In China

This page was retrieved from http://www.geocities.com/WallStreet/Market/1806/drinking.htm on 3 April 2003.

Can you tell us something about the etiquette of drinking?

Sure, here's a short laundry list of alchy etiquette in China:

Continuously pour the boss's drink for him. It is a good idea to keep a bottle handy next to you for doing this. You don't need to wait until their glass is empty in order to top it off. Keep adding to it every time they take a sip. This will make it hard for them to keep track of how much they have drank. Even better, you can ridicule the boss by saying he is still on his first glass.
Immediately after pouring the boss's drink, pour your own. If you are wise enough to have avoided white lightning and concentrated on beer (see our anti-drunk advice below), then pour quickly so that half of your glass is foam. Quickly challenge somebody to a Gan Bei before the foam settles.
Never drink even a sip of your drink alone. This is not only bad form but stupid since you are only adding to your total alcohol intake without dragging somebody down with you.
When you drink, always toast somebody. Usually at the beginning of the meal, the host boss will make the first toast. Next, the guest boss should make a toast. What to say in the toast? Something out of a Charlie Chan movie like "a toast to our glorious and honorable friendship that it may bear fruit like a lemon tree on steroids."
When you toast somebody (or are toasted by somebody), hold your glass with one hand and place the other hand lightly on the bottom i.e. a two handed grip. This is polite in China plus it is useful later on when you are standing perfectly still but the room and people are spinning around in circles.
Make it your goal to drink less than the Chinese boss. If he toasts you, then wait a minute and toast him back. If someone else at the table tries to toast you, then insist on having the Chinese boss join in also. This is a favorite trick of the Chinese. They like to try to have each person at the table toast you once. That way you drink 8 glasses and they each drink one. By dragging the Chinese boss into each toast, his staff then will be afraid to keep toasting you since they don't want to force their boss to drink too much. This is probably the single most valuable piece of genuine advice in this entire website.
Make sure to use their tactics against them also. Have your staff each individually toast the Chinese boss.
Check the glass of the person offering the toast to make sure it is full. If you are going to be forced to drink with them, you might as well make sure they are drinking a full glass. It is always amusing to catch them trying to pull the half empty glass trick. If you do, insist on topping off their glass before the toast. Fill it all the way up to the top edge and even slightly overflowing. That way they will spill it on their clothes and think more seriously next time about trying to force you to drink.
After you finish your glass during a toast, don't put your glass down until everyone in the toast is finished with theirs. That is polite plus it ensures that no one at the table is trying to drink less than their full quota.
If you want to show off that you have finished your entire glass, tip the empty glass inverted over top of your head. This proves it is empty. If your fellow toaster is having a hard time finishing their glass, offer to allow them a "free pass" this time as long as the dump the remaining contents on their own head. Seems fair to us.
After the formal toast at the beginning, the remaining toasts are normally simple shouts of Gan Bei! This is a Chinese word that means "dry glass" i.e. bottoms up.

Do I have to drink?

Yes, unless the big boss does not drink. Also see the next question.

How can I avoid drinking?

Option 1: Claim medical reasons for not drinking. This is extremely wimpy and will likely kill any minuscule chances you have of making money in China.

Option 2: Pretend to drink great amounts. Here's how:

First, loudly proclaim that you rarely drink and really put up a fight to stop them from giving you alcohol. Eventually, you will have to give in and say, yes, just a little. But you will have laid some good psychological groundwork.
Insist on drinking beer instead of white lightning. Use any and every excuse you can think of. If you fail, you are in big trouble.
Never drink when there is not a toast specifically directed at you. Pretend to be busy eating sometimes and pass the toast off onto one of your lowly staff members. An unpaid intern is good for this. In fact, this is the best use of an unpaid intern.
As noted above, drag the Chinese boss down with you.
Miscount the amount others have drank to pressure them to drink more.
Complement them on their great drinking skills.
Top off everyone's drink but make sure yours is mainly foam if you are drinking beer.
Water down your white lightning with Sprite, boiled water, or even white wine. All of these have a lower alcohol content % than white lightning. Try placing a few boiled peanuts in the glass to displace alcohol space. Don't choke on the next toast.
Wrap your hand around your glass to obscure the enemy's view of your half empty glass. Gan Bei it quickly before anyone notices and then loudly insist they finish their full glasses.
If drinking white lightning, pretend to drink it, but hold the liquid in your mouth and then spit it into your wet hand cloth while pretending to wipe your mouth off.
Spill lots of liquid when picking up your glass.
Hide your glass under the table to avoid stealthy pourers sneaking up on you.

How can I make the Chinese drink more?

Don't worry about this. Most of the above rules have a component of forcing the Chinese to drink more than you do. One note: if you have a really good fake drinking scam working, and they have not figured it out yet, milk it for all it is worth and force the Chinese to do numerous toasts. If caught pulling one of the above drinking scams, drink half a glass as penance, but never admit to the scam. Then quickly move to a new scam.