What are the characteristics of Chinese Christmas?
Christmas may be just a carrier or excuse for Chinese people’s entertainment. “Chinese-style” Christmas is a fascinating Chinese contradiction. Christmas has become a very popular holiday in China, and the related business is very prosperous, but China is not a religious country. The Christmas tradition in China is still very young, but like many foreign customs that China has absorbed and transformed over the centuries, Christmas in China has become more and more Chinese.
People treat Christmas more like St. Patrick’s Day or Valentine’s Day. In other words, it is a happy day. People go out to meet with friends instead of spending time with their families like Westerners. Typical ways to celebrate Christmas include watching movies, singing karaoke or shopping. Christmas Eve is the most important shopping time of the year. Young couples or couples have always regarded it as a romantic day. Ski resorts and amusement parks are very popular holiday destinations.
Chinese Christians will be restricted if they think about a Western-style Christmas, even though the government allowed a more commercial Christmas to become prosperous since the 1990s. Whether it is intentional or not, it eclipses the Western-style Christmas and dilutes the religious connotation of this holiday. In a sense, the more popular Christmas becomes in China, the less Christianity it has.
