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Published: December 21st 2009
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Merry Christmas!!
Poor white people in China celebrate Christmas too! 圣诞节!!
..Which means, Sheng Dan Jie- or Christ Born Day- here in China. If your thinking that Chinese people don't celebrate Christmas.. well, you'd be right. And wrong. True, they don't get time off for Christmas, nor do they actually celebrate the 25th with any discernable likeness to any Western country... but they do enjoy buying cheap Christmas decorations.. which are convenianetly made here in China. Actually, there is something of a surplus of holiday decorations in China (for obvious reasons, see economic recession) so the powers that be are trying to get the supposedly bottomless Chinese consumers to ignore the fact that Christmas has nothing to do with China at all, and fill their houses with fat grinning white guys with beards wearing red, and give each other shiny wrapped presents (despite the fact that Chinese people don't give presents, only freshly printed money in red envelopes).
It's hard for me to say if it is working or not, but my roommate, who I like to call Xiao Ten came home the other day with a big grin on her face and Christmas wreath with a Christmas tree and a Santa head glued on it. She is having
Christmas Dinner?
Well, the duck's neck on the far left there is a new addition.. but come on, admit it.. come Christmas we're all eating boiled pork ball soup... a Christmas party at our apartment on Christmas day, and is trying to make it as authentic as possible. The menu will consist of chicken feet and plum soup, cookies, and something (I'm not sure what) wrapped in bacon. Also I believe there will be a "White Erephant" exchange, which is a popular "American party theme". I'm deeply sorry that I will be missing the party as John and I are going to Beijing for Christmas, though Xiao Ten assures me that we can have another one for New Years when we get back. When I showed her the Christmas decorations I put up around my room, which consists of a star and some ornaments on my fern, a nativity scene with a baby Chinese Jesus and a water buffalo, and some paper snowflakes, she laughed in horror and advised me to take down the snowflakes because Chinese people don't like the color white. I guess in China, white is associated with death (so is the number 4, snakes, clocks, etc etc. ), so she told me that red or orange snowflakes would be more appropriate. My arguments that snow is actually white, fell on deaf ears. But I have
left the snowflakes up. The Chinese color association game is one that I have decided to politely bow out of (among many others). Here is a brief rundown for all interested: Red is lucky and will bring you health and wealth. Orange and yellow are also lucky and will bring you fortune. Other things that are lucky include: pigs, gold fish and the number 8. A green hat means that your wife is cheating on you, and all things white are associated with death. As far as I can tell, every single person is China's favorite color is red. Chinese people don't like black, because they think its boring... which I can understand. When 1 billion people all have black hair and black eyes, it does get a little boring. Which is why they like to stare at me. And John. Who is lucky- because his hair is red.
John has sent out Christmas emails and letters to almost everyone he knows, and has shamed me into writing this post.. as I have not sent out one single Christmas related email or letter, this will have to suffice. We are going to Beijing on Wednesday on the night train out of Shanghai. Here in Shanghai the temperature stays around a very humid 40-50 degrees, but in Beijing I hear it is a dry 20-30. I'm a little worried, but since we're only staying a week I think I'll make it. Then we'll be here in Shanghai for only 2 weeks before moseying South for the rest of the winter.
Despite the fact that I speak Chinese (well, sort of speak), we will be spending almost no time traveling in China... because our semester ends perilously close to the Chinese New Years, which is the absolute worst time to be in China and trying to go anywhere. Our plan is to travel South into Vietnam, but unfortunately the Vietnamese also celebrate Tet, their New Years the same day as the Chinese, so I hope that we will be in Cambodia by the time the holidays begin. From Cambodia we'll head North and travel the entire length of Laos, and be in Thailand at the beginning of April. I am most excited about visiting Laos, and most apprehensive about Vietnam.. because most travels report Vietnam to be a very difficult atmosphere to travel in. Hopefully it will be better than I'm expecting, though. I read somewhere that Vietnam is less of a hassle than Morocco.. and I made it through there alive, so I should be fine. To prepare for my trip, I've read about a million travel blogs, the entire travelfish and seat61 websites, and watched many SE Asia related films. Hands down my favorite Vietnam War film is Good Morning, Vietnam. Followed by Apocalpyse, Now, The Deerhunter, and Platoon. My favorite Laos related film is hands down Air America, and I haven't seen any movies about Cambodia or Thailand yet.. but I still haven't seen the Killing Fields.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!! I miss you guys!
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