If you're stuck in a situation where you may encounter the vile substance, use the Tic-Tac tactic. Since Tic-Tacs are unfamiliar in China, a Chinese host may not recognize that those small white capsules are breath mints. This leaves you free to ram as many as you can into a medicine jar and claim it's your liver medication and that your doctor has forbid you from drinking anything stronger than beer.

If that doesn't work then head for the bathroom and, to be blunt, be sick. Make it look a bit worse than it actually is by thinking queasy thoughts and throwing some water over your face. It sounds drastic, but it's better than getting into a baijiu drinking match. Your liver will thank you the next morning.

If you're Chinese and reading this, remember that anyone who goes to so much trouble not to drink baijiu is doing it for a reason. Don't force it on them. Also, a better translation of baijiu is "Chinese white liquor" or "Chinese white spirits" (not Sprite.) Wine always contains grapes. No grapes = no wine.

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Posted by Eric, on 12-04-2007 14:40, 1. ... My god, Alex! Be a man! Throw back some baijiu and have fun with it! I've been in those situations before back when I was in Jinan. Not fun indeed, and the situations can get tense when you have 4 or 5 people all "gambei"'ing you... separately. I always found being direct was the best solution. If you're gorging yourself on that paint thinner they call "white wine", be firm before you over-indulge & tell them you've had enough. If anything, you'll feel better in the morning, and they'll probably just assume they won the drinking competition against a foreigner. It'll if anything, stroke their ego.   » Report this comment to administrator » Reply to this comment... Posted by emily, on 21-03-2007 10:31, 2. ... Prompt reply I'm thinking that spirit must be a very expensive consumable in ancient China because it is made of a kind of food. The common people didn't have many chances to drink it because most people were poor and short of food. It only appeared on the table when an important guest visited. But to be polite, the guest usually didn't drink a lot. The host, however, to show his generousness and hospitality, kept persuading the guest to drink more. Though, nowadays our life is better and almost every family can afford spirit, the way of showing hospitality and repect came down.   Reasonable guessing, isn't it?   » Report this comment to administrator » Reply to this comment... Posted by Alex Cureton-Griffiths, on 20-03-2007 17:18, 3. ... Thanks for the feedback Emily. Yeah, it's a lot better in Shanghai than it is in, say, Northern China. I remember playing endless drinking games up there with Wuliangye and Maotai...however I've still been asked if I'd like "white wine" before, so it's something to watch out for, even here.    I've just enabled some smileys for the comment forms, so you can express yourself more freely now   » Report this comment to administrator » Reply to this comment... Posted by emily, on 20-03-2007 16:20, 4. ... I'm chinese. i don't understand why many chinese men think it is a way of showing respect by drinking a lot of alcohol at table. It must have something to do with some story in the history or the "Wine Culture". However, facts have proved that it's not healthy to drink too much alcohol and more and more chinese have already realized that. As far as i know, some high-level executives are paying more attention to their health. They have given up drinking themselves. Usually they have their loyal secondaries who would like to ignore their own health and toast to guests as many times as they can.That's too bad and selfish. THings are better in Shanghai, right? SO expatriates in shanghai don't have to worry about that.    Hi,administrator,may i make a suggestion? when i'm writing my comment, i need some expressions. So why not offer some?   » Report this comment to administrator » Reply to this comment...