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Published: December 28th 2009
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The Santa Crew
getting together two nights before Christmas and then giving the kids lots of candy makes for a great all-school Christmas tradition! Christmas in China :: 圣诞快乐!
After a wickedly devastating Cultural Revolution that lasted from 1966 through 1976, the people were left with little more than a culture purged of anything “offensive” to the State -- aka. half-filled rice bowls and a lot of
very hungry people. The intellectuals, the religious, the creative thinkers, the thoughtful folks and the loving folks all found themselves brutally removed from a life resembling any normalcy. China became a grim existence full of deceit, mistrust, and hateful decisions encouraged by a forced-fed experiment in social construct. The end of the Cultural Revolution, marked by Mao’s death, created an opportunity for new leadership and by mid-fall of 1976, Deng Xiaoping, a man already twice-purged from the Communist political system, began maneuvering his way to the top, first acting as China’s Chairman of the CPPCC and ultimately as China’s Premier. Under his leadership, the communist ruling became more and more catered to the evolving needs of China as well as the Party. He opened the flood gates of a free market economy and was quoted as saying, “Economic development above all.” “If we don’t reform, we’ll face a dead end.” And “To get rich is Glorious.”
Liz hard at work
What a great looking Santa... Simply put, anything goes as long as the Communist Party stays in complete power.
Enter Christmas.
We had absolutely no idea what to expect. We knew that historically, China’s faithful, at least pre-Mao, devoted most of their attention to Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Since the grand old revolution of 1949, most religion was wiped completely clean off the face of the
middle kingdom. Our medium sized city of 4.5 million has two small churches - a Catholic Church that reopened 20 years ago after a 30-year hiatus as a military warehouse, and an undersized Methodist Church quietly tucked away on a side street downtown. Thanks to our old friend Deng, Christmas, regardless of a complete lack any sizable Christian community, has found its way into lives of a surprisingly large Chinese population. While the institutional side of Christmas severely lacks, the economic side appears to be flourishing with great success. Outside every business, from newsstand to dumpling house, a Santa image finds itself pasted to any willing surface. The department stores all play Christmas songs in a happy mix of Chinese and English lyrics. MacDonald’s offers Christmas specials and giant, perfectly symmetrical, artificial Christmas trees sit gaily-lit outside
Grade Three English Class
The day before Christmas we made Christmas cards and sent them home to Mom and Dad. In English, of course shops, schools, and in the windows of apartments.
Because the spiritual portion of the holiday has been left in the proverbial dust, the decorations come up early and wait a very long time to be taken down (Santa has managed to stay glued to the walls of our cafeteria year-round). The ribbons and garland never lack sparkle; to the trained eye of a foreigner, it often feels more like passing under the decorations of an outdated casino or a used-car parking lot than anything we ever saw back at home. Oddly, the way our school treated Christmas, aside from completely misunderstanding the sacred holiday, was remarkably similar to the way we experienced our Christmases in elementary school - a full week made distinctly special (and painfully exciting (sorry Mom, I had no idea I was so bad)) through the doling of candy, fun songs and activities, a Christmas talent show, and of course, a Christmas movie with treats.
We taught
Jingle Bells, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Towards the end of the week we made Christmas Cards to be sent home to Mom and Dad, and on the evening of the 23rd
Grade Six
Grade Six painting the halls of December we donned our Santa hats and dished out suckers and peppermints to the kids. They absolutely loved it and amidst all the excitement a few desperate students started chanting, “Trick or Treat!”
Learning about our love for cooking, my office of Chinese teachers threw in together and surprised me with the fantastic gift of a toaster oven. We then spent the 24th of December scurrying between classes, Christmas talent show, and baking garlic bread and dinner rolls with our tiny, shiny-new 220-volt toaster oven; the resulting bread then gifted to my favorite Chinese teachers (it wasn’t nearly the hit we had hoped; they like their bread sweat and their cooked foods salty) and our English teaching co-workers. Starting promptly at 6:00 pm, on the Eve of Christmas, the school presented us with a feast fit for a foreigner -- only the finest Pizza Hut pizza, sushi-grade raw salmon, drunken shrimp(shrimp bought live, then asked to swim in white wine for a day and a half), pork steaks, pistachios, and of course, a beer pyramid. Our festivities ended with a rousing trip to the school’s karaoke bar, and on the morning of the 25th of December, while the
rest of the school doggedly continued along in its ruthless academic fervor, we enjoyed a day of rest. Celebrating in the most appropriate way we knew, we rode our bicycles out to find some good street food, talked on Skype with our friends and family, and joined in on a Christmas potluck dinner (the left-over drunken shrimp, raw salmon, and steak cooked up nicely in a Jambalaya). By the end of the day, our sacred holiday, that which offers brightness and hope during the darkest time of the year, felt just about perfect.
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beth johns
non-member comment
Humorous, entertaining, enlightening, informative and so much fun to hear about Chinese Christmas! Really - you need to write a book about this year. When is Chinese New Year? I can't wait to hear about that.