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| 老外在中国：十月开始过圣诞怪不怪 |
| 2004年02月26日11:04:55 新华网 Lisa Carducci(加拿大) |
When I was a child in Montr al, the Christmas and New Year's decorations in public places, mainly commercial establishments, seemed to go up earlier and earlier each year. Business rivals wanted to be the first to reach potential customers, so finally decorations were already appearing on All Souls' Day, November 2! Fortunately the municipal authorities put their foot down①: no decorations before December 10 was the rule, if I remember correctly.
This year at the Friendship Hotel, where many foreign experts working in Beijing live, a luminous 'Merry Christmas' appeared above the entrance gate on, believe it or not, October 15, a full two months and more before the event! Big Santa Clauses and other images have been stuck on each building door. The trees are decorated with lights, the reindeer have arrived from the North Pole with their sleigh full of gifts -- in short, the whole show is in town②. My dear Chinese readers, if you saw a sign that said 'Let's celebrate our National Day!' on August 1, what would you think? By mid-November at the Friendship Hotel, we had received a pamphlet advertising the Christmas meals to be offered in hotel restaurants. By the time Christmas actually gets here, we will have been so overexposed to decorations that they won't mean anything to us any more.
And not only are we exhorted to celebrate Christmas, but specifically an AMERICAN Christmas, as if there were only one way to mark the day. I have strong objections to all this American stuff I see around me. At first I thought I was perhaps being too severe, but when I asked several people from other nations, I found that everyone agreed with me.
The foreign experts living at the Youyi Binguan include many Muslims from India, Pakistan, Iraq, Algeria, Sudan, etc. Recently a plastic Santa Claus was ripped off a door. I think whoever did it made a very clear point, but nothing has changed. Should we vandalise all the decorations to show our sentiments? I know that the authorities at the hotel do their best to please their 'precious foreign guests', but I'm sorry to say that early and ubiquitous American-style Christmas arrangements are not the right way. Should Koreans, Japanese and others be expected to celebrate the Christian holiday? Must Orthodox Russians move up their celebration of Jesus' birth to December 25, when their religious calendar fixes it on what for Western Christians is January 7? Should Catholic Italians, whose main decoration is not a Christmas tree and Santa Claus but a presepio (a recreation of the stable where Jesus was born) and the Befana (an aged sorceress who distributes gifts on January 6) also adopt the American way? Even some Americans at the Friendship Hotel were surprised when they saw Christmas decorations in October, but at least they were spared the shock that people of other nationalities and religions felt.
If the intention is to promote friendship between Chinese and foreigners, the American Christmas is not the only way to spread the message. The Muslim Id al-Fitr, or the Jewish Rosh Hashana, the Vietnamese Tet, or Easter in the Catholic manner, there are so many festivals! Each community has its festivals, and its own means of celebrating them, which Chinese friends could be invited to share. If big hotels like the Youyi Binguan put such festivals on their calendar and celebrated them, they would not only show respect for people from other countries and cultures, but also turn themselves into cultural exhibition centres attractive to foreigners and Chinese alike.
If China's public institutions absolutely must take note of Christmas, they should keep the Christmas period relatively short. In my opinion, they should also be more circumspect: even though the economy is globalizing (with an American -z-!), different values exist and deserve respect and protection. Celebrating the civil new year on January 1 would be a more judicious choice for state organisations. Not only would they avoid offending anyone, but also make some people happier.
老外在中国：十月开始过圣诞怪不怪
小时候我住在加拿大蒙特利尔的时候，为迎接圣诞节和新年，公共场所(主要是商业区)张灯结彩似乎一年比一年早。商业上的竞争对手都想第一个迎来潜在的消费者，到头来在11月2日万灵节的时候圣诞布置就开始出现了。所幸的是，市政当局的态度非常坚决：规定12月10日之前不能布置，如果我没记错的话。
可你或许不信，今年在友谊宾馆———很多在京工作的外国专家居住的地方，“圣诞快乐”的灯光出现在大门上面的时候是10月15日，离圣诞节还差两个多月！每幢楼的入门处都放上了很大的圣诞老人和其他人物像，宾馆里的树用灯装饰了起来，驯鹿也拉着满载礼物的雪橇从北极来到这里———简而言之，整个宾馆全都是这些无聊之物。我亲爱的中国读者，如果你在8月1日见到“庆祝国庆”的标语会做何感想？到了11月中旬的时候，我们这些住在友谊宾馆的外国专家还收到了一本小册子，上面介绍宾馆餐厅所提供的圣诞餐。等圣诞节真的到来的时候，我们对这些布置恐怕早就看腻了，因而它们也不再有任何意义。
事情还不仅仅是老早就催着我们过圣诞，而且还因为这是美国式的庆祝方式，好像世上只有这一种方式来庆祝这个日子，我对周围所看到的这一切美式的装饰怀有强烈的反感。开始时我以为自己可能是太苛刻了，但当我问了几个来自其他国家的人，他们竟都与我有相同之感。
在友谊宾馆居住的外国专家中有很多来自印度、巴基斯坦、伊拉克、阿尔及利亚、苏丹等国的穆斯林。最近，一个塑料圣诞老人被人从门上撕掉了。我想不管是谁干的都很清楚地说明了一个问题，但是宾馆方面并没有任何改变，难道我们要毁掉所有的装饰才能表达我们的心情吗？我知道宾馆是尽一切可能要使他们“尊贵的外国客人”高兴，但是我很遗憾地要说，那么早而且是以铺天盖地的美国式圣诞节的方式过圣诞是不正确的。韩国人、日本人以及其他人也会过基督教的节日吗？信奉东正教的俄罗斯人的宗教年历将西方基督徒的圣诞节定在了1月7日，难道他们必须将其庆祝耶稣诞生的日子改到12月25日吗？信奉罗马天主教的意大利人过圣诞的主要装饰并不是圣诞树和圣诞老人，而是一个presepio(耶稣降生的马槽的复制品)和Befana(一个上年纪的女巫师，她在1月6日给大家分发礼物)，难道他们也要接受美国式的圣诞节吗？甚至住在友谊宾馆的一些美国人看到十月份就张挂起圣诞装饰也感到奇怪，不过至少他们没有其他民族或其他宗教信仰的人所感受到的那种震动。
如果宾馆的初衷是为了加强中国人民与外国人之间的友谊，那么美国式的圣诞节就不是传播这一信息的唯一方式，穆斯林的拉玛丹节，犹太人的岁首节，越南的春节或是以天主教方式庆祝的复活节，有很多很多的节日。宾馆里的每个群体都有他们自己的节日和自己的庆祝方式，庆祝时中国朋友也会被邀来共度，如果像友谊宾馆这样的大宾馆能够将这些节日都标在日历上并且加以庆祝，那么他们不仅是向来自其他国家、其他文化的人们表示了尊重，同时也将自己变成了一个能够吸引外国人以及中国人的文化展览中心。
如果中国的公共场所认定圣诞节极为重要，庆祝的周期也应该短一些。在我看来，他们应该更加谨慎一些：尽管经济在走向全球化，不同的价值观仍旧存在，而且应该得到尊重和保护。国有单位在1月1日庆祝元旦是个更为明智的选择，这不仅能避免得罪任何人，还能让某些人群更高兴。
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