【文章內(nèi)容簡(jiǎn)介】 like to have some coffee. The coffee spoon is not used to pound the sugar cube into pieces. The spoon is only used to stir the coffee. When people drink coffee, they eat some pastries. They do not take pastry in one hand, and hold coffee in another hand. Drinking does not alternate with eating. Otherwise, people will feel they are greedy. In addition, people do not 11 add sugar to coffee for others. It is impolite to add sugar without knowing others39。 taste. D. Drinking style Chinese usually don39。t start drinking until someone offers the toast gan bei. Koreans and Japanese use the same word for their toasts. The word originated in Japan. When drinking, one should not drink from the bottle. It is considered impolite to pour a drink for yourself. When pouring a drink for an older person, please make sure to use two hands (a sign of respect). If you want a drink, the polite thing to do is fill someone else39。s glass and they in turn will fill yours. In some situations, it is rude to turn down a drink that is being offered to you. Some Chinese are fond of playing the finger game (a kind of popular game in China) with the loser taking a drink. Compared with westerners, the Chinese are quite outstanding in toasts. “Gan bei” is heard after every course and guests are often asked to have a drink with the person who is considered as the host or an honorable guest. In China, people usually suppose that you have not truly enjoyed yourself if you leave a social meal sober. A host usually begins the toast after the first course by weling all of his guests. Toasts can be offered to the whole table or people sitting around you and they are 12 usually ushered in with gan bei. Even though “gan bei” toasts are offered through the dinner, you only have to empty your glass on the first one when people drain their glasses and show each other the empty glasses (ladies are supposed to take only a sip). The Chinese generally touch glasses with each other during a toast. The first toast is frequently a general one, with everyone drinking together, usually as soon as the first dish is presented. After that it is a general practice for all at the table to toast others, starting with host/hostess toasting the guest of honor. It is not necessary to give a short speech when making a toast but is mon to specify the kind of toast. The most usual toast is “gan bei”. Other toasts include “sui bian” (drink as you please), “sui yi” (drink a little), or “ban bei” (drink just half the glass). The whole table often drinks together when new dishes arrive. Ritualized drinking is a big part of conducting business and getting things acplished in China. Banquet is a standard weling gesture and prerequisite to getting down to business. Restaurants often have special banquet rooms with private bathrooms and tables with place set with two glasses: one for beer, one for wine. Hosts will lose face if their guests are perceived as not having a good time and the key to making sure they do is making sure they get enough to drink. Of course, it’s like a form of munication between people. It would be disrespectful to have no drink with a guest. 13 Alcohol certainly greases the wheels of business in the west, but people can usually stop after one or two glasses. In China, however, the opposite is often true: it is much easier to refuse an initial drink than to stop once you have started. Drinking to develop and cement relationships has a long history in China. When one drinks with a friend, a thousand cups are not enough is a traditional saying. That does not mean bingeing has been the norm. In the 1980s, a study of Chinese classical poetry concluded that heavy drinking had been in and out of favour over the years. Experts have suggested that Chinese habits—consuming alcohol with food, playing drinking games and toasting in a highly ritualised fashion—served to regularize alcohol intake and limit drunkenness. China39。s reluctant drinkers worry about what all the heavy drinking is doing to them. However, Americans do not force other people to drink too much. They hold different views from our Chinese people. They advocate freedom and liberation. They do not like to force other people to do things they don’t like. So drinking is in the same way. To some extent, we Chinese people sometimes pay more attention to the atmosphere of the drinking than the drinking itself. That is to say, Chinese people are willing to create a good feeling with each other at the table and they would like to do some business while they are drinking. However, westerners are in the opposite way. They value the drinking 14 more than anything else. They hold the view that people who are not good at enjoying drinking surely don’t know how to live life to the fullest. Westerners usually divide drinking into three sections: the first one is liquor, including brandy, whiskey, vodka and tequila. The second one is beer and the last one is wine. Other kinds of drinking such as cocktail, mixed drink and liqueur are also quite popular. In western countries, people often have a drink with each other especially with the host before they eat anything else at a dinner. You will feel surprised because “cheers” is resounding all the time through the dinner. And they persist the principle of “bottoms up”. Or they can use the expression “Let39。s make a toast”. It is said that people in the past supposed that putting a toast in the drinking would make the drinking tastier. In western countries, people who drink a lot are called heavy drinkers. If we say someone drinks like a fish, we not only mean he drinks a lot but also agree he is good at drinking and he knows the art of drinking. It is well known that every culture has different traditions when it es to drinking etiquette. For example, to refi