sneak a drink

one of the national dress in China

I often visit the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka which I like very much. In the picture, you can see one of the traditional wear of Chinese national minorities.
 
About 15 years ago, I taught Japanese to a dashing businessman from China. During the intermediate Japanese course he was taking, we were practicing making a sentence with the adverb "kossori (secretly)". His example was, "When my wife is not around, I drink secretly." (I sneak a drink, in Japanese). I couldn't help but burst out laughing.
 
When I read the description of this costume, I saw it belonged to his ethnic group. His face and the sentence he made popped into my mind like lightning, for the first time since he left. I found myself thinking of him and his wife, and wishing them well.
 
(It's difficult to tell the difference between the different ethnic groups in China, as everyone wears regular clothes now. I only knew he was part of a minority group as he told me so.)