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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.
中文阅读：
几个星期前，一位世交问我有没有兴趣跟他一起开车去江苏徐州。他要去那儿拜访在加蓬和赤道几内亚做生意时结交的几个朋友。
对于一名商业记者来说，并不是每天都有机会遇到有志于在非洲发展的乡镇企业家。我马上就说好。
我彻底忽略了可能会发生被猛敬白酒的局面。喝酒曾经是中国商界会面不可或缺的一个节目。虽然在北京、上海等大城市已经快绝迹了，但在二三线城市，喝酒依然是商界利器。我长年生活在北京，很少涉足这类场合，因此这次徐州之行对我教益颇深。
我们下午5点30分左右入住徐州的宾馆。到了6点半，我们已经坐在一家看上去十分豪华的海鲜餐馆的包间里了。请客的是X先生，他在非洲做生意已经有十几年了，陪他一起来的还有一位退休没多久的政府官员和他手下的几位得意助手。
我被安排坐在那位退休官员旁边。由于X先生对酒精过敏，这位官员就负责招呼大家。每个人面前都摆着四个杯子，分别用来喝红酒、白酒、茶和果汁。喝白酒的杯子要小一些。
那位退休官员说，第一杯迎宾酒，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释剂。虽然我喜欢周末的时候跟朋友们一起啜饮红酒，但从来没学会品白酒。对我来说，白酒还是太烈了。
我提出以红酒代替白酒，但马上就被驳回了。我跟大伙儿一道起身碰杯，将一杯茅台一饮而尽。
然后那位官员转向了我。他说，你是来自远方的朋友，照徐州的规矩我得跟你喝两杯──喝了第一杯就表示我们认识了，喝了第二杯就表示我们是朋友了。我还能说什么呢？只能又喝了两杯茅台。
我还没来得及坐下喘口气，他又开口了：“还有第三杯，喝了这杯咱们就是一家人了。”
在那之后我就完全不记得自己干了多少杯了，大家都开始跟我敬酒，也互相敬。不过还好我获准换成了红酒。在这个过程中，我意识到一一我要回敬，不然会被认为没礼貌。
和中国大多数的商务宴会一样，席间没人谈生意。不过那顿饭让我明白了一直百思不得其解的一个问题：为什么中国商场上的人一起吃饭要喝那么多白酒。桌上坐的大多是平素不苟言笑的中年男子。白酒能让他们放松──而且很快。除此之外，喝多了的时候，他们可能会相互吐露一些秘密，而这又反过来增进了友情。
我们中的一些人那天后半夜又去一家高级夜总会唱卡拉OK，没准儿就是因为喝了白酒的缘故。
在夜总会，两排漂亮的年轻姑娘向我们致意。她们穿着打扮如同空姐，身穿俏丽的紫色迷你裙制服，旁边是排得整整齐齐的拉杆箱。她们是可以花钱雇的伴唱，帮客人们点歌、倒酒。
今年早些时候，据说是出自一位地方烟草局官员之手的一本日记流传甚广，引发了极大的反响，其原因不光是这名官员直白地写下了他与几个女下属的婚外情，还因为他频频提及喝得昏天黑地的饭局。在历时一年时间的日记中，有很多篇都提到“喝多了”。
在中国很多地方，商人要是不喝酒，问题可能就会很严重。X先生说起15年前的一次经历，当时一位合作伙伴说，要是X不干了他面前的白酒，生意就没得做。X先生不能喝，那单生意就黄了。
一家大商业银行的高管前几个月也跟我说，不会喝酒已经成了他跟同事们交往的障碍。在该银行的一次大规模聚会上，他独自坐在一张饭桌上（跟我在一起），其他高管都在挨桌敬酒，他说，他们经常不记得我的存在。
X说，过去二十年里他很多次尝试学着喝酒，但还是不行。只要喝一点点酒，他就会全身发红发烫。但对于一些人来说，“酒精过敏”并不足以成为拒绝喝酒的理由。他们觉得他不喝酒就是看不起他们。X说，这是个无法弥补的缺陷。
所以，那些不能或者不愿喝酒的人想出了各种逃酒的花招。一位驻北京的美国政府官员跟我说，他在这类宴会上总是“不小心”把自己杯子里的酒洒出一大半。不过有几次他演得不太自然，让主人很不高兴，他自己也惹来了麻烦。有的人则采用把酒吐到餐巾上或茶杯里的小伎俩。
我去徐州之前没学学这类招数真是太失策了。不过我确实见识了白酒的威力。
那天晚上，轮到我唱歌时，我异常勇敢地站起来，唱了三首崔健的歌。我猜在场的男士们都喝高了，连骇极而逃的力气都没有了。
我想那天我是过了中国商界的喝酒关，我豪爽的表现显然赢得了徐州这些企业家的“信任”。第二天他们又安排了两场酒... 我庆幸自己是干新闻的。
相关阅读文化视角：中西方商务餐差异
