Until recently, in fact, Chinese leaders had ceramic spittoons placed by their chairs during banquets and ceremonies to greet kings, politicians and business executives.
Thunder has been asked to ride in an elevator, go through indoor tunnels, be ridden amongst the tables in a hotel ballroom during banquets, and attend both indoor and outdoor press conferences.
Food was dispatched from the kitchen laid out on trays and waiters continued bringing out trays until diners could literally eat no more (In his New Yorker article, Joseph Mitchell quotes one man as saying, "I'm so full I'm about to pop. Push those kidneys a little nearer, if you don't mind").. Beer flowed freely during banquets in pre-prohibition years.
"No one wants phones going off during a banquet," a spokesman said.
Caligula liked to sleep with his guests' wives during a banquet (when his sisters were unavailable, that is).
Thousands of police were deployed to control the demonstrators, but failed to stop them besieging Mr Chen during a banquet in Taipei.
Every 10 December, Nobel prize winners are invited to Stockholm to receive their awards from King Carl XVI Gustaf and to give a speech during a banquet.
"The Chinese Monkey is very cute, even when he's angry," one of the actors, 32-year-old Wang Lu, said during a banquet after one of the final rehearsals in this city in eastern China.
Written in verse, this guide to where and when the best produce could be bought and how it should be prepared was meant to be recited during a banquet.
Mr. Perkins, who had taught a similar program at a competing high school, brought the classes to Coral Reef three years ago after watching the confused looks on his players' faces during a banquet.
