Christmas With Chinese Characteristics?
It looks like Christmas is being shanghaied. According to an article in the China Daily of 21 December, a local website is calling on young people of
Shanghai to rebel against Western traditions for celebrating the holiday and move to more traditional Chinese ways of celebrating it. The article even quotes a number of young Shanghai-ren who say Christmas is not what they remember it to be from their youth. What? Bring back Red Guards to burn images of Santa, Prancer and Dancer?
According to the article, the website is calling on locals to meet at the city’s Fuxing Park to celebrate Christmas in a traditionally Chinese way. The Chinese celebrations will include playing badminton, rubber-band dancing, hopscotch and roller-skating. Locals are also being encouraged to wear traditional Chinese padded clothing to stay warm – there’s even a prize for the person who wears the most clothing. While it might all seem a little bit odd to foreigners, there’s nothing wrong with trying to localize the festival in some way. Indeed, Christmas has always subsumed local customs. For example, climatic conditions in Australia meant sleigh-rides and building snowmen had to be replaced by BBQ’s and cricket on the beach.
But why the need to take such a Bolshevik approach to the whole concept of Christmas? A clue is provided by one of the Shanghai-ren interviewed by the China Daily. A Ms. Xu Qian told the paper she was tired of how commercialized Christmas had become and wants to find something different.
Hear, hear to that. We fully support a more Chinese Christmas and, hopefully, one that finds the true meaning of this festival. Something worth reflecting on as you walk through China’s shopping malls this festive season listening to “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and “Silent Night” playing in the background.
Posted by in 07:41:22
