Christmas is basically a shopping holiday in China. The pretense of religion is politely done away with and it is purely a commercial holiday for everyone who is not christian.
Oddly, the germanic symbol of the christmas tree endures, as does the jolly old Saint Nicholas/Santa Claus. This makes for a rather odd situation. The major shopping mall near where I live and work has a giant abstract triangular pyramid thing that looks like it could have something like ornaments on it.
It is rather wierd to have the trappings of a well known family oriented holiday re-presented in a wholly different social context. Below are some odd images.
Below is a blue eyed, father christmas image with something written in Chinese. I believe it says "Merry", as I have seen other images of Santa with simply the words "Merry". In this image, if you look closely, you will see Santa's beard is very abstract and rather odd looking. In his magic beard are toys, a christmas ornament and what looks like an evergreen bough. The blue eyed Santa definitely has a wierd beard.
Sorry this is a bad picture, but here Santa has brown eyes, but still has a beard of interesting things. I think there is some fascination with copious facial hair because most Chinese men don't really have any. Taoist monks grow beards, so there is something mystical about Santa's beard. Note that here the only discernible message are the letters X and S written on Santa's mystical beard. I am inclined to think they proprietors of this establishment knew of XMas, but did not know the correct spelling. At least they tried.
This image has Santa, flanked by a female and male snowman. In alot of eastern religion there is symetry, so it is only natural that Santa should be flanked by a male and female snow person. Santa appears to be holding some sort of rabbit or rain deer. The male snowman has a scroll over his arm, implying he is into accountancy or some such official list keeping. Santa also has a pipe blazing, which is technically in keeping with the ancient christmas fable. If you zoom in, you can also see that Santa appears to fly on a sort of disk shaped device. There is also a mini-santa in the foreground, much like a mini-me type pygmy sidekick.
Many Chinese exchange gifts on this day, with no real understanding of the holiday itself. It is quite interesting.
Oddly, the germanic symbol of the christmas tree endures, as does the jolly old Saint Nicholas/Santa Claus. This makes for a rather odd situation. The major shopping mall near where I live and work has a giant abstract triangular pyramid thing that looks like it could have something like ornaments on it.
It is rather wierd to have the trappings of a well known family oriented holiday re-presented in a wholly different social context. Below are some odd images.
Below is a blue eyed, father christmas image with something written in Chinese. I believe it says "Merry", as I have seen other images of Santa with simply the words "Merry". In this image, if you look closely, you will see Santa's beard is very abstract and rather odd looking. In his magic beard are toys, a christmas ornament and what looks like an evergreen bough. The blue eyed Santa definitely has a wierd beard.
This image has Santa, flanked by a female and male snowman. In alot of eastern religion there is symetry, so it is only natural that Santa should be flanked by a male and female snow person. Santa appears to be holding some sort of rabbit or rain deer. The male snowman has a scroll over his arm, implying he is into accountancy or some such official list keeping. Santa also has a pipe blazing, which is technically in keeping with the ancient christmas fable. If you zoom in, you can also see that Santa appears to fly on a sort of disk shaped device. There is also a mini-santa in the foreground, much like a mini-me type pygmy sidekick.
Many Chinese exchange gifts on this day, with no real understanding of the holiday itself. It is quite interesting.
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