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Hi, everyone and welcome back to Happy Hour. 欢迎回来酒馆.

Hi, 安澜.

Hi, Lulu, hi, everyone.

Yeah, so in the New Year period, have you been eating a lot and most importantly, have you been drinking a lot?

Come on, Lulu.

Yeah, stupid question. Of course you've been drinking a lot. Thank you. So let's keep on with the 酒馆spirit. Let's talk about drinking, but instead of talking about different things we drink, we're gonna talk about why younger people nowadays like the GenZ-ers, why are they drinking radically less than the older generations?

That is something completely true. Like, for example, my parents' generation, they do drink a lot. And I would say it is absolutely true, like, for example, my niece, who is 19 years old, she doesn't even drink.

And I remember when I was 19, I was going out with my friends a lot. I was drinking wine, I was drinking beer.

Hang on. Your niece is 19, she's in university, right?

Yeah, she is.

So does she not socialize?  I thought that's one of the main ways young people socialize, or am I getting too old to make a comment?

No, nowadays, younger people don't socialize, or many younger people don't socialize by drinking.

What do they do?  Do they drink...oh, they all drinking milk tea now.

Soft drinks, milk tea, anything really, apart from alcohol.

So you don't get the young and wild period where just you throw caution to the wind and just have a great night.

No, many people now are "sober-curious" or they are "mindful drinkers" .

Okay. They're not non-drinkers, they still drink, they just don't drink that much or they don't get addicted.

Well, It's a spectrum.

You have some people who just don't drink at all. They are completely teetotal, or you have some that maybe drink once a week or once every two weeks, probably more sober curious. Then you have some people who just don't drink a lot and then you have the older generations that still like a drink.

There's no longer that pressure to keep up.  I mean, in China, there's...I don't think there was ever that pressure, especially among girls; there was even social stigma attaching to girls drinking. But among younger guys, sometimes they do have this competitive drinking, the pressure to keep up. It's like, aren't you man enough to drink that whole box of beer or wine or spirit?

Yeah.

Was that the case in the UK when you were in university?

It definitely was in some areas, like, for example, when I was at university, if you were part of a Rugby team or a football team, there was a lot of pressure to just keep drinking.

And I've been to some of their parties, and people were just like completely drunk the whole time. But there was always that idea of drinking with your friends, doing shots. But I would say that the culture is less competitive than in China, because I remember when I first came to China, and you know the whole thing you do is you'd go and drink as part of a business dinner, and even in professional settings you would drink. But from what I've heard, that's a lot less nowadays.

I don't think young people do that now. When young people do the business thing, they don't necessarily drink. Or I mean perhaps in some fields in certain industries where still the older generation probably hold the power. They're still competitive drinking.

But when it's more like let's say younger industry like IT,  for example, from based on what I've heard, there's no such thing as competitive drinking. People tend not to appreciate that as part of your skill set. They probably see it as just a bad habit and you have to think most people whether in China or in the UK or West in general, are getting more health-conscious.

Yeah.  For example, you have monthlong challenges nowadays like Dry January or Sober October. These are not punishments. These are wellness experiments, basically just to stop drinking for that period of time.

Yeah, but fair enough though. Dry January is because you have been drinking so much in December, you need a sober up.

Well yeah, partly but even nowadays, people just do that; they could do it for charity or they just do it for their health. These are what we call the sober curious.

Curious is好奇心. Why do they call it sober curious.

Because they're curious about what it is to be sober. They are curious about what it's like to not drink, but they might still drink later on. They just want to try it.

I see. So they kind of want to see if they can do without drinking.

Yeah, exactly.

I do think this is quite important, I mean, It's nice to have a drink, especially when you're at a social gathering. It's kind of a social lubricant, isn't it? 就社交润滑剂. But if you find yourself, for example, for a period of time, I found myself always wanting a drink after a stressful day, then I knew something wasn't right because I really shouldn't be craving alcohol like that.

For me I like a drink. I do probably drink like sort of half the week, but I always try to have like a few days where I just don't drink.

Yeah, I mean. I've seen you drink; you don't really overdrink, you don't binge drink.

No. But I don't like the idea of it becoming a habit. That's what I don't really like.

So, for example, sometimes I've noticed in the past that maybe I'll have a drink because I'm a bit bored, and I don't like that because then when I do have a drink, it doesn't become special.

It's not special, right?

No. And this is also another category, the mindful drinkers

The mindful. I've only heard of mindfulness as like 正念, as sort of like in meditation.

Well,  mindful drinkers are the people that would probably enjoy one perfect, very well-made cocktail.  They would savor it for over an hour. So they're focusing on the flavor, they're focused on the experience. They're not trying to get drunk, but they're just enjoying the cocktail.

You mean, every girl in a cocktail bar in China?

Well, I wouldn't really take photos all the time as I do that.

Yeah, but no offense, I know people, not everyone can handle their alcohol like that. So nowadays, if I go to a cocktail bar in China, I do see a lot of girls doing that. They probably cannot handle that much alcohol, so they order one beautifully made drink where they can also take a picture of, obviously, and then they just nurse that, you nurse a drink right, to nurse a drink all night, during which time I downed three cocktails already and feel pretty bad about myself.

Well yeah, and this is something I've noticed as well. I always remember I had a friend of mine, a colleague who loved making cocktails. And I once asked him, you've got so many cocktails that you can make. You've got like a huge bar at home filled with all of these different bottles of alcohol. You must drink quite a bit. He said, actually no, I drink less because I know the amount of work that goes into a cocktail. I know how long it takes me and how much skill goes into a really well-made cocktail.

So I find myself drinking less because I want to save that experience. It's like, for example, if you're a really good cook, you make this amazing food, you don't want to eat it like McDonald's. You want to be able to enjoy every bite, and it's the same with cocktails.

But that's actually quite nice because when people practice or used to practice binge drinking, when binge drinking culture, this whole party till you puke or drink till you puke culture of probably in the 90s or the early 2000s.

That wasn't great. I don't really remember things that I used to drink.  When I was like 20, I guess I used to go to this really divey bar, and then they had like a 10rmb tequila shots.

That's not good

Which was toxic. It was toxic.

 That doesn't sound good.

Nowadays, some people would even go if they want the bar atmosphere, they enjoy being in a cocktail bar. They might go there even order a mocktail, which used to be called virgin cocktail cocktail就是这种无酒精的鸡尾酒.

And some mocktails are really well made that you really just can't tell the difference.

Exactly. And that makes you think what is it that you really enjoy about cocktail? Is it just the flavors or is it the actual alcohol?

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文稿校对：脆脆面 & Jenny

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