Perhaps the most shared thing on our WeChat Moments last month – apart from Minions memes, seriously guys, stop it – was a wild story of binge-drinking.
A woman surnamed Zhou made international headlines when airport security attempted to confiscate her bottle of RMB1,200 Remy Martin Excellence XO (the high-end cognac of which rappers delight in informing us gets them inebriated) before a Beijing-to-Wenzhou flight. But rather than hand it over, Zhao sat in a corner by herself and chugged the entire thing.
So Zhao became drunk. Very, very drunk. According to witnesses she began rolling around on the floor, screaming belligerently at passengers and staff, and generally making a nuisance of herself. Airport staff refused to let her board (seems legit) and instead placed Zhao under the ‘care’ of police until a member of her family could arrive to pick her up.
Headlines across the globe hailed our cognac-chugging protagonist as a “Hero” and a “Total Ledge.” But because we take a perverse pleasure in ruining others’ fun, we decided to research the state of alcohol-related health problems in China instead.
Since China’s reform and opening-up in the 80s, alcohol-related health problems have been on the rise, and annual per capita consumption rose from 2.5 to 6.7 liters of pure alcohol between 1978 to 2010. This is in part due to rising incomes, which make drinking more accessible, and business practices that encourage white-collar workers to ganbei with colleagues and clients. According to a Wiley-Blackwell study, 26 percent of men and 8 percent of women who drink are “frequent drinkers,” meaning they drink 5-7 days a week.
Despite this, awareness of alcohol’s harmful health effects is low. This may explain not only the case of Zhao, but also the influx of wild news stories about binge-drinking gone wrong. Take, for instance, a report from Shunyi District Court, where judges are hearing the case of a man who died at a work banquet after drinking three or four bottles of baijiu. Meanwhile, a 2-year-old boy named Cheng Cheng made headlines last year for being the country’s youngest alcoholic, crying out for baijiu when his parents gave him milk.
But contrary to what the Little Cheng Cheng story suggests, it’s older people who are affected by alcoholism the most. In most Western countries (and Wudaokou), binge-drinking peaks in people’s 20s, but in China, middle-agers drink the most. This may explain why the drunkest people you’re likely to run into on the street are those older Beijing-bikinied men who’ve spent the past few hours swilling erguotou (Zhao, for instance, is in her 40s). Good times.
While other countries have made attempts at reducing dangerous drinking habits (with mixed results), China has adopted a more hands off approach. In fact, in 2006 the authorities actually decreased its already-small liquor tax.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has acknowledged the need for change, but until it comes into effect, public education on the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption remains patchy at best.
So might we suggest that the next time you see one of these viral drinking stories, you think twice before you captioning it with “LOL”? There’s Minions memes for that.
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