Intermediate Spoken Chinese

Larry Wells, an American who used to teach English in Taiwan, returns to Taipei for a short visit. His good friends, Mr. and Mrs. Yang, invite him to a dinner at their home to welcome him back. They’ve also invited Mr. and Mrs. Zhang and Mr. Shi, all of whom are old friends of Wells. After Mr. Yang welcomes Wells and Wells thanks him, Mr. Shi proposes a toast to Wells.

Basic Conversation 16-2

1. MR. YANG	Jīntiān wŏmen tì Lăo Wèi jiēfēng. Huānyíng nĭ huídào Táiwān lái! Zàizuòde yĕ dōu shi lăo péngyou. Lái, wŏmen jìng Lăo Wèi!
	Today we’re having a welcome dinner for Larry. Welcome back to Taiwan! Those present are all old friends. Come, let’s toast Larry!
2. WELLS	Xièxie, xièxie, shízài bù găn dāng.
	Thank you, I really don’t dare accept this honor.
3. MR. SHI	Lăo Wèi, lái, wŏ jìng nĭ! Gānbēi zĕmmeyàng?
	Larry, come, here’s to you! Bottoms up, O.K.?
4. WELLS	Liàng qiăn, liàng qiăn. Nĭ gān, wŏ suíyì ba.
	I’m not much of a drinker. You drink bottoms up, I’ll just have a little.
5. MR. SHI	Éi, nĭ shi hăiliàng. Lái, gānbēi, gānbēi!
	Hey, your capacity is limitless. Come on, bottoms up!
6. WELLS	Gōngjìng bù rú cóng mìng. Nà wŏ xiān-gān-wéi-jìngle!
	It’s better to obey than to show respect. So I’ll drink bottoms up first to show my respect!

Build Up

1. Mr. Yang
tì	for [CV]
Wèi	Wei [SN]
jiēfēng	give a welcome dinner [VO]
tì Lăo Wèi jiēfēng	give a welcome dinner for Old Wei
huílai	come back [RC]
huídào	come back to [V+PV]
huídào Táiwān lái	return to Taiwan
Jīntiān wŏmen tì Lăo Wèi jiēfēng. Huānyíng nĭ huídào Táiwān lái! Zàizuòde yĕ dōu shi lăo péngyou. Lái, wŏmen jìng Lăo Wèi!	Today we’re having a welcome dinner for Larry. Welcome back to Taiwan! Those present are all old friends. Come, let’s toast Larry!
2. Wells
găn	dare to [AV]
bù găn dāng	“don’t dare accept” [IE]
Xièxie, xièxie, shízài bù găn dāng.	Thank you, I really don’t dare accept this honor.
3. Mr. Shi
Lăo Wèi, lái, wŏ jìng nĭ! Gānbēi zĕmmeyàng?	Larry, come, here’s to you! Bottoms up, O.K.?
4. Wells
qiăn	be shallow [SV]
liàng qiăn	“capacity is shallow” [IE]
suíyì	“as you like” [IE]
Liàng qiăn, liàng qiăn. Nĭ gān, wŏ suíyì ba.	I’m not much of a drinker. You drink bottoms up, I’ll just have a little.
5. Mr. Shi
hăi	ocean, sea [N]
hăiliàng	“ocean capacity” [IE]
Éi, nĭ shi hăiliàng. Lái, gānbēi, gānbēi!	Hey, your capacity is limitless. Come on, bottoms up!
6. Wells
bù rú...	not be as good as... [PT]
gōngjìng bù rú cóng mìng	“to show respect is not as good as following orders” [EX]
xiān-gān-wéi-jìng	drink bottoms up before someone else to show respect [EX]
Gōngjìng bù rú cóng mìng. Nà wŏ xiān-gān-wéi-jìngle!	It’s better to obey than to show respect. So I’ll drink bottoms up first to show my respect!

1A. Wŏmen tì Lăo Wèi jiēfēng “We’re having a welcome dinner for Old Wei.” The meaning of tì is “for,” “substitute for,” “on behalf of,” or “in place of.” Some more examples:

Instead of tì...jiēfēng “give a welcome dinner for...,” there are some speakers who prefer gĕi...jiēfēng.

1B. Huídào Táiwān lái “come back to Taiwan” would be said if the speaker of this sentence were in Taiwan. If the speaker weren’t in Taiwan, then you’d say huídào Táiwān qù “go back to Taiwan.” The lái and qù at the end are common but optional. More examples:

As regards the resultative compound verb huílai “come back,” in Chinese this can mean only “return to a particular place.” Unlike English “come back,” huílai doesn’t have the additional meaning “come another time.” So for English “Mr. Smith isn’t in right now, please come back tomorrow,” you could not use huílai; instead, you’d have to say Qĭng nĭ míngtiān zài lái “Please come again tomorrow.”

2. Bù găn dāng is an humble phrase that literally means “(I) don’t dare accept (an honor).” In more colloquial English, we might say “I don’t deserve it” or “I feel flattered.”

3–5. DRINKING ETIQUETTE. As with eating at banquets (15-1: 1H), the main goal of drinking at Chinese banquets is to repay social obligations, give others face, and build up guānxi “connections” for the future, at the same time that you try to have a good time yourself. Unlike Americans and their beloved cocktails, Chinese people don’t drink alcohol before the meal begins; moreover, when the meal comes to a close or the food runs out, they stop drinking alcohol. The first toast is frequently a general one, made by the host and hostess to all of the guests, usually as soon as the first dish is presented. Then the host and hostess will toast the guest of honor and other guests, with couples usually drinking as a unit, though they are free to drink as individuals if they wish. Everyone then can, and usually does, toast everyone else, with couples usually drinking as a unit. Let the host and other guests toast you first, but then be sure to reciprocate, keeping your rank in mind. If there are other Westerners (say, your boss) present who are clearly senior to you, you should defer to them and let them do most of the toasting and talking. In that case, you’ll have more opportunity to enjoy the food!

If someone proposes a toast to you, it would be rude not to accept at all. While it would give the person proposing the toast the most face if you drank as commanded (Gānbēi! “Bottoms up!”), there are ways of getting around this. You could offer excuses like Liàng qiăn “My capacity for drinking liquor is low” (cf. line 4), but the other person might claim that you’re being modest and that actually you’re hăiliàng “ocean capacity,” referring to great capacity for drinking liquor (cf. line 5). Another alternative would be for you to say Wŏ bú huì hē jiŭ “I don’t drink alcohol” (lit. “I don’t know how to drink alcohol”) or Wŏ duì jiŭjīng guòmĭn “I’m allergic to alcohol” or Wŏ shēntĭ bù hăo, bù néng hē jiŭ “I’m in poor health and can’t drink alcohol.” Yet another strategy would be to accept the proposal to toast but substitute a non-alcoholic beverage for the alcoholic one (cf. line 2 in 16-4). Or, as in line 4 of this Basic Conversation, you could propose that the people involved not gānbēi but rather suíyì, i.e., have as much or as little alcohol as they feel like. If you suíyì, it’s acceptable merely to take a sip from your glass or even just to moisten your lips. With the exception of beer, guests drink alcohol only when toasting or toasted, never alone, so if you’re thirsty, it’s time to propose a toast to someone. You don’t even necessarily have to say anything; just catch someone’s eye, raise your glass (preferably with both hands), look the other person in the eyes, and drink.

Yellow rice wine called shàoxīngjiŭ (15% alcohol content) is often served at Chinese dinners. Even stronger alcoholic drinks that are sometimes offered include máotái (55% alcohol content), gāoliang (60% alcohol content), and báigānr (up to 70% alcohol content). These are all manufactured from various grains and are completely clear and therefore look like water, but don’t be fooled! To quench thirst, beer, soft drinks, juice and/or mineral water are usually also provided.

At dinner parties the “finger-guessing game” huáquán is sometimes played. Two players first fill their cups to the brim. The object of the game is to guess the total number of fingers held up by both players. On the count of three, both players loudly call out any number from 0 to 10. At the same time, each player holds up one hand showing the number of fingers they want to show. Whoever guesses the correct number of fingers on both hands wins. The loser must then drink bottoms up without spilling a drop; if he or she spills, there may be penalties of various kinds, including drinking extra wine. If both players guess correctly, then it’s considered a tie and repeated; if none guess correctly, the procedure is repeated until one player wins.

6A. A BÙ RÚ B. Gōngjìng bù rú cóng mìng “to show respect is not as good as following orders” is a set expression, but you should learn the common and useful grammatical pattern A bù rú B “A isn’t as good as B” that is contained in it. The literal meaning of bù rú is “not be as good as,” “not be equal to,” or “be inferior to.” The basic pattern is:

Bù rú is a bit formal in style. Here are additional examples of the pattern A bù rú B:

Lĭ Jiàoshòude Yīngyŭ kĕnéng bù rú Zhāng Jiàoshòu, kĕshi xuéwèn zuòde bĭ Zhāng Jiàoshòu hăo duō le.

“It’s possible that Professor Li’s English isn’t as good as Professor Zhang’s, but his scholarship is much better than Professor Zhang’s.”

Sometimes bù rú, when used at the beginning of a sentence or phrase, is used to make a polite suggestion and can imply “it would be better to....” Example:

6B. The two expressions making up utterance 6 would seem logically to be contradictory. However, keep in mind these are merely stock phrases, to which relatively little thought is being given.

SV3. Shēn “deep” and, in line 4, qiăn “shallow,” can be used not only to describe water but also to describe colors (to review color words, cf. 9-1: SV3–8). Examples:

AV1. Băi wén bù rú yí jiàn is another example of a súyŭ “popular saying” (13-2: AV1). The literal meaning is “100 hear not equal one see,” that is, “hearing something a hundred times isn’t as good as seeing it once.” Notice the use of bù rú, explained in note 6A above. A good English equivalent might be “a picture is worth a hundred words” or “seeing is believing.”

1. hé	river [N] (M: tiáo)
2. hú	lake [N]
3. shēn	be deep [SV]
4. Shí	Shi [SN]
5. shítou	stone [N] (M: kuài)
6. yŭliàng	rainfall [N]
7. huíqu	go back [RC]

huídào Mĕiguo lái	“come back to America” (you could NEVER say *dào Mĕiguo huílai)
fēihuí Zhōngguo qù	“fly back to China” (you could NEVER say *fēidào Zhōngguo huíqu)
zŏuhuí wūzili qù	“walk back into the room”

shēn hóng		“dark red”
qiăn lánsè		“light blue”
shēn yánsède yīfu		“dark-colored clothes”

A	BÙ RÚ	B
Nĭ	bù rú	tā
“You’re not as good as she is.” or “You’re not her equal.”