennessy XO.

If you're an experienced drinker, who can go all night sipping straight whisky, or if you just want to stick with beer, that's cool too.

Bars

The concept of a more quiet place to just have a drink and conversation is catching on with the Chinese, but most Chinese bars still have the music too loud to hear the person sitting next to you. If you travel to China and want a nice night out for a few drinks, ask around to find out where the foreigners hang out.

KTV

If your image of a night out for karaoke is to be in a bar and watch everyone taking turns to get up and sing in front of a bunch of strangers, then you've never been to an Asian KTV or "Karaoke Box" as it is called in Japan or Korea. At KTV, you and your friends rent a private room outfitted with couches and tables, microphones and a big TV, and a computerized system to let you choose the songs you want to sing.

Before being shown to your room, you will choose your food (snacks in some instances, full meals in others) and make your drink selections. Once you get to your room, your food and drink will be delivered and you can spend the rest of the time you rented the room for laughing and singing and whatever else might strike your fancy.

Yes. "Whatever else."

Young people with no other place to go often use KTV as a make-out spot... which led many cities to ban renting KTV rooms to anyone under the age of 18... or even 22 in some places.

Also, many (but not all) KTVs will have a man who, when notified of the presence of a group of men only, will come to the room and inquire if the men are in need of "company." If the answer is, "yes" then either a "menu" will be produced so that you can choose from pictures or a line of "companions" will be brought into the room from which to choose.

These companions will pour the booze, sing, laugh at stupid jokes, rub tired shoulders,... and anything else that you are willing to pay for.

One year, I was invited to a Karaoke party by a friend of the party's host. When the host learned that it was my birthday, he graciously ordered two companions for me as a birthday present.

Beyond the "whatever else" KTVs always on the menu for a celebratory night out among friends and/or coworkers. Just last night, we had our company Christmas party at a KTV. We had dinner and drank and sang and had a great time... even without "companions."

I hope I didn't leave anything out...