{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"","title":"Last call: why is China sobering up? ","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/633ebf6dfc7f5a0012acdc97/1756222898262-f8ae04b7-e576-4f4b-acdf-dd70780e0890.jpeg?height=200","description":"

China is the world’s largest booze market. For millennia, liquor has lubricated social gatherings and business deals. Wedding banquets are referred to as “happy alcohol”, while the celebration to mark a child's first month of life is “full-month alcohol”.


But now appetites for drinking are drying up. Alcohol sales are down and a growing number of young Chinese say they’re “disgusted” by their country's drinking culture. China’s leaders have banned alcohol from official events. 


Jiehao Chen, The Economist’s China researcher, and Gabriel Crossley, our China correspondent, sample some second-rate baijiu and ask: why is China sobering up?


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","author_name":"The Economist"}