20071226/加拿大国家邮报“挤兑”中国人过圣诞节

加拿大National Post（《国家邮报》）12月19日刊登该报记者Aileen McCabe的文章，题目是Shanghai is decked out for Christmas -but Dec. 25 is a workday like any other（上海装扮一新迎圣诞，但12月25日其实是个平常的工作日）。文章认为中国人“以错误的方式引入了圣诞文化”：

上海城区的街道和商场都被圣诞装饰装扮起来了，金箔丝条、五彩的灯饰、巨大的人造圣诞树和雪花，在一家高档购物中心前甚至还有圣诞老人和他的驯鹿。闭上眼睛，你可能会以为你正身处加拿大。但这里是13亿人中基督徒只有1600万的中国，而且12月25日与往常一样依然是工作日。

一位年轻的艺术家陈航峰的抱怨是，在中国人看来，圣诞节唯一要做的就是购物、派对。他说：“大多数人认为来自西方的都是好东西，他们都想感受一下。”“但是他们以错误的方式引入了圣诞文化。”。

对于51岁的江美萍（音）来说，圣诞节没有任何意义。她说：“我知道在西方它是一个传统节日，我看见到处都是圣诞装饰，但我不会做什么来庆祝这个节日。”

安吉拉·吴是在英特尔中国实习的研究生，在圣诞节那天会正常上班，然后就是和朋友一起打扑克牌、购物。吴说：“我认为圣诞节已经成了商家赚钱的一种方式。”她说：“商场里大多数的圣诞装饰只是表达了对外来东西的崇拜，没什么文化背景。”

现年33岁的陈航峰说：“在我上高中的时候，我记得班上那些时尚、前卫的学生说他们要去吃‘圣诞大餐’，那时我甚至不知道圣诞是什么。”

现在，上海一半的餐馆和酒吧都跳上了庆祝圣诞这趟顺风车，提供没有火鸡的“特别”的圣诞大餐。圣诞歌曲在中国也很流行，但遗憾的是，它不仅在一年的这个时候流行，你甚至在夏天的时候也能在一些商场听到圣诞歌曲。

加拿大媒体如此“挤兑”中国人过圣诞，是因为在基督教文化传统的国家里，12月25日是一个休息日，更是一年当中最重要的节日，男女老少见面时必定要互相祝愿“圣诞快乐！”在我们中国，这一天虽然不是假日，但是商场里硕大的圣诞树和红红绿绿的装饰还是让我们感受到一派节日气氛，不少与时俱进和国际接了轨的国人见面的时候也忘不了互致一声“圣诞快乐！”

这简单的一声“圣诞快乐”对在国际组织工作的我来说，却不是那么容易就开的了口的。原因很简单，12月25日本是作为耶稣基督的生日来庆祝的，英文“圣诞节”（Christmas）是“基督弥撒”的缩写，所以这是一个有宗教色彩的节日。你祝愿人家“基督弥撒”，但人家信不信基督呢？我的同事们来自世界各国，虽然有不少基督教徒，但是还有伊斯兰教徒、印度教徒、佛教徒或者像我这样的无神论者，向非基督教徒祝贺“圣诞快乐”往好处说是对牛弹琴，但是如果碰上少数脾气有牛脾气的人，有可能会硬邦邦把你顶回去：“这不是我的节日！”为了避免这样的尴尬，遇到同事所以最好笼统地说“节日快乐”，反正新年马上就要到了。

美国是以基督教为主流文明的国家。在美国的货币上，印着“我们信任上帝”（In God We Trust）；总统就职，要手抚《圣经》宣誓；政治人物演讲，常在结尾祈求“上帝保佑美国”（God Bless America）。在这样的氛围下，12月25日前后美国人见面相互说一句“圣诞快乐”本是天经地义的。但是，美国又是世界上最“讲政治”的国家之一，自上世纪六十年代以来美国就开始出现了“PC运动”。

这里的PC可不是大家熟知的“个人计算机”的缩写，而是“Politically Correctness”，即说话要讲“政治正确”，避免伤害他人感情。按照PC的要求，上年纪的人称为“高级公民”，土着人要称“原住民”，矮人称“小尺寸人”，瞎子称“视觉不便者”，“胖子”则可以说成是“热量强化者”，等等。同样道理，假如一位基督教徒对穆斯林教徒说“圣诞快乐”，不仅很可能会引起不快，而且有可能被看作是“骚扰穆斯林”行为，性质与性骚扰一样严重，引起法律诉讼。所以，为了照顾非基督教人士的感情，保持社会和谐，美国社会的一部分人也开始力图淡化“圣诞节”的基督教内涵。

美国国会外每年12月份都要装饰的圣诞树（Christmas Tree）已经改名为“节日树”（Holiday Tree）；一些地方政府不允许在圣诞期间装饰市政厅；学校不允许学生团体演奏圣诞音乐；商场的节日商品清单不再称为“圣诞商品目录”（Christmas Catalogue），而改称为“节日祝愿手册”（Holiday Wish Book Holiday）。伊利诺伊州政府干脆禁止公务员在工作岗位内说“圣诞快乐”。

菲律宾是亚洲唯一的天主教国家，老百姓从11月中就开始就装饰街道，商店里从早到晚播放“铃儿响叮当”，到了12月中起“圣诞快乐”就不绝于耳，绝没有政治不正确的问题。然而，菲律宾移民局却向机场移民官员下令，在圣诞期间不许主动向旅客说“圣诞快乐”。究其原因，不是因为“讲政治”，而是“讲廉洁”。

原来，往年到了这个时候，菲律宾在国外打工的侨民返乡过节，而在菲律宾工作的外国人也纷纷出去度假，各大机场熙熙攘攘。在这个时刻负责检查证件的移民官员主动向旅客祝愿“圣诞快乐”，然后再伸出手来，实际上发出了索要小费的强烈信号。许多旅客面子放不下，也为了避免节外生枝，往往违心地给移民官员留下买路钱。为了制止这种情况的发生，今年移民局干脆禁止下属的官员主动说“圣诞快乐”，以微笑代替问候，也就给旅客们减少了心理负担。

在我们看来，无论是美国人的“讲政治”还是菲律宾人的“讲廉洁”，未免都有点做作，把原本单纯的事情搞复杂了。对大多数中国人而言，过圣诞不过是一种消费时尚，换句话说圣诞就是商家“生蛋”的手段，已经没有了宗教色彩。当然，在全球化的今天，这种街坊娶媳妇邻居跟着兴奋的事情也不局限于中国。

不信，再过些天到了中国春节的时候，我们就会发现美国和许多国家的商店里也都会大红灯笼高高挂，图个狗年大吉大利。按照惯例，到了那一天，我的外国同事们不论是什么宗教背景，一个个都会毫无顾忌地学着广东口音说一句“经济正确”的新年祝词：

Kung Hei Fat Choy（恭喜发财）！

Shanghai is decked out for Christmas -but Dec. 25 is a workday like any other
Aileen McCabe, CanWest Asia Correspondent, CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, December 19, 2007

SHANGHAI — Chen Hangfeng doesn’t want to be the Grinch who stole Christmas and he’s certainly not a Scrooge character. He’s probably never heard of either of them, anyway. When he mentions Santa, he refers to him — politely — as “the old man.”

But Christmas in China really bugs him.

“It’s just an excuse to spend money and get loaded,” he scoffs.

Everywhere you go in downtown Shanghai the streets and stores are festooned with Christmas decorations. There’s tinsel and lights, gigantic fake Christmas trees, snowflakes and even Santa and his reindeer in front of one upscale mall. Close your eyes and you could almost be in Canada.

But this is China where there are only about 16 million Christians salted throughout the 1.3 billion population and Dec. 25 is a workday like any other.

Chen’s beef is that the only things about Christmas the Chinese have adopted are shopping and partying.

“Most people think anything from the West is good and they want to experience it,” the young artist says. “But they’ve taken (Christmas) from the Western culture in a bad way.”

Jiang Meiping, 51, is fairly blunt. Christmas means nothing to her. “I know it is a traditional holiday in the West and I can see lots of Christmas decorations around, but I don’t do anything special to celebrate it.

Jiang says the sales interest her, but that’s all.

“Compared with Christmas, most Chinese celebrate Chinese New Year. It’s our traditional festival, said Jiang.

Angela Wu, a post-graduate student and intern at Intel China, is working Christmas Day and afterwards plans “to play cards with my friends and do some shopping.”

“I think Christmas has become a way for shops to make money,” she says. “Most Christmas decorations in shops just show worship for foreign stuff without culture background.”

Artist Chen’s exhibition, “Christ MASS Production,” is displayed throughout the lobby of the Radisson Hotel in Pudong. At first glance, the pieces look like the kind of tasteful “designer” decorations you always see in hotels. But take a closer look at the scores of acrylic snowflakes resembling Chinese paper cuts and you see each one is created out of a different combination of designer logos. Chanel, Puma, Nike, Honda — you have to stare at them hard, but eventually they all pop out at you. It is the same with the tall acrylic Christmas tree at the centre of the exhibition and the smaller ones around the lobby.

“When I was in high school,” says Chen, 33, “I remember the cool kids in my class said they were going to have Christmas dinner. I didn’t even know what Christmas was.”

Every year since then it has become more pervasive around Shanghai. When he was a teen, there was “just a little bit of decoration and only in the so-called high-end areas.”

Now, half the restaurants and bars in Shanghai have jumped on the merry bandwagon, offering special “Christmas” dinners, mostly sans turkey and the trimmings.

Christmas carols are popular in China, too, but not just at this time of year, unfortunately. You hear them in malls as often in the summertime as now.

“On Christmas Eve, you won’t get a room in a karaoke place,” Chen predicts. Lots of older Chinese have caught the same Christmas spirit as the young and want to party on the 24th.

“They might sing Christmas songs,” Chen says, but not many. “Because they are in English it is hard for them.”

Chen is not totally jaded by Christmas, but only because he spent one Christmas in Carp, Ont., a little town near Ottawa, with his wife’s family.

“It was pretty peaceful, a family time,” he says. More like Chinese New Year, he reckons, than what Christmas has become in China.

Around the Radisson lobby are several large gift-wrapped boxes that are the second part of Chen’s exhibition. You look inside the gifts through a spy hole and see a short video he’s done on the real Chinese connection to Christmas.

He shot the video in a workshop in a village in Zhejiang Province where “Santa’s elves” were busy making the decorations to adorn Christmas trees around the Western world. One little elf is particularly memorable. He has bandages on almost every finger but he is still deftly wrapping strips of cut glass around a small globe to make one of those glitter-ball bulbs that catch the light so brilliantly on everyone’s trees.

With file from Jessie Zhou

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=184474