Raise your glass (chop suey)

Driving alone in the moonlight from work, I heard Pink’s boisterous song “Raise your glass” on the radio. I believe that was what many people were doing the moment when I was returning home from work—drinking and enjoying their life after work.

I couldn’t help but remember one of the greatest Chinese poets, who had been most famous for his superb talent for poetry after drinking, who had written so many out-of-this-world poems on drinking, Li Bai 李白(li3 bai2). Being alone under the moon naturally reminded me of his 月下獨酌(yue4 xia4 du2 zhuo2), Drinking Alone Under the Moon.

Contrary to Pink’s song, Li’s月下獨酌 shows much of a solitude atmosphere. I think the key word of the poem is獨, alone. The poet raised his glass to the moon, along with his own shadow, making three of them to drink and dance together. It only highlighted the fact that he was drinking alone, without any beloved or friends around, i.e. 獨酌無相親(du2 zhuo2 wu2 xiang qin).

When someone is drinking alone in melancholy, we call it喝悶酒(he men4 jiu3), which is considered bad for your health. Drinking is supposed to be a merry occasion and should be done with friends. That’s why when a group of Taiwanese are drinking together, they often make a lot of noise, because they not only drink but划酒拳(hwa2 jiu3 quan2), play “drinking games.”

If you’ve ever read some Chinese classic novels like 紅樓夢(hong2 le2 meng4), Dream of the Red Chamber, you’ll know a lot of the characters’ life was spent on playing 酒令(jiu3 ling4) , drinking games while drinking. The glass was passed among the drinkers. Each of them had to compose some poetic lines on the given topic when the glass was passed to him. He had to drink the glass of wine if he failed to compose as required. This is called 罰酒(fa2 jiu3), drinking the wine as a punishment. There are hundreds of games like this. What is played in the novel is only one of them, which is often played by the more literary people.  

划酒拳(hwa2 jiu3 chuan3) is another drinking game, which is more “active” and commonly played by ordinary people. There are various kinds of 酒拳, which usually take two or more people to play. The players play the game with their hands like they do in playing “paper, scissors, stone,” but with different rules. To lift up the spirits they also shout out lines when showing their fingers. The basic idea is the one who loses a bout will drink the glass of wine, 罰酒. I found a website with a very short demonstration of 划酒拳www.kkl.gov.tw/life/life_3_3.html  You may log on to it to have a general idea about this game.

We also like to make toasts to each other when drinking, which is called 敬酒(jing4 jie3). From this we have a saying as 敬酒不吃吃罰酒(jing4 jiu3 bu4 chi chi fa2 jiu3).  If you’re showing good willness or friendliness to someone in a negotiation, only to find him hostile and act in a provoking way, to show your impatience you might say to him “Don’t敬酒不吃吃罰酒,” you’d better drink up the wine toasted to you; otherwise, I might give you a cup of “punishment wine.”

People act differently after they drink. They are sometimes very different from their usual selves. A serious and quiet man may dramatically become very talkative and lets everything off his chest. We call this 酒後吐真言(jiu3 hou4 tu3 zhen yian2). Your defensive self is crashed by alcohol and you speak up what you usually won’t say. Others might turn to misbehaving monsters from polite gentlemen. We call this 酒後亂性(jiu3 hou4 luan4 xing4). That’s why sometimes we’ll joke about observing your daughter’s boyfriend in two ways: getting him drunk or playing Ma-jung with him.

We call the way you act after you drink 酒品(jiu3 pin3), and the way you act when losing money on Ma-jung table, 牌品(pai2 pin3). 品means virtue, quality. A man acts like a gentleman is nothing particular. But if he’s the same smiling gentleman when he’s drunk or losing money (not big money like all his fortune, but pocket money when playing with family or friends as an entertainment), that really means something. We will say his 酒品 or 牌品 is good. Some people might want to marry their daughters off to someone with such a good temper.

In Chinese, there are many nicknames for wine, one of which is 杜康(du4 kang), who is said to be the man that started to make wine. Some people call it 忘憂物(wang4 yiu wu4), something that enables you to forget your worries. Indeed, a lot of people get into the habit of drinking because they try to get rid of what is troubling them, which is called 借酒澆愁(jie4 jiu3 jiao chou2), pouring your worries with wine.

To this, the great poet Li Bai wrote a well-known line, 舉杯澆愁愁更愁(ju3 bei jiao chou2 chou2 geng4 chou2), your worries only get deepened when you try to wash they off by drinking. For one thing, you hurt your liver if you drink too much. Some alcoholics joke about the dilemma by saying 喝了傷肝，不喝傷心(he li shang gan, bu4 he shang xin). Your liver gets hurt when drinking but your hearts gets hurt when not.

To hurt your liver or to hurt your heart? Some people don’t think so much. They just raise their glass and say 今朝有酒今朝醉(jin zhao you3 jiu3 jin zhao zui4), get drunk today when you still have wine! (今朝, today)

月下獨酌=月下独酌

獨酌無相親=独酌无相亲

喝悶酒=喝闷酒

罰酒=罚酒

酒後吐真言=酒后吐真言

酒後亂性=酒后乱性

忘憂物=忘忧物

借酒澆愁=借酒浇愁

傷=伤