Wednesday, December 27, 2006 at 2:02am
Chinese debate 'Confucius or Santa?'
The popularity of Christmas has sparked a debate in China over "an invasion" of foreign culture and the loss of China's cultural identity. Internet forums and state media editorials are asking "Confucius or Santa Claus?"
The People's Daily, the communist party's newspaper, warned that interest in Western holidays leads to indifference toward traditional festivals, such as the Chinese Lunar New Year and the Dragon Boat Festival. An online petition by 10 doctoral students from China's best universities calling for China to boycott Christmas and cultivate Chinese traditions opened the debate, IANS reported Wednesday.
The petition aims to "wake up the Chinese people to resist Western cultural invasion" which, it said, "has been more like storms sweeping through the country rather than mild showers." Most Chinese do not even know the reason behind Christmas, the petition said.
The petition blamed the government for promoting business at the expense of Chinese traditions and businessmen seeking to improve sales. The petition has resonated throughout China.
On the Internet site sina.com, 53 percent of 43,000 people in an online poll called for a boycott of Christmas while 30 percent said it should be up to individuals.
Commentators have swung back and forth between tolerance and nationalism. The People's Daily said Christmas attracts people because it is "new and fresh ... and fascinating."
While everyone is free to celebrate Christmas, it is "urgent" that China revive its own festivals and holidays, adapting them from their agrarian roots to mirror China's changing, modern society.
"It has to be recognised that the craving of kids and young people for Christmas indeed has an effect on them from an 'alien, imported' culture," the paper said.
The tiny Christian minority in China celebrates Christmas as a religious holiday, but it shows up as Christmas trees and other decorations festooning shopping malls, hotels and restaurants. Children get presents, friends send Christmas text messages and young people party on Christmas eve.
"The petition has poured cold water on the warm atmosphere of celebrating Christmas in China," the official Xinhua news agency said. "It does not matter whether non-Western nations are willing or not, they are all included in a global value system, ... The culture of the developed always prevails."
However, "If we lose the dominance in culture in our own country, we will get lost totally," it said.
The Jiangnan Times said the campaign against Christmas rejected cultural development and showed a lack of confidence in Chinese culture. "Tolerance is needed towards the celebration of Christmas," the Changjiang Times said, arguing that it was "natural" that China sees "earth-shaking changes" to its lifestyles and ideas as its connections with the outside world grows.
It said Chinese culture was not at risk from foreign holidays. The students' petition, however, was a reminder of the days when China isolated itself from the world. "A narrow, biased and conservative mind goes against the values of the time and may bring up autocracy, coercion and harm to freedom and rights," it warned.
The People's Daily, the communist party's newspaper, warned that interest in Western holidays leads to indifference toward traditional festivals, such as the Chinese Lunar New Year and the Dragon Boat Festival. An online petition by 10 doctoral students from China's best universities calling for China to boycott Christmas and cultivate Chinese traditions opened the debate, IANS reported Wednesday.
The petition aims to "wake up the Chinese people to resist Western cultural invasion" which, it said, "has been more like storms sweeping through the country rather than mild showers." Most Chinese do not even know the reason behind Christmas, the petition said.
The petition blamed the government for promoting business at the expense of Chinese traditions and businessmen seeking to improve sales. The petition has resonated throughout China.
On the Internet site sina.com, 53 percent of 43,000 people in an online poll called for a boycott of Christmas while 30 percent said it should be up to individuals.
Commentators have swung back and forth between tolerance and nationalism. The People's Daily said Christmas attracts people because it is "new and fresh ... and fascinating."
While everyone is free to celebrate Christmas, it is "urgent" that China revive its own festivals and holidays, adapting them from their agrarian roots to mirror China's changing, modern society.
"It has to be recognised that the craving of kids and young people for Christmas indeed has an effect on them from an 'alien, imported' culture," the paper said.
The tiny Christian minority in China celebrates Christmas as a religious holiday, but it shows up as Christmas trees and other decorations festooning shopping malls, hotels and restaurants. Children get presents, friends send Christmas text messages and young people party on Christmas eve.
"The petition has poured cold water on the warm atmosphere of celebrating Christmas in China," the official Xinhua news agency said. "It does not matter whether non-Western nations are willing or not, they are all included in a global value system, ... The culture of the developed always prevails."
However, "If we lose the dominance in culture in our own country, we will get lost totally," it said.
The Jiangnan Times said the campaign against Christmas rejected cultural development and showed a lack of confidence in Chinese culture. "Tolerance is needed towards the celebration of Christmas," the Changjiang Times said, arguing that it was "natural" that China sees "earth-shaking changes" to its lifestyles and ideas as its connections with the outside world grows.
It said Chinese culture was not at risk from foreign holidays. The students' petition, however, was a reminder of the days when China isolated itself from the world. "A narrow, biased and conservative mind goes against the values of the time and may bring up autocracy, coercion and harm to freedom and rights," it warned.