As you might expect in a country that doesn't have the Western cultural heritage, Christmas is a bit different than it is in the States. Oddly, Christmas isn't absent from the culture entirely, though our friends here say that this addition has occurred in the past several years or so. In all the shopping centers we've visited the past few days, Christmas carols (in English) have been playing and many of the stores have the visage of Santa Claus festooned about with the words "Merry Christmas" written beneath his head.
All of this is facade, though. In my interaction with a few Chinese people here nobody knows why Christmas is celebrated or even what day the holiday is on. Those Christmas carols playing in the store, even if the shoppers do know English, any kind of comprehension is completely lost on them. (This was evidenced by a game of Christmas carol pictionary we played with some Chinese students where Frosty was portrayed as a VERY fat man and Rudolph was also also man but with a red nose). There is no "reason for the season" here except a completely commercial exercise that most don't formally celebrate. It is like the top, superficial layer of holiday has been scrapped off and spread over the culture here.
Here, Santa Claus is the main image of Christmas and very few have any reason to believe that there is something wrong with this.
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