{"id":14599,"date":"2018-12-05T15:01:53","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T19:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=14599"},"modified":"2018-12-05T15:01:53","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T19:01:53","slug":"do-people-celebrate-christmas-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/do-people-celebrate-christmas-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Do People Celebrate Christmas in China?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I lived in China, I always got the same question from family and friends around this time of year – “Do people celebrate Christmas in China?” The short answer is “Yes,” but there’s a lot more to it than that. In this post, I’ll try to shed some light on what Christmas is like in the Middle Kingdom. I’ll also share some useful Christmas vocabulary and even a really silly video at the end.<\/p>\n

Christmas in China<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

XMas in Shanghai. Image by Lawrence Wang from flickr.com.
Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Religious Side of Christmas<\/h3>\n

Christmas<\/strong>\u00a0(\u5723\u8bde\u8282 \u2013 sh\u00e8ng d\u00e0n ji\u00e9), or the “Holy Birth Festival” as it’s directly translated, is not a national holiday in China. This should come as no surprise in a country that does not have any official religious holidays. A vast majority of Chinese people identify as non-religious, or they follow Chinese folk religions. Chinese culture has been shaped by the “three teachings<\/strong>” (\u4e09\u6559 – s\u0101n ji\u00e0o) – Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Only about 2.5% of China’s population identify as\u00a0Christian<\/strong> (\u57fa\u7763\u6559 – j\u012b d\u016b ji\u00e0o).<\/p>\n

\u5723\u8bde\u8282\u5bf9\u57fa\u7763\u6559\u5f92\u6765\u8bf4\u662f\u4e2a\u91cd\u8981\u8282\u65e5
\nsh\u00e8ng d\u00e0n ji\u00e9 du\u00ec j\u012b d\u016b ji\u00e0o t\u00fa l\u00e1i shu\u014d sh\u00ec g\u00e8 zh\u00f2ng y\u00e0o ji\u00e9 r\u00ec
\nChristmas is an important holiday for Christians.<\/h4>\n

Despite the Chinese name of the holiday giving a pretty obvious clue as to what it’s about, many people in China are unaware that Christmas celebrates the birth of\u00a0Jesus<\/strong>\u00a0(\u8036\u7a23 \u2013 y\u0113 s\u016b). I would often ask my students to come up with what they knew about the holiday as well as some questions to ask about it, and most of the answers I got were based on the secular traditions of the holiday.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Santa Teacher<\/p><\/div>\n

The Secular Side of Christmas<\/h3>\n

Without a doubt, the most well-known aspect of Christmas in China is\u00a0buying gifts<\/strong>\u00a0(\u4e70\u793c\u7269 – m\u01cei l\u01d0 w\u00f9).\u00a0Although most people in China don\u2019t celebrate the religious side of Christmas, they sure love the commercial one. Check out this video from CCTV Business about the popularity of Christmas shopping in China:<\/p>\n