[At a banquet in China a while ago I was (sadly, by dint of age) placed next to the most senior manager of the company visited. This meant all eyes would be on me when it came to the toasts, of which there were likely to be many, but I don’t drink. In my best bad mandarin I explained my position and was told ‘Oh, that’s no problem, you can have beer instead’. I was then forced to qualify with the white lie that if I drink any alcohol I become seriously ill. Sensing the difficult situation an analyst from Morgan Stanley kindly stepped in, up, and took my place. Thank you Morgan Stanley!]
Drinking to stupefaction is still a common occurrence at business dinners in China, especially if the parties are beginning or considering beginning a relationship. Business dinners around the world are often accompanied by alcohol but in China this drinking is not for the purpose of lubrication, its for the purpose of achieving alcoholic paralysis.
Wanlin Lin from the Sun Yat Sen University School of Law (et al.) wondered if there was something unique to China that was encouraging this (extremely unhealthy) practice?
The paper is filled with interesting details of the mechanics of business banqueting ritual and as an anthropological study worth reading for that reason. To the main point though, the researchers believe it’s China’s weak legal and still developing business culture that’s at the bottom of the excessive drinking phenomenon.
Business in China runs more on guanxi (relationships and the trust therein) than the rule of law and the heavy drinking culture is a mechanism to establish this guanxi where none initially exists. An intoxicated person is likely to reveal more about themselves, their true intentions and their business ethics than a sober one.
Here’s the problem though, how do you know your partner is really pie-eyed and not just faking it? The short answer is excess. In this ‘game’ a red face is an unfakeable sign of intoxication and the researchers believe it may be the high level of alcohol intolerance among many Chinese that promotes the drinking to excess; huh?
A potential business partner prepared to suffer the pain of alcoholic excess (with the red face an unfakeable marker) may be someone whom you can rely upon in the future. Interviews with the givers and the receivers of this kind of ‘hospitality’ confirmed this was indeed the true underlying purpose.
There are drawbacks though and some of the interviewees from the South of China (where folks have a notoriously low alcohol tolerance) related how this heavy drinking culture made them hesitant to do business in the North (where the topers are more notoriously alcohol tolerant).
Japan and Korea both used to be famous for excessive alcohol consumption at business functions and I’d wager China’s present situation is a transitory phase on the journey toward better contract law, enforcement and legal protections.
Fans of the TV-series Mad Men about a fictional advertising agency in America in the 1960s will have been surprised at the huge alcohol consumption acted out as an historically accurate representation of an American business model at that time. Which further supports my notion China’s present business drinking norms may be a passing phase.
You can read the paper in full via the following link Till We Have Red Faces.
Happy Sunday.
[A post script to the above anecdote. Morgan Stanley was late for the bus for the next day and our departure delayed nearly half an hour until he could be found. Looking much the worse for wear he at last boarded to raucous cheers and hearty back slapping. Quite the man of the hour. I’ve no doubt his access to senior management improved in the process; a heck of a way to progress an advantage!]