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Cigarettes And Wine
Every time I visit my Sifu in Henan I always buy cigarettes and wine for him. This is part of Chinese culture, it is a respectful thing to do and a sign of my appreciation for the things that he has done for me.
I personally don't smoke. I tried it a few times but I never liked it. My father on the other hand is a smoker. It was part of his generation. Many people his age smoke. So whenever I go to Henan there is a special brand of cigarettes that I like to buy for him called, "Golden Leaf" (in addition to traditional Chinese medicine, Henan is famous for its tobacco and most top quality Chinese cigarettes contain tobacco from this province). I always buy him the premier class, the box is gold in color and according to him it has an artistic quality to it. The color of the cigarette itself is different from other cigarettes and it's quite beautiful to look at. The first time I bought it for him my father and I tried it together. I took a long deep breath when I inhaled, I didn't smoke but I could still tell that this was different.
My vice when I was in my 20s was beer, at that time I drank a lot. I also occasionally enjoyed a famous Chinese wine from Beijing called, "Er Guo Tou" made from Sorghum. I have many fond memories drinking with friends and students back then.
I remember one time having dinner with my Tai Chi classmates at Sifu Meng's home back in 2001. There were many of us sitting at a round table in his home in Shenzhen, everyone was happy, eating, talking and of course drinking. After finishing several bottles of different Chinese wines Sifu Meng decided to share one of his treasured Maotai bottles with us which he had hidden in his bedroom. One of our classmates, who was from Zhejiang province, became very very drunk after drinking the Maotai. He was 50 something years old. He kept drinking and complaining about his son. He talked and talked and then he said something that surprised all of us, he said that he did traditional Chinese Opera! Then he stood up and sang . He was so drunk that we finally had to take him to the toilet where he became very sick. I said to him in Mandarin, "It is ok, we are family.".
There was another time when I was having dinner with some of my students at one of their homes, We started with traditional pork and goose snacks then suddenly 2 of them said that they had good brandy to share with us. One was a bottle of Hennessy XO which he had saved for almost 8 years and the other student had a very good bottle of Remy Martin. He said that his father had given it to him, it was supposed to be for his daughters wedding. He had kept it for 20 something years already but he wasn't going to wait any longer to drink it. He shouted" "we drink it now!".
Another one of my favorite evenings was spent with a student and his family during Christmas. He was an interesting 40 something year old man who had been to many countries. He had worked at IBM in the US, he had also lived in a mountain village in Sichuan province for 6 months when he was young. We talked about many things, our lives, politics, food and kung fu. Once we talked about Xian, we both loved this old city. It was a great evening, he had baked a big turkey and then after dinner he served Chinese rice wine with plum.
When I look back at those days I am not quite sure why I drank so much. I do have to say that I did have a good time but I'm glad to have moved on from that part of my life. My days are quieter now, however , I of course still occasionally enjoy a good drink, usually it's at a happy event with friends and students.