‘Alright, so let’s schedule our Skype session for Friday, because – let’s be honest – we are going to drink!’ – my friend Stef informed me the other day. Although we WeChat- update each other about daily highlights and whatnot, that still doesn’t compare with an hour or so long video debate. That’s why we try to maintain this tradition and usually celebrate with generous amounts of intoxicating beverages.
‘Ok, but I am not sure about drinking – really trying not to recently! Guess what – even the beers I had prepared for our last one are still in the fridge!’
‘How come?! ‘ Stef was more than shocked. ‘Are you sure you are a Polish living in Shanghai?! You are so lame,man! – I am really disappointed! ’
Well, yes, can’t blame her. First of all, Polish are notorious worldwide for being hard-drinking Catholic zealots. And secondly, Shanghai's ‘work hard, play harder, drink like there’s no tomorrow’ environment is the perfect incubator for just such a tradition So my doing otherwise is beyond anyone’s comprehension. To reclaim some of my betrayed heritage, I thought I would at least lay down some essential drinking vocab! Have a look at what I found in translation this time!
1. 干杯 gān bēi or 干 gān or 干掉 它 gàn diào tā
Everything of course starts with raising the glass. We, ok - *I* - always say ‘but only one!’ and then we all know how it ends. When you start your alcohol-enhanced celebration, here are two options for the ‘opening’
gān bēi – for China beginners. Literal meaning - ‘dry cup’ but means the same to locals as ‘cheers’ or ’bottoms up’
gān - if you want to sound more native and more ‘manly’, and you plan to help your close friends indulge themselves, just say gān. And when the friend keeps resisting, try ‘gàn diào tā ‘ – ‘kill it!’’get rid of it!’
2. 晕 了 yūn le or 微 醺 wēi xūn
So once you started ‘getting rid of it’, most of us gradually transition into this phase, where we can still acknowledge what is going on around us, but our normally guarded brakes start ‘loosen up (you know, the state where you, for example, spill a friend’s highly guarded secrets!). That’s when you might defend yourself saying ‘我晕 了’ wǒ yūn le - I am dizzy or 微 醺 – where the first character 微 wēi – means ‘tiny’ and 醺 xūn – helplessly intoxicated – or simply ‘tipsy’.
3. 喝醉 hē zuì , 喝 趴了 hēpāle and 他/她已经不行了 tā yǐ jīngbù xíng le
If the alcohol intake continues, then here is how the situation most probably unfolds: first, you get drunk - 喝醉 hē zuì .Then - as self-respecting Shanghailanders do, you won’t give up until you 喝 趴了 hēpāle. In other words - 喝 hē – drink, 趴 pā – lay on one’s stomach, so not beating around the bush – you are ‘f*#@ed up’. And if gravity is enough to preclude you from staying on your feet, you may very well hear (but may very well forget) 他/她已经不行了 tā yǐjīng bù xíng le - he/she is already on the point of death’
4. 酒鬼jiǔ guǐ , 宿醉sù zuì and 一 杯 倒 yībēidào
You survived. But here is how the day after looks: You wake up feeling like your head is about to explode and getting your thoughts together takes some time – you are 宿醉 sù zuì - hungover. Then you text your friends to confirm that you are, in fact, still alive. Be prepared at this point for them to break it to you. You are 酒鬼jiǔ guǐ – a drunkard. However, if your close encounter with the ground occurred just after a single measly glass, then they might just call you 一杯 倒 yībēidào – 1 glass fall.
Perhaps you've heard of the 'drunken monkey argument’ (by evolutionary biologist Robert Dudley), in which’we are interested in alcohol because we evolved as fruit eating primates and alcohol is found naturally within fruit in tropical environments. And we like to drink because we have positive feelings when we drink alcohol. It’s because we have inherited ancestoral bias that associates alcohol with nutritional reward. We forage for fruit in a jungle, but in a concrete jungle we go down the super market aisle’. Or – in the case of Shanghai – our favorite bar street. Because we like it, because we can or because we want to bond, especially with friends living far far away. Even when we gan bei to our computer screens.
But even though we can blame it on our drunken monkey ancestors who were preferentially selecting fruit that had high alcohol content, I would say – let’s try to kill it.. softly. Even if your friends tempt you with the crystal skull drinking session like my Harbin buddy does to me, stay strong. Your livers will thank you later. Cheers.;)