What happens when the forces of global capitalism and cultural imperialism come robed in red and wearing a white beard? Apparently nothing good. A group of graduate researchers from China’s major universities are calling on their fellow Chinese to boycott Christmas. (English article via China Daily)
Citing the increasing popularity of the holiday among the younger generation, protest organizer Wang Dashan published an article, “to awaken the Chinese people and to resist Western cultural expansion.”
He argues that Christmas is a form of “soft power” that if left unchecked will dilute traditional Chinese culture. Wang and his associates fear that too many Chinese young people are simply “rejecting what is old and embracing what is new” (古非今是) and are adopting an attitude of “what is Chinese is inferior and what is Western is excellent” (中劣西优).
And after watching the most recent “Sexy Beijing” installment from Su Fei and Danwei.tv, it appears Wang might be on to something. Christmas is catching on in China, even if the Chinese aren’t real clear what it’s all about. But really, with all the problems facing the PRC today is this what keeps China’s best and brightest awake at night? Mall Santas and faux-Kenny G renditions of “O Holy Night”?
Anyone know how to say “Grinch” in Chinese?
I am aware of the dangers of cultural imperialism…but I’m not sure that if YJ and I take down the Christmas lights in our living room the neighborhood children are going to take notice, go home, and start reciting the Lun Yu. I mean it’s not like a couple of Bible stories and a few Western religious images could incite someone to go on a holy crusade, lead an army to conquer half the country and then establish a pseudo-Christian theocracy that would bring the central government to its knees…okay, maybe that was a bad example.
Anyway and besides, Christmas in China can be fun, if only for the improvised nature of the celebration. YJ and I once spent a merry afternoon in the old Russian shanty shops on Beijing’s ya bao lu looking to buy the perfect plastic tree for our living room. The kao ya that Yuehan brought over for Christmas dinner might not have been my Mom’s turkey and using erguotou to make eggnog is a tradition that we’ll likely skip in the future, but with our fiber optic tree, the green and red lights of the karaoke machine, and the stockings hung from the hot water heater with care…well, cultural imperialism be damned…it felt like Christmas to us.
So lighten up, Wang….Oh, and please pass the duck, I’m about to get my karaoke “Jingle Bell Rock” on.
14 responses so far ↓
1 TMH // Dec 21, 2006 at 7:50 pm
Christmas in China - isn’t it all year round?
Isn’t that why I hear Jingle Bells when it’s like 100 degrees outside?
2 花崗齋之愚公 // Dec 21, 2006 at 7:52 pm
I remember being at the Botanical Gardens in Beijing one hot August day and the only music was the Kenny G Christmas album blared through loudspeakers in every corner of the place. It was like something out of “Clockwork Orange.”
3 舒 杰 瑞 // Dec 21, 2006 at 8:37 pm
The 新浪 article includes a survery of readers’ views re whether Chinese should celebrate Christmas. To date, a whopping 52% (25k+) oppose any form of celebration. These must be the unlucky souls who have tried to hail a cab in the rain by Wangfujing on Christmas Eve!
4 PiPi // Dec 21, 2006 at 9:24 pm
I’m more than happy for the Chinese to boycott Christmas, as long as they leave us alone to celebrate it peace. It would mean that we don’t have to put up with their tacky, half-assed. non-xmas, decorations everywhere and the same crappy music everywhere you go. I wish that Starbucks would be the first to ban it as I’m getting sick of listen to the same CD every time I go in. Doesn’t it drive the staff nuts?
5 Chris // Dec 21, 2006 at 10:17 pm
Has anybody told Fox News about this? There might still be time to fit it into their annual War on Christmas special.
6 Lonnie // Dec 21, 2006 at 10:21 pm
Chinese PhD’s organizing anything is scary…A perfect reason for anything to fail…
Ok, let’s have a meeting on it…Sometime after Xmas break…
LBH, MA, MFA, PhD
GZ
7 Nikeroo // Dec 22, 2006 at 6:05 am
If the point to Christmas is to build stronger relationships with the people around you and have a bit of fun doing so I don’t see why the Chinese people celebrating Christmas should necessarily be seen as a bad thing. Isn’t that kinda like saying Westerners shouldn’t use chopsticks, practice Taichi, or delight in wearing t-shirts displaying Chinese characters.
8 PM // Dec 22, 2006 at 8:12 pm
When we, as foreigners, dip into Chinese culture - flying kites, giving hongbao to friends’ kids, making dumplings at Chunjie, etc. - I think we always retain an awareness that we’re doing so in a limited way, out of curiosity or deference, rather than surrendering ourselves to it wholesale, and abandoning our own cultural heritage in the process.
What’s of concern to the Chinese is that Western manners and customs are so often seen as being as being ’superior’ to those of China, and are gradually replacing them. Youngsters here today seldom have much interest in calligraphy, Beijing Opera, etc. The same kind of thing has happened across much of the rest of Asia too. Japan and South Korea have become so thoroughly Westernized in many ways (a process accelerated by the long-time American military presence, no doubt)that an appreciation of traditional culture seems to be marginalized or non-existent among the younger generation.
Of course, for the government, it’s all about the economy. If Christmas gives a lift to consumer spending, they’re all for it. The danger is that people will be all spent out when Chunjie rolls around a month later.
9 Ben Seeberger // Dec 23, 2006 at 2:31 am
If these smart guys are so concerned, they should organize a way to make Christmas to be culturally Chinese. It’s not going away anytime soon, after all…
It’s stupid to put a boycott on it, when China has so much foreigner-Christmas-celebrating-money flowing past the Great Wall.
10 cat // Dec 23, 2006 at 2:59 pm
花崗齋之愚公
You are so, so wrong. Christmas is just the thin end of the wedge and your multicultural liberal political correctness is a deadly threat to the very fabric of society and civilization as we know it. Today, you want to put up Christmas trees. Tomorrow, you’ll be running the local council and banning Spring Festival, or changing its name to something pagan like…SpringFest. Before we know where we are surveys will prove that 70 percent of Chinese employers have banned Chunjie decorations - it doesn’t matter that no one will know any actual examples of this happening, it will be true! And schools will forbid children from wearing the color red, or at least they’ll ban red paper plates…or something like that. We must stop this now before it’s too late. Where’s 鼻哦来里 when we need him?
11 花崗齋之愚公 // Dec 23, 2006 at 3:20 pm
I’m just trying to keep things “Fair and Balanced” here in the blogosphere…
12 DB // Dec 24, 2006 at 8:32 am
We were discussing this over lunch (I did manage to actually get a turkey in the end!) and apparently there was recently a discussion on the TV that Chinese people should boycott coffee as a vile foreign import into a proud tea-drinking nation.
This probably means that Pipi would be most disappointed as Starbucks, already held in contempt for the evils of coffee, would probably also become a haven for Christmas lovers.
13 lirelou // Dec 26, 2006 at 11:07 pm
Damn, and to think the group that started all this were “three kings from the East”. If Christmas gets banned in China, do I have to return my chinese made artificial Christmas tree?
On a more serious note to db’s post. I note that Taiwan has developed specialty tea houses to combat coffee houses, but coffee houses also do well. If the emerging Chinese middle class takes to coffee drinking as their counterparts in Korea have done, Vietnam’s economy will be the beneficiary, provided they improve the quality of their Robusta, and perhaps lay in some Arabica at higher altitudes.
14 http://www.usome.com // Aug 28, 2007 at 3:28 am
Christmas in China - isn’t it all year round?
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