Long-and-Healthy Life Celebration Feast
       We Chinese have a custom of celebrating the aged people's birthday. The fifty, sixty and seventy birthdays are entitled to great birthdays, which are usually celebrated by his or her children or grandchildren with bumper feasts, all the relatives and friends invited.

       "Beam-placed-on-the-roof Celebration Feast" and "Moving -into-a-new-house Celebration Feast "
       In the countryside of China, building of a new house is a great event. During the construction, beams placed on the roof of the house is a very remarkable process. For this reason a feast is held for celebration. In some places there exists a popular custom of watering the beams with alcoholic drinks. After completion of the house and removal of the family into the new house, a feast is also held to not only celebrate completion of building the house but also worship gods and ancestors for asking their blessing.

       " A Feast for Opening a Business " and " A Division of Dividends feast "
       A feast is held for celebration at the moment a business starts. A feast is usually held for celebration by the end of a year when profits of a business are divided according to the shares

       " A Farewell Drinking Dinner"
       It is held at the moment a friend is going to leave to express the feeling to be reluctant to part each other. During the warring period, when brave warriors were sent to carry out very dangerous tasks which would take risk of their lives, the commanders usually presented a cup of alcoholic drink to each of them in order to encourage them to succeed in completing the tasks.

       Peculiar Ways of Drinking the Alcoholic
       A Way of Drinking the Alcoholic by Sucking
       It is a peculiar way of drinking the alcoholic handing down from the ancient times, which is popular in many places of the Southwest and Northwest. In merry days or festivals, a jar of alcoholic drink is taken out to entertain guests, people are sitting around the jar, each holding a pipe and placing it into the jar to suck the alcoholic drink through the pipe, the number of suckers reaching up to five to six or even seven to eight. The air is rather cheerful while people suck the alcoholic . This peculiar way of drinking the alcoholic plays a role of exchanging people's feelings.

A Way of Drinking in a Ring
       It is a peculiar way of drinking the alcoholic among the Yi nationality. People can have a drink in any places, hosts and guests all sitting on the ground in rings, a cup of alcohol passed by turns in a ring, each having one sip. This custom is said to stem out of a very moving legend: In a big mountain lived three men -- a Han, a Tibetan and a Yi who pledged to be faithful to brotherly relationship. One year, the youngest Yi invited the other two brothers to have a dinner, the left rice in the pot turned to be a tasteful and fragrant rice alcoholic drink. The three brothers offered the drink from one to another, all wishing to leave the fragrant drink to others to enjoy, the drink being passed down from one to other, from morning till night, still remained in the drinking vessel. Later the god informed them that hard working could produce more tasteful drink after it was taken in. Then the three brothers started drinking it by turns in a ring, all getting drunk.

       Ways of Urging Guests to Drink More at Feasts
       The Chinese's hospitality is fully expressed at feasts or dinners. People will exchange their feelings while they urge others to drink more, their love to each other will be purified and raised to a higher level. While drinking, we Chinese like urging others to drink more in order to express the host's and hostess' honesty and friendship. The more the guest drinks, the more cheerful the host or hostess feels, which symbolizes having good opinions of the host or hostess. If the guest refuses to have a drink, the host or hostess will feel disgraced. Some people have concluded the ways of urging others to drink more as follows: "a polite urge", "a forceful urge" and "a punishing urge". These ways of urging others to drink more express the traditional, simple, and honest remaining customs on the one hand, but also have some negative effects on the other hand. "A Polite Urge" is a way to show the traditional virtues of drinking etiquette--to urge guest to drink more in a manner of politeness and proper formalities.

       When a feast starts, the host begin with his first urge by delivering a short speech, all the guests and host should stand up at the moment . The host will firstly drink to the bottom, then turning the cup upside down to show he has already had his drink, which shows his respect to the guests. The guests on this occasion should usually drink the cup up. During the course of the feast, the host usually go around the tables to urge the guests to drink more.

       "A Return Urge " is a way the guest is grateful to the host for his entertainment to ask the host to drink more.

       "An Each Other's Urge". It is a way to urge each other or one another to drink more among the guests. In order to ask others to drink more, the propose will find out various excuses and reasons to urge others to drink more. If the guest who is asked to drink more can't find out the reasons to reject, he is obliged to drink more. During the course of searching for excuses to refuse the proposer's invitation, the love and friendship among drinkers will be improved and bettered.

       "The Substitute Drinks on Behalf of the Invitee" It is a way which can not only keep the invitee's grace but also save the face of the host or guest as well and doesn't make them feel disappointed . If you are unable to drink or have drunk too much, and the host or the guest persists in asking you to drink more in order to show his esteem, in such a case; you can ask a substitute to drink on behalf of you. At the wedding party, the brides- maid and bridegroom-best-man are usually the ideal substitutes, who must be capable of drinking much more.

       In order to urge others to drink more at the feast, there are many interesting expressions such as you should drink a toast if you have a good will with me, or never have an adequate drink if you have a profound friendship with me; or just have a sip if you have no deep affection with me."

       "A Punishing Urge to Drink More" It is a peculiar way of the Chinese to urge others to have more drink. There exists a variety of excuses of punishing urge, but the most common is probably to urge those who are late for the feast or dinner or party to have three cups of drink in a rush, which sometimes have some characteristic just making fun of those being late for the feast.

       The Tibetan nationality is very hospitable and likely to entertain guests with Highland barley Alcoholic Drink . When serving the guest, they first pour a full cup of the drink then present it to the guest. The guest should accept it with two hands, then one hand holding it, another hand's middle finger and thumb dipping into the cup and flicking drops of the drink upward to worship heavenly gods, after it , repeating the movement twice respectively to worship ground gods and Buddha. This sort of tradition reminds people of being aware that the origin of the Highland Barley Alcoholic Drink results from the generosity of heavenly gods, ground gods and Buddha. For this reason people should first worship god before enjoying the drink. While drinking, the Tibetan must follow the custom: the guest first has a sip, then the host fills up the cup; the guest has a second sip, and the host fill up the cup again, then another repetition. After that, the guest should drink up, which symbolizes you consider the host highly. The more the guest drink, the happier the host feel. which signified the host's well- brewed alcoholic drink. When urging the guest to drink more, the Tibetan are accustomed to presenting the gentleman with a large cup or a big bowl, but presenting ladies with a small cup or a small bowl.

       The Zhuang nationality usually uses white china spoons, not cups to present the alcoholic to each other. When drinking, the host and the guest take a spoon each to get some drink from a bowl full of drink, then exchanging their spoons to take it with. At this moment the host will begin drinking chant:

"A tin-pot full of alcoholic liquor shining.
Present it to you with my honesty.
Beg you to take it in with your pleasure.
Urge you to drink more as I worship gods.
A white china bowl full of alcoholic liquor shining.
Present it to you, please no refusing.
Although the drink not so tasteful and fragrant.
I urge you to drink with my true affection.
I'll consider you as a god if you have half the drink."

       The Yugu nationality living in Northwest China has a custom of presenting two cups of drink to the guest. No matter how many guests the host has, he takes out only two cups, the host present will use the cups to urge the guest(s ) to drink double cups of alcohol by turns.

Drinkers' Wager Game
       Drinkers' wager game while drinking is a particular method in China to help obtain more fun. The drinking wager game shares a long history. At start it was probably set up to keep a certain rule while people drank. There occurred "Drinking Discipline" during Han Dynasty. That's to say, the drinking rules were set up at feasts so that those who didn't follow the rules and didn't drink the cup up would receive a certain penalty. During the primitive times, there existed a shooting game at feasts--those losing their shooting games would be fined to drink more. There once existed a "Casting-arrow-into-a-drink-pot Game" among our ancestors, which stemmed out of the Shooting game of West Power of Zhou Dynasty. There was a pot placed on the table, all the guests cast arrows into the pot by turns, those casting more arrows into the pot were game winners and those losing the game should have more drink. In Chapter 44 of ¡¶Red- chamber Dream¡· there is a vivid description of drinking wager game as following: Yuanyang (a maid servant) first drank up a cup of rice alcoholic drink, saying with a smile, " The drinking rule is as authoritative as the military order, everyone, no matter you are a lord or a servant, should follow my orders, those offending against my orders should be fined. " In general, the drinking wager game is used as a penalty to urge drinkers to drink more, but the chief purpose to carry out the drinking wager game is to make a more cheerful air while people drinking . It is quite common case that at feasts the people present don't know each other. The drinking wager game plays a role of catalytic promoter to stimulate a cheerful scene appearing at dinner tables.

       The drinking wager game can be played in various ways. Nobles and intellectuals played the drinking wager game that, of course, was different from that of the common citizens did. The former played it by means of writing- poem competitions, word-puzzles and puzzle guessing etc. While ordinary people played it in a way which was simple, easy to perform with no preparation.

       The most common and simplest way of playing the drinking wager game is named " a finger-guessing game. " i. e. the drinkers both should stretch out his fingers in a certain shape to stand for a certain number, while they both should say certain number at the same time. If the number said by one of the drinkers is just equal to the one that both drinkers' fingers stand for adding up together, the drinker who says the right number is a winner, the other is a loser and should have a drink. If they both say a right number there is no winners this time and they should repeat the game.

A Game of Passing Down a Flower While Beating a Drum
       It is a cheerful, lovely and intense penalty game for drinking more. At feasts or dinners, the host and guests take their seats in a proper order, in order to do justice to all people present a person sitting in another separated section is responsible for beating a drum. When the game starts, a flower is being passed down by turns. If the person is just holding the flower when the drum stops beating, he or she will be fined to drink a cup of alcohol. For this reason, everyone passes the flower down quickly for fear that he or she should hold the flower in the hand when the drum stops beating. The operator should be tactical in beating the drum, sometimes quick in beating. sometimes slow, which increases the strain. All the people will focus their eyes on the person holding the flower in the hand and all bursting into laughter at the moment the drum stops beating, the strained atmosphere disappears in a sudden, and the person holding the flower in the hand has to have a more cup of drink. If the flower is just between two persons, it will be decided by the finger-guessing game to see who'll be fined to drink. The game of passing down a flower by turns while beating a drum is suitable for all people ---the young and the aged, but it is commonly used among ladies. For example, there exists a vivid description of the game being played among the ladies of Jia Family in ¡¶Red-Chamber Dream¡·