I confess to having always been a stout drinker. Well, I am currently doing business in China. Here, businessmen judge you, and especially foreigners, on your drinking ability. I know it sounds ridiculous, but you will never do business successfully in China, unless you can go to one of these ridiculous business banquets and outdrink everyone.  Anyone who does business here can confirm this. They judge you as a man, by how much you an drink. I was wondering if you all consider drinking to be a part of manliness.

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Drinking well is a part of manliness, as is not drinking if one does not drink well or has moral reservations about drink. If one drinks and becomes violent or a fratboy, for example, one is not drinking well.

Drinking itself? No

Being able to responsibly drink? Yes

 

And the responsibly drink doesn't mean just having one or two. Basically, if you cannot consume without becoming a prick, can't stay standing, if you become something you are not or would not accept, that means you are not responsibly drinking. 

 

If you can go out, have fun, get a little sway on, keep your clothes on, not make enemies, have a ride home and not let it control your life. Yes, that is a sign of responsibility.

I totally agree with this.

Oh, and keep your dinner off your and other people's shoes.

Bryan, I can agree with that. But what about situations, like here, where your peers (Chinese businessmen) essentially force you to drink excessively almost every night?

I think it's a matter of finding your drink. It's probably different in your situation, but I know that when I'm out drinking and get whiskey neat...no one bothers me about how much I'm drinking because I'm drinking straight whiskey and drinking ANY is usually enough for people to lay off.


However, mirroring everyone else's sentiments, I think that knowing your limits and knowing when not to drink is as manly as knowing when to drink.

+1, though I'm more one for scotch instead of whisky, but the sentiment from people is the same (well, except some friends who don't quite "get" why one would drink scotch on the rocks)

I get the same response with Stout Beer (Guinness or Murphey's).

David, the problem is that they force me to drink bai jiu, which is hell in a glass haha! And you really cannot refuse a toast here without offending the host and ruining the business deal. I agree with you all, but it is really a tricky situation here. At least they have come around in China to the dangers of drunk driving.

They can't force you to drink... if not drinking or not drinking responsibly is going to hurt how they view you and your job then I would say that it's a job I woudln't consider worth having.

In the US, the advice would be to say you have some allergy to one of the ingredients and decline in toto. You can blame it on a strange Western digestive system.

Rebekah haha..that is actually one of the tactics that Westerners employ here.

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