Christmas is Coming to China

By Macrane on December 11, 2012

On my last shopping trip to my neighborhood Walmart here in Shanghai (or Wo er ma, by its Chinese transliteration), I was struck by the store’s determinedly festive atmosphere. All of the clerks and staff sported Santa hats, English language Christmas music played over the loudspeakers, and Christmas decorations and trees occupied space on the second floor. Stepping outside and walking towards the main plaza fifty feet away, I was greeted by the sight of an enormous metallic Christmas tree made of purple stars, and a large banner wishing me the warmest holiday greetings in English.

Historically, of course, the dragon in the East has nothing to do with the western world’s favorite holiday. Before the all-important Reform and Opening Policy of 1979 opened China’s cultural channels to the rest of the world, no trace of any of this western kitsch existed here. The only holidays celebrated were those which had been recognized for centuries and were deeply rooted in the local culture. (The Spring Festival, otherwise known as Chinese New Year, is said to have first been declared as a festival day during the Han Dynasty approximately two millennia ago.) But as with many new phenomena in China, Christmas has caught on quickly. As the most international and metropolitan city in the country, Shanghai is perhaps not a fair indication of the cultural development of China as a whole, but the general consensus seems to be that Shanghai is China’s future, and nods to Christmas are everywhere here.

One of my teachers recently told me that she looks forward to Christmas as a holiday to spend with her friends. Unlike Chinese New Year, she has no vacation and so no chance to return home to her family. Thus, she visits and eats with friends and classmates, particularly foreigners who bring their Christmas traditions from home.

The prominence of expats and exchange students in Shanghai certainly helps to deliver the Christmas spirit. But even without their help, international companies such as Walmart and Pizza Hut are decorating their premises as though they were in America. Small street-side shops are starting to stock tinsel and trees, and even the city-sponsored graffiti on a wall near where I live sports Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Despite the Christmas fervor, the holiday’s religious origins and pre-1950s traditions are nonexistent.  There are are no nativity scenes and no “Silent Night” (apart from its use out of context as background music for English lessons on a local educational TV channel). There has long been huffing and puffing in America over the commercialism of Christmas (at least since Charlie Brown first said so), but the Chinese have received this holiday devoid of its traditions and origins. With no Christmas traditions to look back on, China must either make its own or forever look upon this time of year as that time when a bit of extra red and green appears in the hotels and restaurants.

If it really does embrace Christmas as a holiday in the coming years, then China will likely turn it into something  resembling our Christmas, yet different. My teacher who looks forward to spending time with her school friends is one example of this reinvention. There probably won’t be any jolly elves or mistletoe, but it will be refreshing to see Christmas appreciated over here as something more than a bunch of Walmart employees wearing Santa hats.

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