Well another Christmas in China has come and gone—2008 marked my fourth Christmas in a row here—and I would be remiss not to include at least one post about the holiday in this blog. As the photos above make clear, Santa Claus is alive and well in China. Both of these pictures were shot in front of a large children's toy store located in the middle of Beijing's famous 王府井 pedestrian shopping mall.
In this particular display, Santa Claus was flanked by another Christmas icon, Frosty the Snowman. I could add that one would have a very difficult time building a real snowman in Beijing right now, as there's virtually no snow on the ground.
Winters here are both bitterly cold and very dry—this part of China receives three quarters of its precipitation in July and August. We did get some snow around the 25th of December during my first year in Beijing, when I taught English at the Second Foreign Language University (二外). However, that was the only white Christmas I've had in China.
In my own neighborhood, practically all of the restaurants on the “Ghost Street” (簋街) were festooned with big cutout Santa Claus faces. And one of them had a plastic Santa Claus playing a saxophone standing beside its front door. Readers will also notice the decorated Christmas tree (圣诞树). During the Christmas season lots of public places, particularly the lobbies of high rise building and shopping malls, sport large Christmas trees. The high-rise office tower I work in, for example, had a Christmas tree.
But while the Chinese and American plastic and cardboard Santas are pretty much alike, the same can't be said for the live Santas. Since St. Nick is a plump old fellow, live Santas in America tend to be fat and puffy-faced 50- and 60-something men. As the film director John Waters wrote in his hilarious essay, “Why I love Christmas,” for chubby older men who like fondling little kids, playing Mr. Claus is a dream job. I suspect that most American parents are now reluctant to let their young ones sit in some stranger Santa's lap. By contrast, during my first year in China, when I lived in rural Henan province, I was struck by how eager and willing Chinese parents were to let us laowai hold their small children.
Since very few older Chinese men are really fat, there aren't very many suitable live Santas in China. The country is certainly suffering from epidemic of childhood obesity—Chinese children have fallen in love with junk food (垃圾食品) and spend too much time sitting on their butts playing computer games or watching TV. However, unlike older folks in America, most Chinese adults are not overweight. The same also goes for the laowai here: you can distinguish long-term expats living in Beijing from visiting tourists by the size of their waistlines. For example, I've gone down one pant size since living here.
So you won't see very many male Santas around Christmas in Chinese stores and shopping malls. Chinese Santas are typically pretty young girls (小姐or 女孩儿). The limited supply of chubby 50- and 60-something Chinese men certainly isn't the only reason why most Chinese Santas are cute little 小姐. The other reason is that Chinese merchants discovered some time ago that putting a sexy babe in front of product display is a sure-fire way of boosting sales.
Thus while China's female Santas wear the traditional Santa cap and red coat, their waist down garb consists of a short miniskirt. The two young lady Santas in the photo below were pushing different types of drinks in front of 二外’s small convenience store located on the east side of the campus.
For most Chinese people Christmas is mainly about Santa and Christmas trees rather than the baby in the manger (耶稣). To be sure, the number of Christians (基督徒) in China is now growing rapidly; these people also enjoy much more freedom to worship than was the case in the past. And the churches (教堂) are always jam-packed for Christmas Eve (平安夜) services. This is especially true for places like the lovely North Cathedral, which located just north of the 王府井 mall. According to one a former 二外German teacher colleague who's Catholic, if you want to go there on 平安夜, then you'd better make reservations well in advance.
Many Chinese people who go to Church on 平安夜 do so mainly to enjoy the special shows that are an integral part of these services. These shows include singing—Chinese people love to sing—dancing, and other performances. At least this is what the laowai named John, who is one-half of the duo doing intermediate and upper intermediate Chinesepod.com Mandarin listening lessons, said in a recent lesson about 平安夜 (their URL is www.chinesepod.com and it's the best study aid out there for learning Mandarin).
Before moving to Shanghai—Chinesepod's excellent listening lessons are broadcast from there—John helped organize Christmas Eve services at his Catholic Church at Hangzhou. He notes at the end of the 平安夜 listening lesson that putting together such events was always pretty hectic and crazy. John adds that because of these programs, many young urban Chinese people think that it's real hip and cool (酷) to go Church on 平安夜, even if they don't attend services any other time of the year.
For China's Buddhists (佛教徒), who still considerably outnumber the country's Christians, Christmas has no meaning. These people generally don't even celebrate the commercial side of the Christmas. For example, when my good colleague and friend, Mike Watts, asked his Buddhist girlfriend if she wanted a present, the answer was “no.”
But for non-religious (不信教 or 没有信仰; 我也是) Chinese people, who still comprise a majority of the population, gift (礼物) giving at Christmas has caught on big-time. This is especially true in the large cities, where the western influence is greatest. The large shopping malls and department stores are always jammed with people during the weeks and days leading up to Christmas. This year I gave the ladies in my office chocolate, also gave two very special lady friends chocolate, and bought English language novels for several of my former 二外 students.
I could add that one will hear lots of Christmas music, albeit of an entirely secular nature, while window shopping in the department stores and malls. One song, “Jingle Bells,” is usually sung in Chinese, and the refrain “Jingle Bells/Jingle Bells” is 丁东/丁东. Most of the others are sung in English—you'll often hear “Silver Bells” and “We wish you a Merry Christmas.”
Chinese people living Beijing and other big cities who don't go Church on 平安夜often have dinner and drinks with friends that night. Indeed, restaurants and bars are always very crowded on the evening of the 24th, making the mood and atmosphere (气氛) very lively (热闹).
Ironically, 平安夜 in Chinese literally means “peaceful/quiet night,” and here in China, this particular evening is anything but quiet and silent. It's the actual Christmas day that's peaceful and quiet (maybe they should call it, 平安天, or peaceful day). Unlike the Western New Year's Day, Christmas day isn't a holiday here, so if it falls on a weekday, people are at their jobs, rather than relaxing and celebrating. The Chinese company I work for gives the foreign employees, including a Muslim fellow from Yemen, Christmas Day off. However, when I taught at Erwai, I spent Christmas day teaching English.
While Laowai typically opt for a traditional Christmas meal, such as turkey (伙计)—restaurants like Paul's Steak and Eggs, typically charge 100-200 RMB for such a dinner—most of the natives go to a Chinese restaurant. In particular, Chinese people really hate eating turkey (火鸡). All my Chinese friends believe it's bland and tasteless and to dry to boot. I couldn't agree more and have always thought that turkey is what one gets served Sunday afternoons at college dormitories as punishment for hanging around on the weekend. I think Beijing Duck (北京烤鸭), which I really love to eat, would be a great alternative to turkey!
Interestingly enough, one Western restaurant that is exception to this rule is Pizza Hut. Despite its relatively high prices, Pizza Hut is hugely popular in China and has lots of franchises in Beijing and other big Chinese cities. While spending my 2006 平安夜 people watching in the big 东安 shopping mall on the north side of 王府井, I noticed a huge line snaking down the hall from the entrance of the mall’s Pizza Hut. Mini-skirted 小姐 Santas were passing out menus to the people waiting in line.
So like most everything else in China, Christmas here is a fascinating mix of Western influences and Chinese characteristics. The holiday also illustrates just how rapidly the country is changing. Even though I'm a bit late in doing this, I wish all my readers a belated merry Christmas (圣诞节快乐) and happy New Year (新年快乐).
I'm now putting the Pinyin, or Romanized spelling of the Chinese characters that appear in my blog posts at the bottom of the posts. The number 1 is a flat tone, 2 a rising tone, 3 a falling and rising tone, 4 a falling tone, and 5 a neutral tone. The characters are in the order in which they appeared in the post.
圣诞老人 (sheng4dan4lao3ren2). The first two characters mean Christmas, while the last two mean old person.
中国圣诞的特色 (zhong1guo2sheng4dan4de5te4se4). Readers who are fellow sinoafficionados will notice that this Chinese is a play on the phrase, “Socialism with Chinese characteristics”—有中国特色社会主义 (you3zhong1guo2te4se4she4hui4zhu3 yi2). 中国 is the Chinese name for China, and it literally means “Middle (中) Kingdom (国).” 特色 means special feature(s) or characteristic(s). And 社会 is “society/social,” while 主义 means “socialism.”
王府井 (wang2fu3jing3).
二外 (er4wai4).
簋街 (gui3jie1). The first character actually doesn't mean ghost, which is鬼 and has the same tone and pinyin. It instead can mean a ghost's dinner set or an ancient cooking and eating vessel.
圣诞树 (sheng4dan4shu4). 树 means tree.
垃圾食品 (la1ji1shi2pin3). 垃圾 is garbage, 食品 is a general term for food.
小姐 (xiao3jie2).
女孩儿 (nü3hai2er2).
耶稣 (ye1su1).
基督徒 (ji1du1tu2).
教堂 (jiao4tang2).
平安夜 (ping2an1ye4).
不信教 (bu4xin4jiao4) 没有信仰 (mei2you3xin4yang3). 不信 is “not to believe” and 没有 is “not to have.” 我也是 (wo3ye3shi4) means the “the same goes for me.”
礼物 (li3wu4).
丁东 (ding1dong1). This is another transliteration, as 丁 means “nail” and 东 means “east.”
气氛 (qi4fen5).
热闹 (re4nao4).
火鸡 (huo3ji1).
北京烤鸭 (bei3jing1kao3ya2). The first two characters stand for Beijing, the second for roast, and the last for duck.
东安 (dong1an1).
新年 (xin1nian2).
快乐 (kuai4le4). This can mean both “happy” and “merry.”
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