金融时报:圣诞“怪”节在中国

所属教程:金融时报原文阅读

浏览:

2021年12月14日

手机版

扫描二维码方便学习和分享

圣诞“怪”节在中国

在中国，圣诞节与历史、传统、亲属或礼物转送无关，它堂而皇之且无愧坦然地只关乎金钱和欢乐。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

etiquette['etɪ.ket] 礼仪

void[vɔɪd] 空白；空虚

grouse[ɡraʊs] 抱怨；发牢骚

fetching['fetʃɪŋ] 吸引人的

Yuletide['jul.taɪd] 圣诞节期间

maven ['meɪvən] 专家；内行

Rudolf 红鼻子驯鹿鲁道夫

pseudo- 伪……的

China has all the gifts but no guilt at Christmas(726 words)

By Patti Waldmeir December 22, 2014 1:14 pm

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).

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.

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. 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)?

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.

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.

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.

“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.

“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.

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.

“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'”.

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.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The word “angst” in the first paragraph can be replaced by “____”.

A.bliss

B.enmity

C.anxiety

D.contentment

答案(1)

2.What is “Christmas goose”?

A.The official mascot for Christmas.

B.A popular gift to give on Christmas.

C.A kind of traditional food for Christmas.