Beijing can be a large, lonely city during the Christmas
season.
My first year in?China I came down with a classic case of
the holiday blues, an emotionally crippling affliction that strikes
strangers in strange places all over the world. It's true that
holidays away from home, regardless of one's faith or lack of it,
remind foreigners of their daily routines and rituals, bringing to
mind familiar faces of friends and family, so far away from the
mother country. Without a sense of belonging or some really good
friends and absorbing entertainment, Christmas can leave expats
feeling as empty and alone as an old bottle of bai jui after the
restaurant has closed and everyone's gone home.
Now, after three years, I found that I’d literally forgotten
Thanksgiving and I was more fixated on the Spring Festival than the
rites and rituals of Christmas. Learning to live abroad as an expat
successfully, at least for me, means incorporating the host
country’s norms and traditions into my own life as much as I
possibly can. Instead, I have started celebrating the Chinese New
Year in lieu of Xmas. With the simpler custom of hong bao -
tasteful red envelopes, stuffed with various amounts of cash for
kids and employees, I’ve replaced any worries I formerly had in
choosing Christmas gifts. But upon reflection I really doubt that
any European or North American could ever forget about the
Christmas season: it’s a fundamental winter holiday designed to
spread cheer and hope among family and friends - and here in China
it’s a growing time for celebrations.
Clearly, the Chinese people have joyfully embraced Christmas as
yet another holiday to be incorporated into the vast array of
festivals they celebrate. Not only have they taken on the glamour
and romance of Yuletide logs and mistletoe and but also the habits
of buying and spending in a frenzy during the months preceding
December 25. The evidence is everywhere. Department stores feature
employees in Santa costumes, young vendors on the street are
wearing sparkly reindeer ears, and tinsel and brightly decorated
Christmas trees adorn plazas, hotels and public parks.
Indeed, China is fast taking over the market for Christmas
decorations both at home and abroad. Shopping centers are jam
packed with images of Santa and his reindeer in paper, plaster,
plastic and porcelain. Huge piles of Christmas cards rest next to
the traditional Chinese New Year cards. Festive gift bags denoting
the holiday lie waiting to be filled. Shoppers stroll intently,
eager to find bargains that they can wrap and present to their
friends. “We are enjoying being consumers at Christmastime,” said
Li Ming. “It makes me feel generous and grateful for all the
changes China has gone through. I am happy to be rich enough to buy
nice gifts for my family and friends.”
The Chinese market economy certainly looks like it has gone into
high gear during the month of December. As inflation rises, hopes
for a better life also go up among the growing class of affluent
Chinese. Shopping malls with designer imports, luxury goods and
expensive foreign cars advertise the fact that China may be calling
herself a developing country but there is no doubt that enough
conspicuous wealth exists in large Chinese cities to fund these
exotic consumer paradises. “There are hundreds of thousands
millionaires in Beijing, more than any other city in the world,” an
expat businessman recently said.
Taking on all the accoutrements of the western world has both
benefited and plagued New China. With the advent of a booming
economy serious environmental issues have also appeared. As some of
China’s entrepreneurs get rich first and fast other workers look at
them askew and wonder, often resentfully, why they are seemingly
stuck in dead end, low paying jobs. The disparity between rich and
poor is getting wider and more obvious as the year 2007 heads to a
close. For this Christmas season in China perhaps the best gift to
hope for is an effective and timely resolution to the question of
who is responsible for China’s environmental degradations. Another
stocking stuffer would certainly be a wish for powerful economic
leadership to guide the country into a market economy that does not
heedlessly suffer the scary surges western countries have
encountered. Peace on Earth and Goodwill toward Men is no longer
enough: China needs environmental responsibility and great
economists to bring in a hopeful, prosperous New Year.
(China.org.cn by Valerie Sartor December 17, 2007)