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Published: December 16th 2009
Greetings friends, family, and lost web surfers,
December in China is just lovely. Christmas decorations are all over the city. Twinkle lights sparkle in palm trees along city streets and beautifully decorated trees are in the lobby of every hotel. I wasn’t expecting this at all. Christmas in China? You betcha. I’m sitting inside my smoky webcafe surrounded by old Chinese men playing poker and hundreds of delicate paper snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. A white western looking Santa Claus is in the corner smiling lovingly while I type away. I so didn’t expect this. Santa window clings and reindeer are pictured in most store windows while the malls are draped in tinsel red and green. I didn’t expect THIS.
Christmas, apparently, is international. Christmas sweaters, gifts under the tree, jingle bells on the radio. I. Didn’t. expect. This. My classes all want me to teach them Christmas songs. The world is so small.
Christmas in China is another example of the unreal rate of change in this country. To say there is a generation gap in China is like saying the sun is just kinda hot. You think you don’t understand your kids? “Hey Mom, Christmas is
Christmas stuff
I'm in the spirit, hope you are too!great, see a fat man sneaks down your chimney in the middle of the night and eats all your food, you’ll love it!”
The reality is the younger generation is in love with Christmas and the older generation is happy to make a profit. Using complex polling algorithms (my girlfriend) I determined approximately 25% of Chinese families have Christmas trees. The majority of Chinese however do exchange some gifts on Christmas. Most work on Christmas, I don’t.
Most I’ve talked to even understand the orgins of Christmas. When I ask them about it they make little crosses in the air with their finger and say “his birthday?” I wonder how many Americans could tell me that.
Regardless its been fun for me to see all the Chinese get down with Christmas. I’ve been to a few Christmas parties already and I am anticipating a few more. Recently I went a Chinese Christmas Wedding. It was one of the most fun nights I’ve had in China. Of course, weddings are always fun.
Chinese weddings in Guangdong are totally different from a tradional American wedding. For that matter Chinese courtship is completely different from the west, but that’s
BANG!
Merry Christmas/Happy New Year/Congratulations!!! .. whew a different blog. The wedding I went to is only representational of my part of China, I am told in different places of China it can be wildly different.
The wedding is actually a multiple day affair that includes different ceremonies all throughout the day. There are two main parties or ceremonies. The ceremonies are purely for celebration. The couple is already considered married before any of the ceremony stuff takes place. There is one ceremony for the brides family and one for the grooms family. They are completely separate, totally weird. The celebration is a massive feast and drinking extravigansa (Gan Bei!). The eating and drinking goes on late into the evening. The better friends you are with the bride or groom, the more you are supposed drink to honor them. Turns out Eva has a lot of really close friends.
There is no dancing which is biggest difference I noticed. The whole ordeal felt very casual, just family getting together for a fun night out. It feels a lot like any other reception you might go to in America that serves pig feet and chicken tendons. There was lots of wine, merry making, delicious food, and
Pig
awesome. story telling. That and everyone believed they were best friends with the bride leading to a most terrific evening.
On top of that Chinese weddings pay cash. The bride and groom give every guest a red envelope with “lucky money”. Getting payed to eat great food and drink wine with my friends. Well of course, weddings are always fun.
The rest of my life is good. I can smell the holidays around the corner and with them come new opportunities to travel. Travel is liberating for me. Buying a ticket to some place far away with no clue what’s there is a rush. I can see myself riding on the train with a big stupid smile plastered on my face dreaming of whatever unknown challenges lay in wait. Soon I will have opportunity cut loose in the wind. I can’t wait.
I want to tell a quick story that happened to me tonight.
I was daydreaming/teaching my VIP student one on one when in walks a camera crew. A camera man, a reporter lady, representatives from my school, and the parents of the kid I was teaching. Oh My God. Was this another strange dream I’ve
Santa Baby
it is kinda wierd been having lately? What the heck was going on? Ed McMahon is that you? Our school director told me quickly that the father of the child I was teaching was being interviewed for the news and he wanted me in it. Uh, okay. They taped me for the last 15 minutes of class teaching english and then they interviewed me… in Chinese. I’m still bugging out because a cantonese camera crew just walked into my daydream and they want me to speak Chinese on camera. You got to be kidding me. Well I mumbled out some garbage that I’m sure made me look like a mental patcient but everyone behind the camera smiled and nodded knowingly. “He umm.. that uhh. that uhh. Yeah… he. Good student.”. I really don’t know what I said. I’m not sure why this stuff even surprizes me anymore, just another day in China.
I have lots of good and juicy pictures from the weddings this time around. I also have taken some shots of the christmas scenery around Zhongshan. I want to wish everyone back home super Merry Christmas! Have a great holiday season everyone!!! Till next time, Zai Jian.
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Ann
non-member comment
Too funny!
Nate, It truly is a joy to read your blogs and too funny for words! What a "famous" person you've become. Can you bring one of those billboards home? I am curious about the "girlfriend" reference..... Love, Ann