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)
