Chinese people don't get hangovers?

[Guest realmayo]

I was a bit slow paying the rent, getting lunch, buying coffee today because of one beer too many last night. I tried to explain this to the various people who were taking my rent, frying my rice and selling me coffee powder, but realised I didn't know the word for "hangover" or "hungover" in Chinese. Neither, it seems, did they. It could be that I expressed myself clumsily to them (because, yes, I was a bit tired this morning) but they said they'd usually say something like "I'm tired because I had one beer too many last night"; they couldn't suggest a Chinese word for hangover. However nciku.com and Wenlin both tell me that 宿醉 = hangover. Have people in fact heard 宿醉 commonly used?

[anonymoose]

I don't know how often 宿醉 is used, but certainly it seems to be the correct word (see here).

I know government officials are reputed to drink too much and get up to no good, but it seems like in general Chinese people tend not to get trashed anywhere near as much as their western counterparts.

[huilaile]

I always heard this described (and, yes, Chinese, like anybody else, get hangovers; however, they apparently aren't as used to using it as an excuse for lower productivity as Westerners) in long-form, i.e., 酒后不舒服

[xiaoxiaocao]

The most common ones where I am are - 喝多了，喝醉了 and 喝晕了.

[skylee]

喝多了 and 喝醉了 are commonly used. 宿醉 is frequently used in the description 宿醉未醒.

Incidentally when I got up this morning I had this strange dizzy feeling and the term 宿醉未醒 came up in my head. Yes I felt slow and clumsy, and missed the film that I had planned to see. :wacko:

[rezaf]

I often say: "我在宿醉中."

[abcdefg]

... but it seems like in general Chinese people tend not to get trashed anywhere near as much as their western counterparts.

I think you are mistaken. I've seen lots and lots of real drunk Chinese. Perhaps we move in different social circles.

[Don_Horhe]

Social circles. Precisely. It's more than probable that ye olde folke, 老百姓 or whatever you want to call the people who sell coffee powder or fry rice for a living will not be avid drinkers, therefore not knowing the word 宿醉. Landlords make no exception - our landlady in Wuhan was well in her forties and told us that she had been to a 酒吧 only once in her life and left after about 15 minutes because of all the noise. On the other hand, I've heard quite a few of the Chinese people we got drunk with use the word on the following day, accompanied with as many 妈's and 屄's as humanly possible.

[anonymoose]

So which social groups are you talking about then? Because practically all of the professionals, non-professionals, students and retirees that I know do not engage in such behaviour at all on the whole. Of course there will always be individuals from those groups who do, but I'm talking about the majority.

[abcdefg]

So which social groups are you talking about then?

Businessmen.

[anonymoose]

Fair enough. But they only constitute a small proportion of the population, so I still stand by my comment in post #2.

[abcdefg]

Fair enough. But they only constitute a small proportion of the population, so I still stand by my comment in post #2.

I agree they are a small percentage, and I'm not trying to prove you wrong about the general population. It just seems I run into drunk businessmen talking lound and then weaving down the stairs and sidewalk arm-in-arm every night I'm out with more conservative Chinese friends.

[xiaocai]

We surely do, for we have more than one word for it. And we don't need to go to a bar or a pub to get drunk. Besides, bars and pubs are just not Chinese things.

[Guest realmayo]

Yeah, the people I was talking to know about feeling rough the next morning (I'm sure the reason western-style bars/nightclubs are unpopular here has nothing to do with any aversion to getting hammered), it's just that no one I asked could give me a good word to describe it. & anyway, even people in the west who don't drink know the word for "hangover". So xiaocai, what ways would Chinese people normally use to say "I'm hungover" in answer to the question "why are you so slow this morning?".

anonymoose, I read somewhere (maybe even here) some time ago the theory that while in the UK (say) young people and university students overdo it and drink a lot and have lots of romantic liasons etc, Chinese students are in general much more conservative and focused on study; but, once they get older then the situation switches: the westerners are looking to settle down while the Chinese are looking to take advantage of their new security and have some fun. neat theory, even if quite a generalisation.

[gougou]

I'm not sure I'd agree to the reasoning, realmayo, but university students drinking more in the West and older people more in the East is similar to what I've seen. Many Chinese people don't go to bars, though, but drink at home or in restaurants.

And I don't think I ever heard anybody literally say "I'm hungover" in Chinese (even in German that's pretty rare); what I hear most is people saying 我昨天喝多了。

[wedge]

I don't think I've ever heard a specific term for hangover in the "headache from having drank too much last night" sense. usually I people describe it in a sentence as in 昨天喝多了，今天很难受

[luozhen]

It's impolite to talk about getting hammered in public, even in the West. Chinese lower classes tend to have the sorts of habits and attitudes one would have found 50 years ago in the West, i.e. they would be embarrassed to be seen behaving badly.

A hangover implies excessive drinking. Saying "I had one too many" is more polite, but I still don't think it's proper to be saying it to anyone but close friends.

[anonymoose]

It's impolite to talk about getting hammered in public, even in the West.

I don't know. In the UK at least, it's something that many people would brag about.

[xiaocai]

Well the question directed to me has pretty much been answered by now. I think by saying "I had a little bit too much last night" you actually mean that "I am having a hangover and it feels awful" but sounds less embarrassing than the latter. Similarly, I think that why one would normally say "I think I had something nasty" instead of "I'm having diarrhoea"...

[skylee]

Similarly, I think that why one would normally say "I think I had something nasty" instead of "I'm having diarrhoea"...

Do people still use "diarrhea"? People I know tend to use gastroenteritis/腸胃炎 instead.