Ive just been to Shenzhen (mainland China) and Macau. In both places, there were Santa Claus displays and piped christmas music everywhere in the public squares and stores. Just wondering what why? The relative number of christians must be small - do they just see the west sell lots of stuff at christmas and think we should be in on this?
I was in Macau last week too. Did you get in on all the free jerky they were offering up by Sao Paolo?
IMO they love a celebration, and they live in a neo-consumerist society. Christmas is therefore a perfect storm.
Quite a few far Eastern countries that don’t have many Christians celebrate it.
My understanding is that it’s mostly been adopted for commercial reasons (for example in Japan it’s been “sold” as a holiday for couples, with KFC managing to get fried chicken as the food of choice and Santa being an excuse to buy children, and only children, presents).
When I was in Teda (near Tanjin) five or six years ago visiting our factory, I discussed Christmas with one of the workers. He told me that the younger crowd liked Christmas, because it was a fun “Western” thing to do. The older ones didn’t see the point.
I’m sure that’s a very narrow, overly generalized opinion…but there’s probably some truth to it, too.
-D/a
In parallel, in some Chinese cities people like to dress up as ghouls and party on down on Halloween too.
These things are fun.
Shenzen is just north of Hong Kong, which was British for 150 years. Macau is a former Portugese colony (Catholics, anyone?). It also is noted for casinos and tourism, catering to people from all over the area.
If anyone is going to follow the tradition of their former overlords, Macau would qualify. Plus, it’s an excuse to be festive for the tourists. No surprise either if Shenzen picks up on their neighbours’ good times celebrations.
Downturns in consumer sentiment in the west have left Chinese manufacturers with a surplus of Christmas ornaments.
For example downturns in places like Italy and Greece are also leaving them with a surplus of Christian, Roman and Greek themed stone work.
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111208/wl_nm/us_china_economy_sculpture
So you should expect an upsurge in Chinese displays of Catholic piety and classical styled sculpture too.
Also, although it isn’t always obvious to the average western consumer, retailers in the west are pretty good and selling people stuff, the best in the world I dare say. Nothing they do is an accident, so copying western retailers down to the last rivet is a pretty good idea.
Christmas stuff in the bigger cities has been growing over the past decade. It’s something kinda new, fun and western. I think it’s fueled by becoming more international and that Christmas export junk is also widely available.
Go back more than 10 years and there was virtually zero Christmas stuff in Shanghai for example outside of the international hotels and some restaurants. Now you go to one of the big retailers like Carrefour or WalMart and there are big christmas sections.
yes I managed a few free tastings at the stalls.
Thanks for the replies - I guess Santa will have to add a few billion more stops soon on Christmas eve
Hey, I lived in TEDA for 2 years! Neat.
Yeah, it’s popular in stores and stuff. In the communist school I taught in, we did Secret Santa and taught the kids about the traditions of Santa. Later, we talked about who Jesus was, his birth, his death, and even mentioned his resurrection and Easter.
It was surreal.
I say this whenever I get a chance…
One of the most surreal things one can experience are the Christmas eve festivities in Chongqing and Chengdu.
Thousands and thousands of young people crowd the streets, filling up the squares and avenues with a sea of people. Then, they all don light-up devils horn headbands or santa hats, and precede to bash each other in a frenzy with giant inflatable baseball bats and silly string.
Here is a YouTube video that gives a slice of the action. I was there a couple years ago, and it is chaotic, bizarre and awesomely fun.
I remember asking my host mother if people celebrated Christmas. She replied “Uh, they do, but they don’t really get it, and so they kind of celebrate in their own way…”
I feel like I’m being mocked by an entire metropolis…
Getting off topic…but…I remember two places from the trip. "Somewhere Else’ (Or was it “Someplace Else”?) It was a Western bar on one of the main drags…
And a bar/restaurant with the word Parrot in it. (My regular bar at home is the Parrot, so I HAD to go there.)
Those were the only two Western places I went. I remember getting a good foot massage…and some really good food at random places nearby. It helped that one of my co-workers that traveled with me spoke broken Chinese. Fond memories…I’m so glad I made the trip.
-D/a