Christmas Crap

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Christmas Crap

This being China and America being in a Christian nation, I can tell you I was wondering when I’d begin seeing the Christmas decorations. They actually started going up before Thanksgiving but that’s a chronological technicality that no one here bothers with. There are trees and tinsel, red and white and now, just two weeks before the big day, nearly every waiter is wearing a red Santa hat.
The folks at Pizza Hut have them. And the Japanese noodle shop. The clerks at the upscale DeCleor are not wearing them but they dress in bright red suits anyway. Wanting a hat myself, I asked the waitress if I could have a bowl of noodles and her hat. Fortunately, her managers were standing nearby and they informed the odd foreigner that indeed I could buy my own at “Jalafor,” the big European supermarket known elsewhere as Carrefour.
Since that is where I shop for food anyway, I stopped in to pick up a case of beer for the party next weekend. (I’m trying to manage shopping for this party in bite-sized pieces, given that it all has to go on my bike.) As soon as I get inside, I see the tinsel. Then an end-isle bin of Santa hats, five for a dollar. Feeling like I just hit the jackpot, I pick up a ten pack. And then another. They’ll make good party favors. Then I scan down the aisle and see fifty lineal feet of Christmas crap. Bins of tinsel, tangled in knots. Santa suits for small skinny people. Spray-on snow in six colors. There’s bells, ribbons, ornaments, paper cutouts, stars and huge grinning Santa faces. C’mon, it’s China, the home of Cheap Christmas Crap. By now I have to get a basket and return to load it with Christmas charm wands and things that look like big Roman candles that the guy next to me says he thinks will actually explode. Eureka, Christmas fireworks!
I should tell you I have been looking for a string of colored lights but they’re scarce. My teacher suggested a Christmas shop that had some pre-decorated trees, but the staff there was reluctant to sell lights. Eventually, they offered me an eight-foot string for $7. I declined.
But Jalafor, sweet Jalafor, has lights out the wazoo. For $10, I picked out four strings, (three of which worked when I got them home.) For $6 I got a case of beer but the best deal was on an 8” potted Poinsettia. No crap. Live plant. Just $2. All that is left is the decorating.
Only there is more to the story. The next day I come across a huge market mall. It’s filled with 20x20 booths selling everything from leather jackets to shampoo and toilet paper. And of course, Chistmas crap. Everything I’d seen at Jalafor, including 12-foot string lights, two for $3. I didn’t even ask what the hats cost, knowing that at 20 cents-a-piece, I got taken to the cleaners. I mention this to my friend, Zhuang Yi who tells me that here in Zhejiang Province, the region is well known for the huge factories that pump out ship-loads of Christmas crap. Just for people like you and me. Makes a fella feel kinda special.

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Comments

[lorac]

Christmas...
My company also got two Christmas trees up a week ago and i did some decoration for the trees...which is really fun.lol.:) Actually sometimes Chinese dealers consider foreign festivals more important than the traditional festivals..which is bit weird and a pity... Well back to the point..more festival more fun...xixi