5,000 Years of Booze and the Hangover That Comes With It

With Spring Festival coming up， we at The World of Chinese， like many over the New Year， hit the bottle pretty hard. Ginger dug through history books and will have a look at drinking and prohibition in ancient China， complete with drunken despots， merry ministers and plastered poets. It’s hard to imagine， especially on the subway on a Friday night， that China once had a tenuous relationship with alcohol： tenuous to the point that having a bit of lees laced wine would end with your head being slightly less attached. From the earliest bronze-ware bathtubs of wine to modern bottles of baijiu， the history of jiu is a colorful meandering into the ancient stories of decency and decadence. Terry Hsieh had an altogether more difficult undertaking with his look into the darker side of drink： alcoholism—a grave personal crisis that doesn’t really get the attention it deserves in China. This sort of story is always a little risky， especially considering the word “anonymous” appears in the name of the program， but Terry was more than up to the challenge. He came back with stories of families broken and lives ruined by addiction to alcohol. In China， where drinking is a culture unto itself， the afflicted face their own personal， largely unrecognized， hell.

When drink has been taken， good friends come to the startling realization that they should open a bar together. Well， Michele Penna went on a comfy mission to some of Beijing’s hottest pubs to look at the problems inherent in opening a bar in China. From copycats to rent and from bad staff to bogus business partners， lounging around in your own pub isn’t the cushy job it appears to be.

As The World of Chinese says hello to a New Year， we’ve had to say goodbye to a few regular features. “30 Years” has gotten a little old and “Don’t Miss” will indeed be missed； however， we’re happy to have “Dragon’s Digest” and “Saving China” on board. “Dragon’s Digest” will bring you fiction from a modern China in cooperation with Pathlight， complete with a story translated from Paper Republic’s editor-in-chief and founder： Alice Xin Lu. In our new eco-friendly column， we’ll be delving into China’s environmental successes and failures with “Saving China”featuring columnist Kaitlin Solimine. Finally， we’re happy to welcome our new cartoonist， who will hopefully add a little classic Chinese humor to our back page.

With our first issue of the year， The World of Chinese has undergone a number of changes in staff and content. As always， make sure to check out our website at www.theworldofchinese.com， and you can write to us with your comments to editor@theworldofchinese.com.

So， from all of us here： 干杯 （g`nb8i， cheers） and enjoy the Year of the Snake.