Kindergarten Principal Suffers Stroke After Binge Drinking At Banquet
Posted: 07/21/2014 8:44 am
Another day, another person collapsing after a boozy banquet with officials. A kindergarten deputy principal in Changnan County in Zhejiang Province suffered a stroke after binge drinking with four officials from the local education bureau, reported People’s Daily.
When a delegation from the Changnan Education Bureau wrapped up its inspection of 18 kindergartens in Longgang Town in Wenzhou on July 16, the school heads did what was customary by inviting the officials and dignitaries to a lavish banquet. The feast cost a total of RMB 5,440, jointly shared by the inspected kindergartens, the party-run newspaper said.
After rounds of ganbei or “bottom ups”, Hong Bo, deputy head of Changnan No. 3 Kindergarten, was feeling nauseated and vomited on the way home. Hong was sent to a local hospital and was found to have suffered a ruptured blood vessel in her brain. Hong is still in intensive care.
Ganbei or bottom up
Roughly five years ago, a police officer drank himself to death at a banquet with officials, and was memorialized as a martyr “who died in the line of duty”. This time when the news was first posted online by a Weibo user named 人生如梦889V, it led to an investigation by the local discipline and inspection commission in Changnan.
The local anti-graft body said the four education officials “caused severe negative social influences” and their behaviors were against President Xi Jinping’s “eight points”, an official guidance on officials’ conduct after he launched an anti-corruption campaign.
The head of the inspection team Wang Chengyu was sacked from his post as director of the local teachers’ training school and was given a two-year reprieve within the party. The other three people from the education bureau and several local teachers were given different punishments, the report said.
Banquets with local officials are often accompanied with strong rice liquor and exotic delicacies. Officials were infamous for shouting out rounds of ganbei to out drink each other.
Earlier this month, an official in Anhui drank himself to death after an alcohol-soaked dinner with higher-ranking cadres. We doubt the latest case will be the last one despite the party’s anti-corruption drive.
