The recent death of a 30-year-old Chinese man at the Jing Hua Metropark Hotel (京华维景酒店) in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, has triggered discussions on Weibo.

On Friday, May 19, the man was discovered in his hotel room bathtub by his friends. The following day, Yangzhou Police officially confirmed the man’s death, China News reports.

The man, who was from the nearby Gaoyou County, allegedly died of a heart attack after drinking during a formal dinner with friends at the hotel.

Local media later reported that the friends present during the night reached a 1 million yuan (±US$157,000) settlement with the man’s family. The cost of the settlement will be shared among the friends who were drinking that night.

In February of this year, two similar stories made headlines in China. In one case, a young migrant worker died after excessive drinking at a company lunch and dinner in southern China.

The man, according to SCMP, drank the equivalent of 600ml of baijiu (白酒), a popular spirit that contains around 50% alcohol.

The other case involved a man who died when he was left by his friends at a hotel in Jinhua, Zhejiang province, after heavily drinking at a banquet.

Surveillance cameras in Jinhua captured how the man was unable to stand or walk after drinking with his friends.

Those friends also paid a compensation together of 610,000 yuan (US$96,000) to the man’s family.

Earlier this month, organisers of an alcohol drinking contest in Henan province were also ordered to pay a compensation of over US$70,000 after one participant died due to excessive alcohol intake in July of last year.

“We’d better bring our medical records before drinking with friends.”

The most recent 1 million yuan settlement became a heated topic on Weibo, where one commenter stated that perhaps it is time to sign a legal waiver with all friends who drink together before they become legally responsible for potential settlement costs.

Another commenter suggested that alcohol manufacturers should be responsible for such deaths. The majority of the commenters, however, blamed Chinese drinking culture (中国酒桌文化) for these incidents.

In the Chinese traditional drinking culture, people are usually encouraged to drink as much as they can, or to exceed their limits; the goal sometimes is to literally “take someone to the ground by drinking.”

When someone proposes a toast, everyone at the table is required to finish their glasses, sometimes at a very high pace.

Since Chinese drinking culture usually involves drinks with a high alcohol percentage, such as the aforementioned baijiu, heavy drinkers have a higher risk of alcohol poisoning.

Despite some claiming that the ‘long, traditional’ drinking culture is meant to strengthen people’s relations, critics argue that China’s coercive drinking culture is a toxic practice that is harmful to people’s health.

The pressure to drink sometimes goes beyond friendly relations, as those who decline a drink can be verbally attacked or looked down on by others participating in the event.

Especially during formal business dinners, the amount of alcohol one can drink is taken as a sign of their strength of character or abilities; those who can consume the most are regarded as the best candidates and may receive financial benefits or better business relations with others because of it.

“It would be better for us to bring medical records with us before we started drinking with friends,” one Weibo netizen jokingly comments.

“It’s good they have to pay compensation [to the family],” another person writes: “This might put an end to the Chinese drinking culture where people are basically forced to drink alcohol.”

By Chauncey Jung
Follow @whatsonweibo

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The number one trending topic on Chinese social media on Thursday night (Beijing time) is the murder of a Chinese stewardess by a driver of the Didi Chuxing car-hailing app. The hashtag “Stewardess Didi Murder” (#空姐滴滴打车遇害#) received 110 million views at time of writing.

The 21-year-old Lucky Air flight attendant Li Mingzhu (李明珠) was killed in the early morning of May 6th after she had arranged a ride through Didi, China’s popular Uber-like car-hailing app, and was on her way home from Zhengzhou Airport in Henan province.

Unable to contact their daughter, Li’s family reported her missing on the afternoon of May 7. Her body was discovered by local police the following day.

According to Global Times (report since removed), police confirmed that the woman was killed by the driver with a weapon, but was still at large. Didi Chuxing issued an apology for Li’s death, and said they had “incumbent responsibility.”

Chinese news site Sixth Tone reports that a friend of Li had received messages from her while she was on her way home, saying that her driver was “acting strange” and was telling her that he was “tempted to kiss her.”

The car-hailing company also offered a reward of up to 1 million yuan [US$160,000] for people providing tips on the suspect’s whereabouts. The company issued a photo of the suspect, a 27-year-old male named Liu Zhenhua, on social media platform Weibo.

In a Beijing News interview with the victim’s father on May 10, it was disclosed that Li’s body was found half naked, with over 20 stab wounds.

According to new reports on Thursday night, research teams have found that Didi driver Liu abandoned his car shortly after the murder and then jumped into a nearby river. Police is now searching the area.

For many people in China, the Didi car-hailing app is part of their everyday travel life. In 2017, the company completed 7.43 billion rides for approximately 450 million users in more than 400 cities.

Li Mingzhu’s death has raised public concerns over the safety of the company. Although drivers need to have real-name registration, they can also register an account with another person’s car, as long as the car owner agrees.

“Didi, you need to increase the security level over your drivers!”, some commenters say on Weibo, while others say they are now “afraid to hail a Didi car.”

“I hope that tomorrow’s news will tell me the driver has drowned,” one netizen wrote.

Update: Netease reports on May 11 that a body has been recovered from the water. Further investigation will have to confirm if it is indeed the suspect.

By Manya Koetse, with contributions from Chauncey Jung
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