It's less than a week before Christmas but the Beijing Hotel's
Christmas Eve dinner has booked 90 percent of the places at 2,388
yuan (US$325) per person.
????
Trees on roadsides are decorated with colorful lights and big
shopping malls are full of artificial snowflakes and colorful
balloons. Santa pictures and Christmas trees can be seen
everywhere. Hordes of tourists have their photos taken with Santas
who stroll on city streets. Truly Christmas has become a shining
symbol of modem city life.
Western festivals have successfully influenced the Chinese
lifestyle via commercial marketing.
?
In recent years, apart from Christmas, several Western festivals,
notably Valentine's Day and Halloween, have been the most widely
accepted. A hotel insider divulged that the two to three months
ranging from Christmas to the
Lantern Festival or Valentine's Day have become
one long festival season, providing businesses with one promotional
opportunity after another. Moreover, Western festivals are now
playing a larger part in all these business activities.
?
Recently the
China Youth Daily and Tencent jointly
conducted a survey called "Have you accepted Western festivals?"
Among the 10,732 respondents, 29 percent admitted that they have
accepted Western festivals such as Christmas because they are
attracted by the romantic feelings these holidays engender, while
another 27.6 percent accepted those same Western festivals owing to
commercial advertising. Significantly, another 22.4 percent just
went along with the mainstream while only 10 percent accepted
Western festivals because they really understand and identify with
Western culture or because they hold beliefs associated with
Western faith.
?
In fact most people celebrate Christmas just to have fun. As Yang
Meng, a Beijing university student, said, "I celebrate Christmas
each year but it doesn't mean that I have accepted its religious
meaning. Just like my schoolmates I simply want to find an excuse
to meet others and amuse myself. In this way I can brighten up my
dull life."
Besides Christmas, which everyone knows, now Valentine's Day,
Father's Day, Mother's Day and Thanksgiving Day have already
acquired important positions in the Chinese business world.
Significantly, most Western festival promotion activities are
held in large shopping malls, gift and ornament shops, Western
restaurants, cafes, bars and KTV bars. Commercial advertising
targets young people in pursuit of novelty. They?are less
influenced by traditional culture and have strong consumption
power.
??
Yet China has not done nearly enough to popularize its most
important festival – Spring Festival – through commercial
promotions. By far the most important activities meant to celebrate
the Spring Festival still focus on big family dinners and TV
programs. True, most Chinese engage in routine activities such as
having dumplings, watching the Spring Festival Gala and setting off
firecrackers but fresh and unique Spring Festival cultural
activities are still lacking. Everyone knows that during the Spring
Festival the best selling goods are food, wine, cigarettes and
gifts. Except for the Spring Festival Gala and the New Year
celebration films, cultural products are primarily dominated by TV
series.
?
Western living and consumption habits: eating a variety of Western
foods, drinking different coffee blends, and going Dutch have all
become very popular among young Chinese. Indeed, 51.9 percent of
the respondents prefer to go Dutch rather than take turns treating
each other; 48.5 percent enjoy drinking various types of coffee;
35.5 percent have the habit of watching original English movies;
31.2 percent simply adore Western food; and finally, 26.8 percent
like go backpacking.
In contrast, according to the survey, 56.3 percent of the public
believe that overseas promotions of traditional Chinese culture
still lag far behind Western culture. Liu Qian, now 28, emigrated
with her parents to the United States nearly 10 years ago. She
said, "We only watch 'Dragon and Lion Dancing' in Chinatown during
the Spring Festival. We have the feeling that traditional Chinese
culture is not making a profound impact overseas. But each time we
return to visit our relatives in Beijing, we notice more and more
Starbucks and MacDonald's scattered along the city streets."
?
Liu Qing told the China Youth Daily that many of her
American peers only know about a few Chinese Kongfu stars,
mainly Jackie Chan and Jet Li. They appreciate delicious Chinese
food and have some concept of the famous Great Wall – but that's
all they know about China. "In fact, we have a rich and colorful
traditional culture. Chinese traditional painting, traditional
medicine, Peking Opera, Tang and Song poetry, all these things
contain the essence of the traditional Chinese culture. This
essence has not been successfully disseminated overseas; only
foreigners studying Chinese culture know a little about them."
In recent years when the traditional Chinese festivals
approached, people began hotly debating with each other: as the
enthusiasm for traditional festivals is cooling down and interest
in Western festivals rising among people, especially among young
people, shall we fight to uphold our traditional festivals? How
shall we safeguard our traditions?
?
For an ordinary Chinese, enthusiasm towards the Spring Festival and
the Lantern Festival has definitely weakened as the society has
evolved. The origins of these two celebrations have vital
connections with older, agricultural civilizations. They both are
closely linked with ancestor worship, keeping away vampires and
appeasing hunger. But due to their lack of romance, they have
failed to rouse the interest of modern people, especially those who
have become rich and are seeking a high quality spiritual life.
A scholar pointed out that Chinese traditional festivals are
becoming more and more commercialized while traditional culture has
been gradually overlooked, especially by the younger generation.
Cultural meanings of traditional festivals haven't been further
developed and passed down to future generations. Instead a
"malaise" due to excessive commercial marketing is now haunting
China's traditional festivals. Some people may conclude that
traditional Chinese festivals are only about eating, drinking and
superficial entertainment.
?
Western festivals promote some spiritual entertainment. Families
pray for the safety of their kin on Christmas Eve and sing
Christmas songs. Masquerade parties take place on Halloween to
scare away evil spirits. The core concepts of Western culture have
been passed down in a creative and special way. In contrast,
Chinese enterprises have failed to recognize the essence of
traditional Chinese culture, and use these holidays for purely
commercial reasons.
?
Western festivals such as Christmas and Valentine's Day have a
signature marketing patterns: a bunch of roses, a box of chocolate,
a candlelight dinner or a lavish family get together on Christmas
Eve. These events contain important symbols of Western festivals:
love, culture and family ties.
?
Chinese traditional festivals have a very long history as well as
profound cultural meanings but modern matching activities have not
yet been found to popularize them. Take Chinese Valentine's Day –
Qixi (the 7th day of the 7th lunar month) as an
example. This ancient tale depicts a love story between a weaving
maid and a cowherd. However, in modern society people seldom weave
clothes by themselves anymore. Even though businesses promote Qixi
during this holiday, few modern goods with strong Chinese flavor or
Qixi characteristics actually exist.
?
Broadway musicals like Les Miserable and Cats and
Disney musicals like Lion King and Winnie the
Pooh as well as many other cultural products have been
constantly barraging China. Clearly, the Chinese cultural industry,
compared with its overseas counterparts, still has a long way to go
regarding marketing strength, production and sales of cultural
products. In fact, 83.6 percent of the public believes that China
needs to learn from the West in order to promote its traditional
culture through overseas marketing.
Looking back over the past 20 years of Chinese commercial
acrobat performances, Li Mushan, Deputy Secretary-General of the
Chinese Acrobatics Association, said that their greatest weakness
was the lack of an effective marketing network. Ticket sales,
overseas propaganda and venue rentals all had to rely on foreign
entertainment companies. All the Chinese provided were
performances. Consequently the foreign companies held an upper hand
in negotiations.
?
A visiting American scholar once told the media that the Chinese
tend to put large-scale galas such as the Spring Festival Gala onto
the overseas stage. But in fact, most westerners would rather have
a different taste of Chinese culture; many would prefer to view
original, authentic and traditional folk arts.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Ming'ai, December 17, 2007)
