Journal: Hiding from Christmas

In previous years, I have reflected on the unstoppable force behind Christmas. You cannot easily "opt out" of the silly season. The people who gave you presents last year are sure to give you a present this year, so you'd better have something ready to give in return. Any other family gathering during the year can be avoided if you have an imaginative excuse, but attendance at the Christmas dinner is not negotiable.

But this year I was in China, where the 25th of December is just a normal working day. In fact, it was a particularly busy working day for me: I had classes all morning, and then I had to give oral exams the whole afternoon. Unless you're religious, the date of Christmas is arbitrary—it's the atmosphere and the people around you that make the day special. Lacking those things this year, I decided early on that I would ignore Christmas.

But this turned out to be more difficult than I imagined. The trouble started with the assistant dean telling me about a dinner that was being arranged for all the foreign teachers in the city. I said I didn't want to go, but he explained to me: "At Christmas time, you will miss your family. Naturally, you will want to be with your fellow countrymen to celebrate this special day. The Foreign Affairs Department is showing its concern for you by organising this dinner." I tried to articulate my feelings, albeit far from eloquently: "Christmas is not a chinese tradition. Since I'm in China, as far as I'm concerned there is no Christmas this year. A chinese Christmas can only be a fake Christmas!"

I said to Wang Xin that I resented somebody trying to arrange my social calendar for me. If I want to celebrate Christmas with foreigners, I am perfectly capable of organising it myself. We foreign teachers sometimes feel that the authorities try to control our lives too much. But Wang Xin says that it's just the chinese way, and she used this example in her class to illustrate "culture shock". Her students were surprised to hear about my reaction, since they are quite used to having the college's arrangements extend into their personal life.

My Christmas cynicism rubbed off on Wang Xin. She said that she originally planned to at least put up a few decorations, but after hearing my comments about "fake Christmas" she didn't see the point anymore. I was sorry to hear that. Although I think it would be meaningless for me to celebrate Christmas, I still think it's a positive thing for english students to celebrate in the spirit of cultural awareness. The first year students proved to be the most enthusiastic. Most of the classes decorated their classrooms, and had dinner together. They invited me to celebrate with them too, but I declined. Although I like my students, I don't want to socialise with them. For that, I have friends.

Meanwhile, it wasn't just the english department that was getting Christmas fever. The most zealous purveyors of the Christmas spirit were shops, probably keen to overcome the cultural barriers between them and Christmas spending. Walking down the main shopping boulevard, almost all the shops were decorated. The most popular decoration is a pair of santa faces, one on each window. I even saw a "real" santa, standing outside a clothing shop looking rather forlorn (perhaps she thought the outfit clashed with her yellow hair). Another thing that often comes in pairs is Christmas trees, one on each side as you walk into a building. But in my country a Christmas tree is not merely a decoration, but the focal point of gift-giving. Two trees is too many!

In China, those who celebrate Christmas with their family or friends mainly just use it as an excuse to go out to a restaurant for a nice meal. Some also give a gift of an apple on Christmas Eve, usually under the impression that this is an old Christmas tradition. In fact it is, in Croatia at least, but I think that's just coincidence. Different countries have different Christmas customs (some of which pre-date Christianity!), and now China has its very own. It seems to be related to the name given to Christmas Eve, ping'an ye, meaning "peaceful night". This happens to be the chinese translation of the song "Silent Night", so perhaps that's where it comes from. The syllable ping in that word is pronounced the same as the first syllable in pingguo, apple. Thus a gift of an apple represents peace. According to some, you should eat it on the stroke of midnight. I guess this practice is adapted from the custom of eating jiaozi at midnight on Chinese New Year.

Nobody gave me an apple, but an acquaintance of mine who works at a supermarket and has seen what I usually buy gave me a wonderful present: no less that 12 bars of Dove chocolate! Dove is the only edible chocolate in China. She gave me some of every variety. "You likes eat different colours chocolate," she wrote (she's learning english).

I didn't want any gifts, but she insisted, so of course I had to give something to her as well. So you see, even in China I was sucked into Christmas. In the evening, I went to dinner with some of the people from college. All the japanese foreign teachers were there, but the other two english foreign teachers had their own plans for Christmas. I had ulterior motives for going: one was to rub the right people the right way, since its almost time to for me to settle a new contract (in fact I don't want a pay rise, I just want my internet fee reduced to what the other teachers pay). My other reason was that the food was good, and it was free. The hat in the photo was not ours. All the staff in the restaurant were wearing them.

As for that dinner for all the foreign teachers in Dalian, that was rescheduled to the 27th, and then to the 29th. Each time they asked me if I would like to go, and each time I said no. I thought, if there's anything worse than having a fake Christmas with strangers, it's having a fake Christmas with strangers who probably can't speak chinese. But finally I realised that, for me, attending the dinner need not be a celebration of Christmas. It could be a celebration of free food instead. So when it was rescheduled to the 30th, they asked me again if I would like to go, and I said yes.

Speaking of fake Christmases, there's a lot of superficiality to Christmas in my own country too. But beneath the hype and commercialisation, there is something worth preserving. I didn't realise this until I tried to explain "Christmas spirit" to my students. Unless you experience it for yourself, it's difficult to understand the sense of magic at Christmas time, and the special feeling you get from wishing a stranger "Merry Christmas". And as for the songs, the stories, the traditions, these are valuable because culture is valuable. The more I learn about China, the more I realise that my own country has a unique and interesting culture too.

I promised to report on the weather. There was no snow, no rain, just a cold wind. I wonder where I'll be reporting from next Christmas?

29 December

What do you know? The conditions of my new contract, which I signed today, state that I can have two days holiday at Christmas. For the record, I did manage to get my internet fee corrected. And I even got a token pay rise, although I didn't ask for it.