A dejected friend of mine told me the other day that he was upset about a pending business trip to a city in Northwest China as he could expect time-consuming business dinners and unavoidably crazy drinking.

Impressed by his unease, I highly echo the problems of business boozing discussed in your newspaper this week. It's an astonishing fact that as a recent WHO report shows, those Chinese who drink, who are a minority, now out-booze drinkers in Britain, the US and even Ireland, whose national festival involves getting drunk and wearing green.

China is proud of its long history of drinking culture. There are many stories telling of how famous poets spoke from their heart and created fabulous verses after getting tipsy and chatting with friends. Drinking a little is considered a pleasure of life.

As a Chinese, I do enjoy the boisterous atmosphere in festivities when family members are lightened up by drinking alcohol, mostly baijiu or spirits, and get more emotional connections with chatting and laughter. It is also a long-held tradition that there is no banquet without alcohol.

Undoubtedly, drinking culture seems to have been distorted when it comes to the business boozing since how much one can drink measures how far his or her career can go.

In many countries such as the US and Japan, some business rituals also revolve around alcohol, but in China it's become prevalent. And men are definitely not the only victims of the culture.

As more and more women become well-educated and hope to seek their own careers, they are unable to escape the business boozing rules. Researches show that nondrinkers have harder time to move up the career ladder. Many women have to not only work like a man, or, indeed, work harder than most men, but also drink like a man if they want to be on an equal footing with men in the workplace.

A female friend of mine, a sales manager, often complains that she has to devote a big portion of work time to courting her clients on business dinner to obtain deals. However much she hates it, little can be done to improve the situation as long as she wants to secure the job and get promotion.

Be it spirits or wine, frequent and excessive drinking will definitely cause health problems to women and cripple their ability to give birth and look after the family, as their social obligations demand.

The central government's efforts to curb drinking at business dinners have put a hold on the long-existing practice, but the mind-set lingers. It's high time to categorize drinking just as a way of having fun rather than doing business.

Yi Xiao, an interpreter based in Guangzhou