Christmas in Siheyuan —— Changes of foreign festivals in China in the past 30 years
Beijing, China Broadcasting Network, December 25 th When the traditional Christmas atmosphere in the West is getting stronger and stronger, the courtyard of No.35 Xitangzi Hutong, a famous quadrangle in Dongcheng District of Beijing, has been particularly busy these days. In this traditional courtyard in China, which was built in Yongzheng period of Qing Dynasty and once lived by Zuo Zongtang, an important official in the late Qing Dynasty, someone is organizing a lively Christmas party.
Through the long corridor, rockery and garden full of China traditional culture in this courtyard, people feel a different kind of feelings when they look at Santa Claus in red and red hat and Christmas tree with lights on.
Pride and prejudice: celebrating the foreign festival is to worship foreign things and flatter foreign countries.
"After hard work and study for a year, Christmas at the end of 2008 is the time for us to relax and celebrate this festival together! Exchange each other’s gifts in beautiful songs, bring joy to everyone in self-made programs and get beautiful gifts, get together in various interesting games and dance in exciting music … "This is the advertisement for the Christmas party to be held in No.35 Courtyard of Xitangzi Hutong.
In China 30 years ago, this Christmas call, which was imbued with many elements such as joy, reunion and commercial speculation, was unimaginable. Until the early 1980s, overseas festivals in China were almost equated with the word "worshipping foreign things and obsessing foreign things".
"At that time, most people were very sensitive to overseas festivals, because there was always public opinion accusing China of having so many traditional festivals, why did it have to be overseas? Are foreign festivals better than those in China, and the moon in foreign countries is rounder than that in China? Damn it! Too worshipful of foreigners! " Yin Yungong, director of the Institute of Journalism of China Academy of Social Sciences, said, "This kind of emotion was normal at that time, because we were relatively closed and exclusive at that time, which was a kind of arrogance and prejudice in another sense.".
This "arrogance and prejudice" made foreign festivals have no market in China before the 1990s. Occasionally, there were some commercial or spontaneous activities to celebrate western festivals in some coastal cities, and they were often criticized. Some foreigners who entered China in the early days of reform and opening up will generally choose to go back to China for holidays or go to neighboring countries such as Japan and the Philippines for holidays when festivals such as Thanksgiving and Christmas come.
Tolerance and appreciation: crossing the foreign festival generously.
Even though there were many refusals and rejections, in the early days of reform and opening-up, China, which opened its doors, gradually began to re-examine and treat foreign festivals differently, even from the bud of timidity.
Allan Zeman, the boss of Hong Kong Lan Kwai Fong, felt the changes in China at that time. At the end of 1980, Allan Zeman went to Hangzhou for business, and the foreign-related hotel where he stayed held a small-scale "Christmas party" for the guests. Allan Zeman said with emotion: "This is my first Christmas in China, which shows that China is really open."
Just as the reform and opening up started in the special zones and coastal areas, China people’s attitude towards foreign festivals is also "the south wind gradually spread to the north". At first, Guangdong, Shanghai and other regions broke through the imprisonment in understanding, and then began to gradually affect the whole country.
Around the 1990s, businesses in Guangdong and other places began to actively play up pure western festivals such as Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Valentine’s Day for commercial purposes, and gradually formed a trend. More and more people in China began to celebrate foreign festivals generously.
"On the surface, the start of foreign festivals in China seems to be a purely commercial promotion, but its origin is the openness and tolerance of China people’s mentality formed with the reform and opening up, and foreign cultures are no longer blindly excluded." Zhang Yu, general manager of caeg Company, said: "Learning to appreciate with tolerance is a major change for China people to treat foreign festivals."
In fact, China people, who were just curious at first, gradually discovered the positive factors of foreign festivals from the perspective of cultural level and psychological needs, such as mother’s day, father’s day, Thanksgiving and other grateful feelings, such as the candor and expression of love on Valentine’s Day.
In 1998, Ms. Chen Zinan, who returned from overseas, returned to Beijing. She liked quadrangle culture and opened a western private restaurant called "Chief of Autumn". Since its opening, Valentine’s Day and Christmas are the best prime time for business here. "Apart from foreigners, more and more people from China have come here for Christmas and Christmas dinner in recent years."
Reason and Emotion: Traditional festivals in China are the main theme.
In the 21st century, foreign festivals have blossomed everywhere in China. Nowadays, whenever Valentine’s Day, Christmas and other foreign festivals come, waiters wearing little red riding hood can be seen in many cities in China, and news that roses are seriously out of stock can be heard. The foreign festival economy spawned by foreign festivals has become a gimmick for merchants to attract customers, and foreign festivals have also become a fashion.
However, in the hot atmosphere of the festival, the decline of traditional festivals in China has gradually caused China people to worry about the protection and inheritance of their traditional culture.
On the eve of Christmas in 2006, 10 doctors from Peking University, Tsinghua, Nankai University and other universities issued a joint signature proposal, calling on netizens to be cautious about Christmas. They believe that the reason why Christmas is popular in China is that Chinese people are in a state of collective unconsciousness in culture-indifference and indifference to their own traditions is the reason why foreign festivals are popular.
Therefore, after foreign festivals prevailed in China for more than 10 years, China people began to think about them from the perspective of reason and emotion.
"When China people flock to celebrate Christmas, people will have some worries." Zhang Yiwu, a professor of Chinese literature in Peking University, said: "The root cause of anxiety lies in China people’s fear that the younger generation will lose enthusiasm for their traditional festivals and forget the foundation of their own culture. Of course, we don’t exclude foreign cultures, but our foundation should be our own traditional culture, so we must make it clear that China Festival is the main theme of our festival. "
Some scholars wrote that we should not persuade people to stay away from or even resist the proliferation of foreign festivals, but should objectively examine the exchange and mutual accommodation between Chinese and Western cultures with the broad mind of the Chinese nation and a heart without cultural prejudice. While paying attention to and accepting western culture, we should pay more attention to how to revitalize our own traditions and culture, reform and enrich the connotation of these traditional festivals, and make them more attractive.
In fact, the China government has begun to consciously guide people to pay attention to their traditional festivals. It is a positive and clear signal that Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival have become legal holidays.
Editor: Liu Li
