Bottems up! What does it feel like to drink with Chinese?| Chat With Chinese

By Ning Shuang, Yang Mingzhuo

Drinking with Chinese involves many steps including pouring the alcohol, exchanging toasts, clinking the glasses, toasting and encouraging (even forcing) others to drink. Encouraging is the most special characteristic, which is quite different from what the westerners do.

One can’t control the intake amount by himself and is usually encouraged or even forced by others to drink more and more until he gets drunk. 干杯 is one of the ways to encourage others to drink more. It means to have everyone drink the whole cup at once.