Only in China.
Some of you may think us egotistical jerks after this post. But we are awesome....
Our first night in Dali, Frank and Vinny met a laoban (boss) in his bar. Then on our first full day we grabbed lunch at a restaurant that he happened to own. After calling us over and offering some tea, he asked us to help him write an English happy hour menu.
In China guanxi is very important. Guanxi is like a game where one can gain or lose face. The three of us have honed our guanxi to a science in China's biggest party town, Changsha. By helping this laoban we gained major guanxi.
Some time and several pots of tea later two beautiful American girls sat down at a table at the restaurant we previously ate at. Time for more guanxi. We sent Frank over to make the introductions and before long the girls had joined us at the table. Foreign girls=major guanxi.
They (our new Chinese friends) offered to take us to dinner and we obliged them... although the girls were a bit nervous about hopping into a Mercedes with a bunch of guys they just met. Having foreigners pile out of his car was major guanxi for laoban and we played our part well, drinking homemade baijiu and trying even the most adventurous dishes placed in front of us. A spread of peanuts, fruit and beer (a lot of beer) greeted us upon our return to laoban's bar. We had played our part and now it was time for our reward.
At breakfast this morning we met a girl who lives in Xiangtan (45 minutes from Changsha). One of the workers at our hostel lives in Changsha. A foreigner we met in Kunming also lived in Changsha!!!!
Small world.
C. Johnson
Well, that certainly is a different version of the value/purpose of Three Cups of Tea!
ReplyDeleteDoes a mom want to know what your reward was for being so highly valued in Dali? You decide!