EXPAT FILES:
That Christmas Old Man has come to town
CBC News Viewpoint | December 23, 2004 | More from Expat Files
Living overseas is never easy. Getting used to a foreign culture and being away from friends and family can be difficult. Below are the views of Canadian expats as seen from the vantage point of their new locations around the globe.
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Jacob Moeller has been living and traveling in Asia for the past year. Between Chinese language courses in varying Chinese cities, he has recently found time to explore Tibet, Nepal, India and Laos. He has also been seen studying physics/political science at Mount Allison University in the recent past.
Having been studying abroad for the past year, I would have hoped that the sense of disorientation experienced just after leaving Canada and entering an all too foreign land would have already subsided. But so many differences make adjustment slow and difficult – the people, the weather and the daily, weekly and seasonal schedules all take getting used to.
Normally it only takes a few weeks, or months at the most, to adjust to day-to-day life in a new setting. But years must pass before an expat's internal clock can anticipate and adapt to the new national moods changing with seasons. The recourse for the first year of living abroad? Expect only the unexpected.
So you can imagine my surprise as I walked into the Carrefour – a chain of French super-stores – and was immediately inundated with familiarity. As I stopped to take stock of my surroundings, a man walked by whistling in time with the music playing overhead and, with an excited 10-year-old following close behind, headed for an aisle decked out with special candy and glittering decorations.
Dumbfounded, I scanned the store with a single word repeating in my head: "Christmas!" The colours, the kid pulling on his parent's legs begging for an over-sized candy cane, the lame "shopping friendly" version of Jingle Bells, the store employees looking slightly embarrassed in their Santa hats – it all led to one question: "What the hell is Christmas doing in China?"
The outside street, brimming with street vendors and all the commotion typical of life in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province in southwest China where I currently live, had left me ill-prepared for such a jolting shift into the familiar.
Judging by the omnipresent theme in the store, it seems unlikely that the business is catering to the Christian community, a group that accounts for only one per cent of the population. This, with the ambiance created by the decorated trees and Christmas jingles present in the commercial district of the city, makes one wonder how Santa got clearance at customs with his hefty bag. Or perhaps the elves have gone union and now the old fellow is here on business.
The idea may not be as far-fetched as it at first seems. While Christianity has hundreds of years of history in China, it has never managed to make serious gains, and with the ruling Communist party having historically maintained an anti-religion attitude in general – saving special angst for the belief system of the "imperialists" – the festival never had fertile ground in which to grow.
Kunming locals have told me that the "Christmas Old Man," as Santa is known in China, first became an integral part of the mid-winter months sometime in the early-90s and has grown in significance ever since. So much so that even some non-Christian families are decorating their own trees and exchanging gifts.
While there is some speculation that the growth of underground Christian networks makes Christianity a stronger presence in China than it may seem on the surface, it is obvious that the surge in interest in Christmas is quite separate from religion. It's ironic that had I decided to discuss the Christian roots of some of the decorations in the shoppers' grocery baskets, I could theoretically be arrested for proselytizing.
Children may greet the season with open arms (the love felt for a jolly fat man who gives out free stuff is universal), but it's apparent that its most enthusiastic advocates are the stores themselves.
Many Chinese people with whom I've broached the topic have been quick to point out that Christmas may be fun for the kids, but the Spring Festival in late January is still the most important time of year for the general public. Even my Chinese language textbook has made this point, anticipating the foreign students' own questions while reminding us that Chinese cultural identity is not so easily compromised.
But how can super-stores like Carrefour, spread across the country from east to west, resist pushing for a holiday that has come to be recognized as an international annual shopping bonanza? China is on the rise and businesses are busy reminding people that, if you want to behave as citizens of a developed nation, 'tis the season to buy buy buy. Santa hasn't missed out on the China hype, and now he's setting up shop, too.
As for the Chinese family I'm currently living with, Christmas is considered cute, but I'm advised to think ahead to the Spring Festival.
Through this Christmas season I imagine that my days will be largely the same as any other time of year. Classes don't finish until the second week of January and, rather than Christmas treats and elaborate dinners, I'll most certainly be eating the same food that I've eaten everyday in recent months: rice with something on top.
For, through thousands of years of tumultuous history, as dynasties crumble and once all-powerful emperors fall, as empire gives way to republic gives way to Communism, as the socialist economy slides into a free-market system, as once disdained symbols of foreign encroachment creep in through the open window of reform, there is one predictive principle we can learn from Chinese history: rice will be for dinner.
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