By Nguyen Thi Cam Phung
A lot of Beijing expats carp at Christmas here because of
celebration allegedly without regard for its true spirit.
Not me.
I'm from Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam, where Christmas is more
like Mardi Gras than a celebration of Jesus Christ's birth.
Granted, on December 25, people gather in droves at "one
particular church" in Saigon, as we still like to say. But what
happens there is anything but holy.
Mayhem, if not murder, ensues.
That's a little hyperbolic, but then again, could you imagine
being given thongs and birth control as Christmas gifts by
strangers? Even the motorbike swarm-so characteristic of my
hometown-is scared away by the human masses, forcing passersby to
wallow at a maximum speed of 0.5 kph.
By contrast, Beijing looks like a manger scene.
In all seriousness, despite the freezing temperature, I'm
feeling quite warm this Christmas.
Christmas here seems to be about family and about spending time
with the ones you love. It's what puts a smile on mom's face at a
local mall when her
son's eyes light up at the prospects of dressing in a costume
like Santa Claus. It's what makes a young girl idle for 10 minutes
in front of gift cards before she chooses one with a big heart,
presumably for her boyfriend.
If the spirit of Christmas isn't about these things, I'd be a
serious scrooge even if I were the Pope.
So I'm happy to say I believe in Zhongguo (Chinese) Claus.
And I'm wishing for a perfect Christmas.
So far, so good. I came to Beijing to build a new life with my
love, and despite the relationship hiccups, I'm happy to be here
with him.
The holiday season perks aren't bad either.
This is my first time outside of Viet Nam, and in some ways, I'm
like a newborn this December.
A few days into the month, I was shocked when I threw a rock in
a lake, and it didn't fall to the bottom because it
was-gasp-frozen! My laughter reached a pinnacle when I saw the look
of a Chinese guy standing next to me, dumbfounded by my
schizophrenic behavior. I wonder if he would react like I did if he
saw a coconut fall from a palm tree for the first time. I guess
not.
On December 10, I saw snow for the first time in my life. This
time I exhibited mere retarded behavior, licking a clump and
thinking it tasted better than ice in my refrigerator. Fortunately,
no one saw that, except my boyfriend. And it's about time he smiled
in mental revenge, since I usually refer to him as "mentally
disabled" (even though he is helping me write this).
Other things on my Beijing Christmas to-do list: I'd like to be
invited to a Chinese family party to experience warmth rather than
just witness it. I'd like to get some munchies together and invite
our friends to gather around for some yuletide cheer. I'd like to
put some gift in a sock and stick it under my boyfriend's bed.
He tells me now that it's customary to hang it by the fireplace
in the West. We don't have one, so it's going under his bed
anyway--smarty pants.
And here's something on my not-to-do list: ice-skating. My
rock-thrown-at-the-lake-test showed that frozen lakes can thaw, as
the stone went straight through the slushy surface. I imagine a
bigger, more lifelike likeness of that rock-namely me-might
encounter the same fate on skates, and I'm plain horrified. Lakes
are still for swimming in my tropical book, and not for meandering
over like Jesus, even if it is just about Christmas.
Sure, there are a few things I dislike about Christmastime in
Beijing. I don't like having to wear long underwear, thereby
fattening my legs both with chocolate and cotton. I'm also not
especially happy to be away from my own family.
But Christmas pales in Beijing not because it isn't
spirited.
It pales only because it's an off-white tundra compared to
Saigon. But what it loses in Celsius, it gains in true merriment.
And this for the Gentile readers: What Christmas lacks in religion
in China, it gains in joy to the world (or at least to 1.3 billion
people).
So the next time you hear Jingle Bells at a hypermarket or see
Santa's helper in a red miniskirt, just think: WWJD (What would
Jesus do)?
Smile, I guess.
(Beijing Review December 27, 2007)
