In class the other week our Chinese teacher taught us how to say Merry Christmas: “Sheng dan jie kuai le”, a phrase which translated literally means “Happy Saint Egg Day”, further convincing me that the Chinese language may just be too damn hard for me to ever learn.
I’d imagined that I’d avoid Christmas all together when I came to Changchun, but I ended up being surprised by the volume of Christmas decorations on display here. For the past few weeks the downtown has been all lit up with Christmas lights.
Even my high school has had a tree and a Santa on display for a few days.
My Chinese friends tell me that Christmas isn’t celebrated in the typical home or linked to any new or old traditions–it’s more of a commercial ploy to get people to buy stuff. So all the businesses light up pretty to try to attract shoppers while individual homes stay undecorated. In comparison, for Spring Festival (“Chinese New Year”), people decorate their houses and businesses stay unadorned since the population will be spending time with family rather than going shopping.
There’s already a sort of backlash from some people here against Christmas, decrying its celebration as little more than meaningless acceptance of ritualized Western materialism. It’s a criticism that seems pretty well founded.
Anyway, whatever you celebrate (or choose not to celebrate) during this season, I wish you the best now and in the coming year. Keep in touch.
Hee hee hee “Happy Saint Egg Dayâ€. That’s not quite the right translation, but very cute nonetheless. I think it’s more like “Happy Stainly Birth Day”. But hey, I only have about a 4th grade Chinese education, probably not even that. Hope you had a happy fun New Years!
love, Freda
Haa haa, never thought it could be interpreted as ‘Happy Saint Egg Day’. I guess I never really thought about the literal translation, just grew up saying it.
Long time no talk. Hope you are loving it in China, would love to visit someday. Maybe I’ll shoot you an email when I stop being so busy (see facebook for why). ~JC