Drinking Ages in China and the US - 美國和中國的飲酒年齡

America has very strict drinking ages, depending on the states, ranging from 18 to 21 years old, in order to combat with the drinking problem. Yet this puritanical draconian restriction has failed miserably. Time again, we heard unsupervised underage drinking or the binge drinking when young people hit the legal age to consume alcohol.

The place I grew up, China, though introduced a law in 2006 to ban selling alcohol to anyone younger than 18, it never established a legal drinking age.

I learned to assess the taste of alcohol - beer and wine - through my parents and learned to treat alcohol with a realistic approach - neither treating it as forbidden fruit nor treating it as panacea solving all troubles in life.

It's interesting to observe that drinking problem though does existing in China, has never been as lethal as that in the US.

It's high time to re-exam the policy here.

美國有很嚴格的飲酒年齡，按州而定， 18至21歲，以打擊酗酒的問題。然而，這種清教徒式的嚴厲限制已經失敗。一次又一次，我們聽到的無監督未成年人飲酒或刚愎自用及法定年齡飲酒的年 輕人酗酒故事。

我長大的地方，中國, 雖然于2006年推出了一項法律， 禁止向任何人出售酒精小於18歲，從未建立了法定飲酒年齡。

通過我的父母，我學會了饮啤酒和葡萄酒, 获得實事求是的態度对待酒精 - 既不把它作為禁果, 也不把它作為解決生活中一切煩惱的靈丹妙藥。

值得一提的是，中國雖然有喝酒問題，它從 來沒有象在美國这样致命。

现在是调整政策的時間了。