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2006年9月28日
For me, the dining table with my students would have to be one of the most interesting cultural experiences that I've had in China. As my students are university lecturers, they value relationship building, and appreciate the important role that alcohol serves in it. This appreciation translates to some alcohol-fuelled evenings that have a lot of team building, a lot of toasts and a lot of fun. In my home country of Australia, alcohol likewise serves an important role at the dinner table; however, the choice of alcohol, and the customs associated with it, often leads to evenings that are not as much fun, but perhaps more intellectual.
In Australia, we drink a lot of wine. Etiquette stipulates that it is taboo to skull, or "bottom-up" wine as the Chinese love to do with beer and baijiu. In Australia, wine needs to be enjoyed slowly. To skull would be very disrespectful to the wine, as well as the guest that ordered or brought the wine. As wine should never be skulled, it takes its admirers on a slower journey towards intoxication. Whereas in China I've started drinking at around 7pm and been very drunk at around 10pm, when I've been in Australia drinking wine, it is probably not until 1am that I've felt that my limit is near. In some ways, this is unfortunate as it means that in Australia I've rarely got to that height of intoxication where the truly fun things occur. In Australia, most people start thinking about going home at around 10 or 11pm, but this point in the evening is still a few hours premature from that critical level of intoxication that inspires all the fun activities. China, on the other hand, has a skulling culture that has ensured that I am often getting extremely drunk and then singing Shirley Bassey's Goldfinger, pulling up a female student to dance the tango or posing for photos with a student and feeling like they are my one of my best mates in the world.
Aside from taking longer to get drunk, drinking wine also makes it more difficult to mingle with a wide range of people. Because it is poor manners to skull wine, it is difficult to walk around to other tables to toast people, and share in the relationship-building custom of skulling together. In Australia, if I left my table to pay my respects to someone from another table, I would have to engage him or her in a conversation. It would be a little strange to just get up, go to another table, tap wine glasses, have a sip and then move on. Furthermore, most people would still be quite sober, so we would not be toasting at those higher levels of intoxication when people feel very affectionate towards each other.
With the descent into intoxication taking longer, and it being more difficult to freely roam around the room to mingle for a brief toast, Australian dining culture fills the void with a lot of conversation. We might talk about the wine we are drinking, politics, happenings in someone's life, ambitions, scientific theories, relationships or whatever. The wine acts as a social lubricant so that we can speak freely, offer our ideas, or explore someone else's ideas. In China, however, it is difficult to start such conversations. I have sometimes tried to initiate a deep conversation, only to then be interrupted by someone wanting to toast, or see the table break up to mingle with the other tables. Then the karaoke has started, and the time for conversation has finished, and the time for fun has begun.
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(查德·斯万森)
In Australia, we drink a lot of wine. Etiquette stipulates that it is taboo to skull, or "bottom-up" wine as the Chinese love to do with beer and baijiu. In Australia, wine needs to be enjoyed slowly. To skull would be very disrespectful to the wine, as well as the guest that ordered or brought the wine. As wine should never be skulled, it takes its admirers on a slower journey towards intoxication. Whereas in China I've started drinking at around 7pm and been very drunk at around 10pm, when I've been in Australia drinking wine, it is probably not until 1am that I've felt that my limit is near. In some ways, this is unfortunate as it means that in Australia I've rarely got to that height of intoxication where the truly fun things occur. In Australia, most people start thinking about going home at around 10 or 11pm, but this point in the evening is still a few hours premature from that critical level of intoxication that inspires all the fun activities. China, on the other hand, has a skulling culture that has ensured that I am often getting extremely drunk and then singing Shirley Bassey's Goldfinger, pulling up a female student to dance the tango or posing for photos with a student and feeling like they are my one of my best mates in the world.
Aside from taking longer to get drunk, drinking wine also makes it more difficult to mingle with a wide range of people. Because it is poor manners to skull wine, it is difficult to walk around to other tables to toast people, and share in the relationship-building custom of skulling together. In Australia, if I left my table to pay my respects to someone from another table, I would have to engage him or her in a conversation. It would be a little strange to just get up, go to another table, tap wine glasses, have a sip and then move on. Furthermore, most people would still be quite sober, so we would not be toasting at those higher levels of intoxication when people feel very affectionate towards each other.
With the descent into intoxication taking longer, and it being more difficult to freely roam around the room to mingle for a brief toast, Australian dining culture fills the void with a lot of conversation. We might talk about the wine we are drinking, politics, happenings in someone's life, ambitions, scientific theories, relationships or whatever. The wine acts as a social lubricant so that we can speak freely, offer our ideas, or explore someone else's ideas. In China, however, it is difficult to start such conversations. I have sometimes tried to initiate a deep conversation, only to then be interrupted by someone wanting to toast, or see the table break up to mingle with the other tables. Then the karaoke has started, and the time for conversation has finished, and the time for fun has begun.
[ 下 页 ]
(查德·斯万森)