Government Dinner No. 2 This Week

I just finished another government dinner. Last night was the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai's dinner for Chinese government officials. Tonight, the Xiamen government had a little dinner party for 800 or so in honor of its annual trade show.

These dinners are remarkable affairs. When we arrived we were greated by 40 young Chinese girls in various local outfits (Tibetan etc). In unison, they welcomed us. We were told we were attending a cocktail party. I was praying for food, because I had not managed to eat today and it turned out to be a full dinner. I should have known better. I've been to many of these.

There is at least one waitress for each table dressed in some weird outfit, and then around 20 girls dressed in traditional Chinese dresses and another 10 in period costumes hovering over the VIP table.

The tables are all decked out in gold and the chairs in red (traditional Chinese entertainment colors) and there were a large wad of orchids as a center piece at each table. The center of the VIP table was cut out and they had placed a number of plants inside part of which spelled something. On top were some tacky white plastic egrits.

Before dinner was officially served, we heard the normal round of speeches which I noticed no one listened to. Following those, the lights were dimmed and music came blarring out of very large speakers we happened to be sitting much to close to. The music was some '50s tune - I'll walk with him, I think. Tough to listen to today. Anyway, it was strange and out of place and the recording kept skipping but no one seemed to notice.

The girls in their outfits came out with candles and stood while the waiters and waitresses walked briskly by in unison with plates of food and neon flickering something on the side of the plate. Very Chinese. Leading the group were boys with flaming rods of something.

Very over the top.

At my table were six Chinese gentlemen with no English skills, one Chinese guy with some language skills, two Koreans whose English wasn't bad and the lady I came with whom I'd just met an hour earlier. One of the Korean gentlemen looked very much like an old friend of mine in the States and his speech pattern and mannerisms were similar. Very funny. A very nice guy.

The food at these things is always phenominal. The cold appetizers were good - for some reason they left off the chicken feet - a first. The main course was duck, Chinese ribs, lobster, Chinese fried noodles, weird soup, one veggie and dessert.

I always eat too much.

There were the usual round of toasts, but we had no government officials at our table so there was no one to be offended when we declined the wine/bijou.

Then it was over and everyone left. I was glad to have an English speaking person at my table for once.