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A few weeks ago, a family friend asked if I would be interested in going on a road trip with him to Xuzhou, a third-tier city in the eastern Jiangsu province, where he was going to visit a few business friends he met in Africa.
For a business journalist it was a rare chance to rub shoulders with some small-town entrepreneurs determined to make money in Africa. I immediately said yes.
But what I had forgotten was the expectations of serious drinking, a custom once near-universal in any Chinese business meeting, but one that is starting to die out in Beijing and Shanghai.
Alcohol still plays an important role in the business world in second- and third-tier cities, however. My experience in Xuzhou was instructive for this Beijinger, who rarely takes part in a culture that has defined generations of Chinese officials and businessmen.
The drinking started soon after we arrived at an upscale seafood restaurant. The host, Mr. X, whose company has been doing business in Africa for more than 10 years, was accompanied by a newly-retired government official and some other business associates.
I was seated next to the retired official, who was acting as host because Mr. X is allergic to alcohol. There were four glasses for each setting, one each for wine, tea and juice—and a small one for baijiu, or Chinese liquor.
For the welcome toast, the retired official said everybody had to have baijiu. Baijiu, which literally means white liquor, has very high alcohol content, and its taste has been compared to kerosene and even paint thinner. While I like sipping wine with friends on weekends, I never learned to like baijiu. It's simply too strong for my taste.
My appeal to drink wine instead was dismissed right away. I stood with everybody, toasted and finished a shot of Maotai, the premium baijiu brand.
Then the official turned to me. 'You're a friend from a faraway place,' he said. 'To follow customs in Xuzhou, I'd like to have two toasts with you. The first means, 'Nice to meet you.' And the second means, 'Let's be friends.'' What could I say? I finished two more shots of Maotai.
Before I could sit down and take a break, he spoke again, 'There's the third drink. After this one, we'll be family.'
After that, I lost track of the toasts as everybody started toasting with me, though thankfully I was allowed to switch to wine. At one point, I realized that I was expected to toast back, or I would be considered rude.
No business was discussed, as is the case at most Chinese business banquets. However, at that meal I found the answer to why business meals have to involve so much baijiu. Most people at the table were reserved middle-aged men. Baijiu helped them loosen up—fast. Besides, after much drinking, they may share a secret or two, which in turn helps build camaraderie.
It could have been the baijiu that landed some of us in a Karaoke room at a high-end nightclub later that night.
We were greeted by two rows of beautiful young women dressed like flight attendants. They wore smart purple mini-dress uniforms with trolley suitcases standing neatly on one side. They were there to serve as a kind of hostesses for hire, to serve drinks for guests and sing with them.
Earlier this year, a widely-circulated diary, allegedly written by a local tobacco official, caused a huge stir not only because he wrote candidly about his affairs with his female subordinates but also because of his frequent mentioning of drink-soaked meals. In multiple entries in the one-year diary, he wrote that he 'drank too much.'
Not drinking can be a serious problem for a businessman in much of China. Mr. X said that once 15 years ago, a business partner told him that they would have a deal if Mr. X could finish the baijiu in front of him. He said no and lost the business.
A top banker at a major commercial bank, who also doesn't drink, told me that not being able to drink has become an obstacle for him in socializing with his colleagues. 'They never remember that I'm at the dinner table too,' he said, sitting alone (with me) at a big gathering of the bank as other top executives were toasting from one table to the next.
Mr. X said that over the past two decades he's tried many times to learn to drink but failed. A small amount of alcohol can turn his body red and burning hot. But 'allergic to alcohol' is not a good enough reason for some people. They believe he doesn't drink because he doesn't respect them. 'This is a weakness I can't fix,' he says.
So those who can't or won't drink have invented all kinds of tricks. A U.S. official in Beijing told me that he always 'accidentally' spills most of the baijiu in his glass at banquets. But a couple of times his not-too-smooth acting has offended his hosts and got him into trouble. Some people resort to spitting drinks into napkins or tea cups.
Too bad I didn't learn any of these tricks before my trip to Xuzhou. But I did learn the power of baijiu.
That night when it was my turn to sing, I bravely stood up and sang three songs by Cui Jian, a Chinese rocker I liked in college. I guess the men had consumed too much baijiu to run away in horror.
中文閱讀：
幾個星期前，一位世交問我有沒有興趣跟他一起開車去江蘇徐州。他要去那兒拜訪在加蓬和赤道幾內亞做生意時結交的幾個朋友。
對于一名商業(yè)記者來說，并不是每天都有機會遇到有志于在非洲發(fā)展的鄉(xiāng)鎮(zhèn)企業(yè)家。我馬上就說好。
我徹底忽略了可能會發(fā)生被猛敬白酒的局面。喝酒曾經是中國商界會面不可或缺的一個節(jié)目。雖然在北京、上海等大城市已經快絕跡了，但在二三線城市，喝酒依然是商界利器。我長年生活在北京，很少涉足這類場合，因此這次徐州之行對我教益頗深。
我們下午5點30分左右入住徐州的賓館。到了6點半，我們已經坐在一家看上去十分豪華的海鮮餐館的包間里了。請客的是X先生，他在非洲做生意已經有十幾年了，陪他一起來的還有一位退休沒多久的政府官員和他手下的幾位得意助手。
我被安排坐在那位退休官員旁邊。由于X先生對酒精過敏，這位官員就負責招呼大家。每個人面前都擺著四個杯子，分別用來喝紅酒、白酒、茶和果汁。喝白酒的杯子要小一些。
那位退休官員說，第一杯迎賓酒，所有人都得喝白的。白酒的酒精度很高，有西方人把它的味道比作煤油甚至涂料稀釋劑。雖然我喜歡周末的時候跟朋友們一起啜飲紅酒，但從來沒學會品白酒。對我來說，白酒還是太烈了。
我提出以紅酒代替白酒，但馬上就被駁回了。我跟大伙兒一道起身碰杯，將一杯茅臺一飲而盡。
然后那位官員轉向了我。他說，你是來自遠方的朋友，照徐州的規(guī)矩我得跟你喝兩杯──喝了第一杯就表示我們認識了，喝了第二杯就表示我們是朋友了。我還能說什么呢？只能又喝了兩杯茅臺。
我還沒來得及坐下喘口氣，他又開口了：“還有第三杯，喝了這杯咱們就是一家人了。”
在那之后我就完全不記得自己干了多少杯了，大家都開始跟我敬酒，也互相敬。不過還好我獲準換成了紅酒。在這個過程中，我意識到一一我要回敬，不然會被認為沒禮貌。
和中國大多數的商務宴會一樣，席間沒人談生意。不過那頓飯讓我明白了一直百思不得其解的一個問題：為什么中國商場上的人一起吃飯要喝那么多白酒。桌上坐的大多是平素不茍言笑的中年男子。白酒能讓他們放松──而且很快。除此之外，喝多了的時候，他們可能會相互吐露一些秘密，而這又反過來增進了友情。
我們中的一些人那天后半夜又去一家高級夜總會唱卡拉OK，沒準兒就是因為喝了白酒的緣故。
在夜總會，兩排漂亮的年輕姑娘向我們致意。她們穿著打扮如同空姐，身穿俏麗的紫色迷你裙制服，旁邊是排得整整齊齊的拉桿箱。她們是可以花錢雇的伴唱，幫客人們點歌、倒酒。
今年早些時候，據說是出自一位地方煙草局官員之手的一本日記流傳甚廣，引發(fā)了極大的反響，其原因不光是這名官員直白地寫下了他與幾個女下屬的婚外情，還因為他頻頻提及喝得昏天黑地的飯局。在歷時一年時間的日記中，有很多篇都提到“喝多了”。
在中國很多地方，商人要是不喝酒，問題可能就會很嚴重。X先生說起15年前的一次經歷，當時一位合作伙伴說，要是X不干了他面前的白酒，生意就沒得做。X先生不能喝，那單生意就黃了。
一家大商業(yè)銀行的高管前幾個月也跟我說，不會喝酒已經成了他跟同事們交往的障礙。在該銀行的一次大規(guī)模聚會上，他獨自坐在一張飯桌上（跟我在一起），其他高管都在挨桌敬酒，他說，他們經常不記得我的存在。
X說，過去二十年里他很多次嘗試學著喝酒，但還是不行。只要喝一點點酒，他就會全身發(fā)紅發(fā)燙。但對于一些人來說，“酒精過敏”并不足以成為拒絕喝酒的理由。他們覺得他不喝酒就是看不起他們。X說，這是個無法彌補的缺陷。
所以，那些不能或者不愿喝酒的人想出了各種逃酒的花招。一位駐北京的美國政府官員跟我說，他在這類宴會上總是“不小心”把自己杯子里的酒灑出一大半。不過有幾次他演得不太自然，讓主人很不高興，他自己也惹來了麻煩。有的人則采用把酒吐到餐巾上或茶杯里的小伎倆。
我去徐州之前沒學學這類招數真是太失策了。不過我確實見識了白酒的威力。
那天晚上，輪到我唱歌時，我異常勇敢地站起來，唱了三首崔健的歌。我猜在場的男士們都喝高了，連駭極而逃的力氣都沒有了。
我想那天我是過了中國商界的喝酒關，我豪爽的表現顯然贏得了徐州這些企業(yè)家的“信任”。第二天他們又安排了兩場酒... 我慶幸自己是干新聞的。
相關閱讀 文化視角：中西方商務餐差異
