The Nightlife and Drinking Culture Part I

In line with everything else about China, the nightlife here is insane. And by 'insane,' I don't mean Bourbon-Street-on-Mardis-Gras kind of insane, rather, I mean these-people-could-be-institutionalized kind of insane. For example, an ideal night out for the typical Chinaman would involve taking numerable shots of grain alcohol at a bar, followed by private karaoke performed with hired girls, then perhaps a late night massage/prostitute. Let me explain:


-The Bar Scene and 'Ganbei'-

As one would imagine, there is a thriving bar scene in China. Unlike the most parts of the world where the bar scene centers around the weekend, in China, any given night is liable to be full of people. Another difference from the United States is that people go to bars to hang out with friends and get really drunk- not so much to meet people. (due to the omnipresence of 'massage parlors' (honestly, there is one in every strip mall..it will be like drug store, furniture store, massage parlor, restuarant), and their relative social acceptance drastically cuts down on guys meeting girls at bars). Typically, bars are about 3/5 guys, and the 2/5 of the females usually are there with their boyfriends (and subsequently become disgusted with them when they drink too much and start dancing around singing obnoxiously (see? we're really not that different after all..)).
My favorite aspect of Chinese bars is the 'ganbei' culture. Chinese people don't sip their drinks at their leisure like normal human beings. Rather, they pore themselves tall glasses of beer, and cheers ('ganbei')one another every time they drink. Unlike America where a token sip will suffice for a cheers request, in China, it is expected that you drink your entire drink. Moreover, what makes things really fun, is that if you ganbei someone, they are culturally obligated to drink. Really, it's the best system ever. It's like everyone is a pledge, hazing each other all night.
So, due to my outgoing nature and obvious language barrier, I find great amusement to go around at bars and ganbei everyone there. for the most part, the chinese people love that they are being cheersed by a foreigner (again, as white people here we are like pseudo-celebrities (on that note, today i was at the chinese equivalent of target, and i saw all this lotion chinese people use to make their skin whiter..so strange ). However, on occasion my brash American ways have inadvertently made me some enemies.
One such case happened a few weeks ago at this club named BaiDu. The boys and I had just come from KTV (more on KTV later in entry), and we were, to put it mildly, pretty buzzed. I immediately began on my regular routine of ganbeing every person in the club. At one particular table of 10 people (half girls half guys), a particular couple wouldnt honor my ganbei request. So, naturally, they were met with a big 'thumbs down' right in their faces as i began loudly booing them (again, language barrier). In hindsight, the fact that i, a foreigner, gave this guy a thumbs down for not ganbeing, made him lose so much what the chinese call, 'face' in front of his girlfriend (essentially, i made him lose a lot of street cred and made him look like a weakling in front of his girl and friends).
So, after i boo him, his face turned a bright red and he vigorously began pouring shot after shot and ganbeing me. I happily accepted the free alcohol, and in my state, was oblivious to the 'tension' between us (might i add i was a lot bigger than he was). A few minutes later after the ganbeing had ended, matt bumps into him accidentally, and in a desperate attempt to gain some face back, he tries to fight us. Luckily for his sake (really, i dont pretend to be a tough guy, but he was just really small) his girlfriend pulled him back and began saying 'sorry' in broken english. As it turned out, their relationship must have really been on the rocks bc as the couple were leaving the club the girlfriend turned around and blew me a kiss...

While there certainly exists a thriving bar scene in china, the hands down most popular nightlife entertainment is the cultural phenomenon known as KTV...


-Look tomorrow for my entry on KTV. As always, thanks for reading.