Hospitality and ritual: A discursive study of toasting in Chinese dining contexts

The paper aims to explore toasting conventions and strategies in Chinese dining contexts from a discursive perspective by analyzing naturally occurring cases of toasting from Douyin and Haokan Video . Particular attention is paid to how Chinese hospitality, interpersonal achievements through toasting rituals, and the culture behind them are interactively constructed. The findings indicate that toasting conventions in Chinese dining contexts can be metaphorically divided into two stages: the ‘planned economy’ stage, characterized by a high degree of conventionalization, and the ‘market economy’ stage, which highlights relatively high autonomy. During these two stages, toasters adopt strategies centered on Renqing (人情), rooted in Qing (情) and Yi (义) of Confucianism, through which hospitality is fully demonstrated. In this sense, toasting as a ritual is confirmed through the analysis and discussion of its interactive and social nature in China.