China Archives - Page 67 of 112 - understand-culture

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.

Minefield or Abyss

On March 19, 1998, Zhu Rongji held his first press conference as premier. Asked about being called an “economic czar,” he said: “Whether ahead lies a minefield or a bottomless abyss, I will go forward without hesitation and without looking back, and give my all until my dying day.”

Media later reported a second line: that he had prepared a hundred coffins, one of them for himself. No transcript of this remark has been found, and its source is uncertain.

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.”

The Four Edicts

In 220, the last Han emperor abdicated in favor of Cao Pi, king of Wei. The notes to the Records of the Three Kingdoms preserve the exchange. The emperor’s edict invoked the ancient ideal: “When the Great Way prevailed, the world was shared by all, and the worthy and able were chosen. So Yao did not keep the throne for his own son.”

Cao Pi declined again and again. At last his officials reported: “The mandate of the Han has now come four times, and Your Majesty has firmly declined each time.” They had already asked the court astronomer to choose an auspicious day. Cao Pi answered: “Agreed.” An altar was built at Fanyang, and he ascended 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.”

2,958 to 2

On March 11, 2018, the National People’s Congress voted on amendments to the Constitution. After about forty minutes of handing out, filling in, casting and counting ballots, the result was read out at 3:51 pm: 2,958 in favor, 2 against and 3 abstentions.

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.

A Million Comments

On November 2, 2019, visiting a neighborhood in Shanghai, Xi Jinping said: “People’s democracy is a kind of whole-process democracy.” (人民民主是一种全过程的民主)

In August 2020, the proposals for the 14th Five-Year Plan were opened to public comment online from August 16 to 29. Officials reported more than one million comments.

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.”

The Great Accord

The Great Plan chapter of the Book of Documents advises a ruler facing a great doubt: “Consult your own heart. Consult the ministers. Consult the common people. Consult the tortoise and the milfoil.” If the ruler, the tortoise, the milfoil, the ministers and the people all agree, “this is called the great accord” (大同). “You will be strong and healthy, and your descendants will prosper.”

The chapter then goes through cases of disagreement. If the ruler, the tortoise and the milfoil agree but the ministers and the people oppose, the outcome is still “auspicious.”