Discourse as Cultural Struggle

6. A Chinese Christmas Story

6 A Chinese Christmas Story Gary Sigley Introduction The object of this chapter is to tell a Chinese Christmas story. Christmas iconography in the shape of the Christmas tree, Santa Claus, reindeer, and tinsel is becoming increasingly visible in China, particularly in urban areas. Where once such displays were restricted to large hotels that catered to foreigners, and foreign student dormitories on Chinese university and college campuses, the iconography of Christmas has now found its way into department stores, restaurants, nightclubs, and even small “mom and pop” enterprises. Christmas has become an increasingly important commercial event in the cycles of consumption that now characterize China’s consumer economy. The Chinese Christmas story that I wish to tell here attempts to place this phenomenon in the broader context of China’s unfolding social transformation in a way that highlights the complexity and interconnectivity of political, economic, and cultural domains and discourses in contemporary China. Does the spread of Christmas mean that Christianity is gaining ground in China? According to official government figures, the number of Christians in China is only equivalent to approximately one percent of the population. Other estimates, which include underground churches that do not figure in official statistics, put the size of the Christian community at ten percent. However, even if we take the larger figure, this does not explain the dramatic pace, expansion, and sheer visibility of Christmas in China over the last several years. Put simply, the majority of persons taking part in Christmas festivities in China are not Christian. Therefore, rather than viewing it through the grid of religion, we should read Christmas in China as a manifestation of China’s increasing integration into a global consumer economy that will have far-reaching political, economic, and cultural implications. 92 Gary Sigley Since the beginning of economic and social reform in 1978, the Chinese party-state has actively encouraged the development of a consumer society. Deng Xiaoping argued that, in order for socialism to have continued relevance in China, it had to deliver sustained material benefits to ordinary people. The primary goal is to resolve the “food and clothing problem” (WENBAO WENTI). This has by and large been achieved for many people in urban China, and some rural areas, particularly along the eastern seaboard. In these locales, the task has become one of satisfying, and indeed creating, demand for consumer products. As incomes have risen in these regions, a consumer and leisure economy has also emerged. The focus on production that was a hallmark of Maoist socialism has now been supplemented by an emphasis on consumption. The party-state has taken the visibility of consumption and leisure, which a visit to a bustling metropolis like Shanghai will confirm, as vindication that the reform process is reaping benefits for Chinese citizen-consumers. However, the dazzling display of consumer goods and leisure lifestyles obscures the flipside of consumption: not all subjects in the People’s Republic qualify as “citizenconsumers .” In the factories of Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces, migrant workers toil to make much of the consumer products that will grace the display panels of department stores and shopping precincts not just in China but in many other sites around the globe. For many of the migrant workers who come from poor rural communities, full participation in the consumer society lies out of reach; they cannot fully share the fruits of their own labor. The Christmas story that I wish to tell here centers on this duality of consumption and production. The study of Christmas in contemporary China affords us an excellent opportunity to examine the complexity of globalization in a way that cuts across and highlights the interconnectivity of political, economic, and cultural domains. As a political issue, Christmas in China, although extremely commercialized and secular, cannot be completely disassociated from the Christian religion. The Communist Party of China has always had an uneasy relationship with religion. Christianity is particularly problematic insofar as it is viewed as closely tied to the penetration of Western imperialism and colonialism throughout the modern era. Christmas is also problematic because its sheer visibility in the urban landscape simply reinforces the fact that the monopoly the party-state once had over public space has long since eroded; it must now share the streetscape with blatant commercial interests. In many cases, the party-state has happily reconciled itself to this situation as it shifts its emphasis from Marxist ideology to a combination of nationalism and “bread and circuses.” The phenomenon of Christmas, however, reinforces...