聖誕節在中國 不涉及靈魂方面
Christmas lost its soul in the west around the time that I stopped believing in Rudolf, and it’s been a source of angst for those who care about such things for all the decades since. But in China the holiday never had much soul to begin with. That’s what makes it such fun.
Christmas in China has nothing to do with history, tradition, relatives or regifting. It is, gloriously and unashamedly, about money and fun. Mainlanders celebrate Christmas — and they do celebrate it, even though it’s not a public holiday — by shopping, eating out, maybe doing a bit of karaoke and then more shopping. There’s none of the guilt, stress or family friction of Yuletide in the west (or for that matter, lunar new year in China).
在中國，聖誕節與歷史、傳統、親屬或禮物轉送無關。它堂而皇之且無愧坦然地只關乎金錢和歡樂。中國內地人慶祝聖誕節（他們真的慶祝，儘管它並非公共假日）的方式是購物、外出就餐，可能會唱唱卡拉OK，然後繼續購物，絲毫不牽扯西方聖誕節期間（或中國春節期間）往往會涉及的自責、壓力或家庭摩擦。China does have Christians, but it has far more people who celebrate Christmas than believe in it. That disconnect exists globally too. But in China, Christmas without the benefit of Christianity is more of a romantic holiday than a pseudo-religious one.
中國確有基督徒，但中國慶祝聖誕節的人要比信基督教的人多很多。這種脫節在全球都存在。但在中國，不附帶基督教精神裨益的聖誕節更多的是一個浪漫的節日，而非僞宗教節日。
Last year on Christmas Day, for example, 250 couples married at the registry office in one district of one southern city alone. In the west, few people choose to marry on that day, to avoid grousing from guests about having to skip the Christmas goose to attend the ceremony (guests don’t attend registry weddings in China anyhow). In China, Cupid and Santa seem to have interbred to give Christ’s birthday a romantic flavour. At Christmas time last year, aspiring blind daters at a matchmaking event in Shanghai were encouraged to tell Santa which of the other participants they fancied most, so that he could help them hook up. Given the low success rate at such events, it might have been better to ask for an iPhone.
例如，去年聖誕節當天，僅在中國南方一座城市的一個區，就有250對新人在婚姻登記處登記結婚。在西方，很少有人選擇在聖誕節當天結婚，以免賓客因要出席婚禮儀式不得不錯過聖誕鵝而發牢騷（反正中國的賓客不出席登記處婚禮儀式）。在中國，丘比特(Cupid)和聖誕老人(Santa)似乎已合爲一體，給耶穌的生日帶來浪漫的情調。去年聖誕節期間在上海舉行的一場婚介活動中，主辦方鼓勵躊躇滿志的相親者告訴聖誕老人他們最喜歡哪一位參與者，這樣聖誕老人就可以幫助他們牽線搭橋。考慮到這種活動的低成功率，可能當時還不如向聖誕老人討要一部iPhone。So why do the Chinese celebrate Christmas if it’s got nothing to do with Christ, mass or virgin mothers (that last matter being particularly unpopular, if not illegal, under the so-called “one-child” policy)?
如果中國的聖誕節與基督、彌撒或處女母親（最後一類事物在所謂的“一胎化”政策下即使不違法，也是特別不受歡迎的）無關，那麼中國人爲何還要慶祝這個節日呢？Adrian Cheng, heir to the Chow Tai Fook jewellery store empire that has been selling baubles to mainlanders for decades, says the past five years have experienced a big boom in giving Christmas presents. “Chinese love festive occasions. If you give them a reason for a festive occasion they will do it, even if they don’t understand the meaning behind it,” he says.
珠寶零售帝國周大福(Chow Tai Fook)的繼承人鄭志剛(Adrian Cheng)說，過去五年出現了送聖誕禮物的大熱潮。他表示：“中國人喜歡節日場合。如果你給他們一個歡慶某個節日的理由，他們就會去慶祝這個節日，即使不明白其背後的意義。”周大福在內地市場銷售飾品已有幾十年了。Chinese sociologists say a lot of it has to do with working too hard; Chinese workers are under so much pressure to perform that they seize any excuse to lighten up.
中國的社會學家表示，這種現象在很大程度上與工作太辛苦有關；中國勞動者工作壓力非常大，因此他們會抓住一切理由放鬆自己。Lucky for them the older generation doesn’t celebrate the holiday at all — so they don’t have to visit them. The twenty-somethings may pick up a fetching set of reindeer antlers to wear on a date, but they leave the rest of the decorating to restaurants and shopping malls. Few bother with trees at home — what a relief that must be — and no one makes their own cranberry sauce.
對他們來說，幸運的是老一輩人從不過這個節，所以不必去看望他們。二十多歲的年輕人或許會在約會時拿出一套引人注目的馴鹿角戴上，但他們會讓餐館和購物中心來負責其餘的裝飾工作。很少有人勞神在家裏佈置聖誕樹（這肯定讓他們省了不少心），而且沒人自己做蔓越莓醬。“In the west we make turkey at home, but when I go to holiday meals in Beijing, the turkey is catered by Kempinski and the log cake is from the Ritz,” says Sara Jane Ho of Institute Sarita, etiquette maven to the nouveau riche.
瑞雅禮儀(Institute Sarita)的何佩嶸(Sara Jane Ho)說，“在西方，我們在家裏製作火雞，但我在北京吃節日大餐時，火雞是由凱賓斯基(Kempinski)製作的，而樹根蛋糕來自麗茲(The Ritz)。”瑞雅禮儀是向暴發戶傳授禮儀的專業機構。“In China, there’s no Black Friday,” she says, referring to another “tradition” that didn’t exist when I believed in Rudolf. “But in China, the whole of December is black December” as retailers compete for that Yuletide renminbi.
“中國沒有黑色星期五(Black Friday)，”何佩嶸在提及另一項“傳統”時說道。這項“傳統”在我相信世上存在魯道夫時可並不存在。“但在中國，整個12月都是黑色的”，其間零售商會彼此展開競爭，爭取在聖誕節前後多賺人民幣。Christmas, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving — China shopped in the cultural supermarket and decided to import them all. But watch out: the trade in holidays is no longer just one way, says Global Times, the English version of the official People’s Daily. It claims that “Single’s Day”, the $9bn shopping holiday popularised overseas by Alibaba and known in China as “Double 11” (as it occurs on November 11), may be China’s first exportable modern holiday.
聖誕節、萬聖節(Halloween)、情人節(Valentine's Day)、感恩節(Thanksgiving)——中國置身於文化超級市場，決定全部引進。但要注意：官方喉舌《人民日報》(People’s Daily)旗下刊物、《環球時報》(Global Times)英文版稱，節日貿易不再是單向的。該報稱，由阿里巴巴(Alibaba)推廣到海外的、銷售規模達90億美元的購物節日“光棍節”（由於發生在11月11日，在中國也被稱爲“雙11”），可能是中國首個可出口的現代節日。“The Double 11, a festival created by Chinese people, is now shoulder to shoulder with western festivals like Christmas or Valentine’s Day, and perhaps even overpowers them,” the paper crowed, adding that its “strong emotional appeal has started to infiltrate foreign countries” and could become “the first symbol of China’s ‘soft power’”.
該報得意地稱：“中國人創造的節日‘雙11’現已可以比肩西方的節日如聖誕節或情人節，甚至可能蓋過了它們。”該報還稱，這個節日“強大的情緒感染力已開始滲透到國外”，而且有可能成爲“中國‘軟實力’的首個標誌”。That’s one way to fill the spiritual void, I guess: pack it full of Taobao packages. Probably works as well as filling it with Christmas trees.
我覺得，這是一種填補精神空虛的方式，即用淘寶(Taobao)包裹來把它塞滿。這很可能與用聖誕樹來填滿它一樣管用。
