I remember being shocked by the Christmas commerialism my first year in Shenzhen--I really didn't expect such an embrace of a Western religious holiday (granted, most of it was centered around the Bao'an district Wal-mart). I didn't realize then that China just enjoyed Christmas sans Christ.
This year looks like more people in my area have taken to celebrating Christmas. My current apartment building has decorations and a tree up, as does my old complex (I don't remember that last year). All of the small shops along my street are filled with cheap Christmas decorations that the children are grabbing up.
Considering orders from factories are well below levels of previous years, I have to wonder if instead of exporting the decorations and such that the factories are just selling the products to local vendors. I don't know this for sure, but it does seem like a logical possibility.
Some things about Christmas in China:
Last time I went to Carrefour, they were playing a dance remix of "Jingle Bells" with Chinese lyrics. I may not like it, but I'd rather listen to the original version as it does sound less annoying.
My co-worker said that Chinese enjoy celebrating all Western holidays. I pointed out that they didn't celebrate Hanukkah. I'm going to try to educate them on Festivus (I have a Seinfeld DVD).
Tomorrow (Christmas Day), I'm going out to dinner with a friend and his visiting parents. We're going to have a Jewish Christmas dinner at a Muslim-Chinese restaurant. Jia and I will probably then watch another classic James Bond movie.
1 comment:
I really think you should teach them about Festivus, maybe we'll start seeing Festivus aluminum poles at Wal-Mart :)
Hope you'll be posting photos of Christmas in China.
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