Drinking and Chinese business culture: Life in China

In Chinese business culture, drinking plays a prominent role with many Chinese companies hiring what amount to professional drinkers, giving them professional job titles. Many Chinese people in professional jobs that I met, i.e. in accountancy and management positions, often have to accept the drinking culture in order to be accepted and to progress in their company, hence it is often necessary to put the drinking culture ahead of the direct needs of family sometimes.
Chinese people are very family orientated people and they care very much about their families. It is more a case that most companies expect their employees to conform to the company culture and to do well in a company, it is important to fit in with these ideologies. Many of my students spoke of the way in which it was necessary to entertain business clients with a good evening of drinking and a visit to a singing room in order to get a deal done. This use of alcohol in business seems to be changing gradually with several Chinese business people telling me that they are now tiring of the heavy drinking culture, and choosing instead to entertain clients out on the golf course. As someone who enjoys social drinking, I kind of like the idea of having a few drinks with clients at the companies expense and it is perhaps true that it is a great opportunity to learn about the real character of the client/s when they are drunk. The problem for many people though, seems to be the high amount of alcohol drank during these meetings and the difficulty of saying NO if you do not feel like drinking.
In Finland I found that people drank vodka so fast that it was as though their lives depended on it and that the girls drink as much as the guys. Winters in Finland are long and cold and drinking is almost considered a pastime to get through the harsh winter. As a result of this you will not be surprised to hear that alcoholism is a big problem in Finland. Finland incidentally, was the first country in the world to allow all females to vote (New Zealand would have been first but excluded the Maori women), and these days the Finnish women account for over 40% of women in the parliament. Finnish women can handle drink almost on a par with the men. In Ireland, even the girls have beer bellies, not just the guys. Take a walk around the capital city Dublin, on a Friday or Saturday night, and you will see plenty of girls drinking Guinness by the pint. Drinking eight or ten pints of beer on a good night was normal and I have to say, there were some good nights out in Dublin. Drinking is an integral part of the Irish culture and Guinness, one of the Irish beers, is now popular worldwide.
The passion for alcohol is also noticeable in Chinese business culture and a source of pride to many. When visiting drinking places in Beijing on Friday nights, it was common to see groups of co-workers including the women, drinking rounds of shorts. The co-workers often play drinking games and seemed to drink copious amounts of alcohol. Many businessmen and businesswomen have turned up at my morning classes still suffering from a hangover from four or five before. In many cases they make it clear that they did not want to go drinking, but they had to for the sake of their job and future promotions. Conformity in many ways I am told, dictates that one should not leave the drinking session before their senior (higher manager) leaves. Drinking in China though, is limited to an extent in some situations. Drinking alcohol for example does not tend to occur very much in the home; Universities tend not to have bars directly on campus; and places such as singing rooms are mostly alcohol free. There is no denying though, that both food and alcohol are a definite part of the vibrant Chinese culture.
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