Hospitality Archives - understand-culture

Seats by Cargo

In the first story of Ling Mengchu’s collection Slapping the Table in Amazement, Chinese merchants reach a foreign port and are received by a Persian merchant. “By old custom, when a sea ship arrived, the host first gave this banquet, and only then were the goods unloaded and prices discussed.”

The host asks to see each guest’s list of goods, “so as to fix the seating.” Those with treasures worth ten thousand take the first seats, and the rest sit by the value of their goods, “regardless of age, regardless of rank.” Wen Ruoxu, who has silver but has bought no goods, is given the last seat, “his face full of shame.”

Green Plums and Warm Wine

In chapter 21 of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao invites Liu Bei to a small pavilion, where a plate of green plums and a jar of warmed wine are set out. When the wine is half drunk, Cao Cao asks Liu Bei to name the heroes of the age and dismisses every name he offers. Then he points at Liu Bei and at himself: “The only heroes in the world today are you and I.”

Liu Bei drops his spoon and chopsticks. Thunder breaks at that moment, and he picks them up, saying that one clap of thunder can do this. Cao Cao laughs: “Is a grown man afraid of thunder?” The novel adds: “Cao Cao then no longer suspected Liu Bei.”

Maotai for Nixon

On February 21, 1972, Zhou Enlai gave a welcome banquet for Richard Nixon in the Great Hall of the People. After the two sides had exchanged toasts, Zhou went with his glass to the American officials and toasted each of them in turn.

According to an account in Huanqiu, the Maotai with which Zhou entertained guests such as Nixon and Kissinger was said to have been stored for more than thirty years. When Zhou toasted, he said “ganbei” but did not drain his glass. He only touched its rim with his lips and greeted the other person with a smile and a look.

The Jinan Client Dinner

In August 2021, a woman employee of Alibaba posted an account of a business trip to Jinan. She wrote that she had been pressed to drink at a dinner with a client, and that afterward a male colleague had entered her hotel room. She had reported it to the police on July 28.

On August 9, Alibaba’s chairman Daniel Zhang announced that the accused male employee had been dismissed and would never be rehired. Police opened an investigation. On September 6, prosecutors in Jinan declined to approve the arrest of a man in the case, finding that his acts of forcible indecency “did not constitute a crime.”

Pressed to Drink

A media survey of 2,005 people, cited by the Legal Daily in January 2022, found that 92.3 percent had been pressed to drink, and 74 percent said they accepted when they could not get out of it.

Drinking rhymes make the link between alcohol and feeling: 感情深，一口闷, “if the feeling is deep, drink it in one,” and 只要感情铁，哪怕胃出血, “as long as the friendship is iron, never mind a bleeding stomach.” In a 2021 appeal in Shanghai, two men who had urged a woman to drink before her death were held liable for 12 and 8 percent of the compensation.

The Vocabulary of Hosting

接风 To receive the wind. To give a banquet for someone who has arrived from far away. In Dream of the Red Chamber, a host “had wine set out to receive the wind.”

做东 To be the east. To host a meal and pay for it. The host is also called 东道主, “host on the eastern road,” a phrase from the Zuo Zhuan.

回请 To invite back. To host someone in return after being their guest.

赏光 To grant light. A polite formula asking someone to honor an invitation.

千里送鹅毛 To send a goose feather a thousand li. A small gift that carries deep feeling. Ouyang Xiu wrote: “A goose feather sent a thousand li is valued for the person who sent it.”

Four Dishes and a Soup

“When we invite foreigners, four dishes and a soup are enough.” A 2012 article published by People’s Daily quotes these words of Mao Zedong. According to the article, the standard dates from the 1960s, when Zhou Enlai pushed to simplify state banquets. “Since then, the state banquet standard of four dishes and a soup has been followed to this day.”

Xiang E Qing

Xiang E Qing, a chain of high-end restaurants in Beijing, was known as the “first restaurant stock.” In March 2013 it announced that, in response to the Party’s Eight-point Regulation, its restaurants would leave the upper market for ordinary dining. They would charge no minimum spend and no service fee. A report that month said that since the new rules, turnover at Beijing’s high-end restaurants had fallen 35 percent.

The company changed its name to Zhongke Yunwang. In December 2014 the securities regulator opened an investigation into its chairman, Meng Kai. A 2015 report said that the “first restaurant stock” had been stuck in the mud since 2013.

Too Many Banquets

In February 2012, the China Youth Daily reported a poll of 1,704 people by its social research center. More than 56 percent complained that they attended banquets too often. Business dinners were the least welcome kind, named by 65.4 percent. Of those who felt anxious about banquets, 84.5 percent named drinking as a reason.

Only 2.4 percent flatly refused to attend. A bank clerk in Tianjin explained why he went. The banquets, he said, “can help develop and maintain relationships with clients and colleagues as well.”