Millions of Chinese people play guandan. Is that good or bad?
IN AMERICA BUSINESSMEN learn to play golf in order to fit in and foster relationships.
In China they learn guandan, a card game that has become a staple of business meetings
and banquets. Millions of Chinese people enjoy it. “Eating without playing doesn’t count
as a meal,” says one executive. Guandan, which translates as “egg tossing” or “bomb tossing”,
involves four people in teams of two. Players try to shed their cards by forming various
combinations. The game can last for hours and usually involves a lot of chit-chat.
Guandan is seen by some as a healthy and intellectual form of entertainment. Business dinners
and after-work activities tend to be less boozy when the game is involved. Last year the national
sports authority organised the first nationwide guandan tournament. Officials talk of the game’s
potential to boost the economy (how is unclear) and become a cultural export. Rumours abound
that Communist Party leaders are fans.
But not every party member likes guandan. Earlier this month the Beijing Youth Daily, a mouthpiece
of the city’s Communist Youth League, ran three opinion pieces over three days criticising
the “poisonous” game. One piece implied that shady businessmen were using it to establish
connections and make corrupt deals. Another blasted the game for promoting a “lying-flat
culture”, slang for laziness. “The guandan addiction has become a social phenomenon worthy
of attention and vigilance,” said the paper.
The controversy appears to have rattled some in the public sector. Making the rounds online
are reports of civil servants being banned from hosting guandan games and receiving notices
to confess their playing history.
That has led supporters of the pastime to push back. A party newspaper in Jiangsu, where
guandan originated, has defended its benefits and condemned the moral posturing of critics.
Other papers have since chimed in with similar commentaries. If corruption and laziness are
problems, then target the root causes, not guandan, say some. Or, as one headline put it: “Oppose
the game of throwing eggs? Stop talking nonsense!”