Christmas, long banned in China along with Christianity itself, is a fascinating Chinese contradiction: a booming business and ultra-popular holiday in the world’s leading Communist and officially non-religious state. The Christmas tradition is quite young there, but just like so many foreign customs that China has for centuries absorbed and made its own, the holiday has already developed its own Chinese characteristics. They are revealing, fascinating, and at points quite baffling – for an outsider.
圣诞节和基督教在中国长期被禁止,“现已成为一个令人着迷的中国矛盾:圣诞节在中国已成为一个非常受欢迎的节日,相关的生意非常红火,但中国并不是一个宗教国家。圣诞节传统在中国还很年轻,但是与中国数百年来吸收和改造的许多外国风俗一样,中国的圣诞节也越来越具有中国特色。对于外来者来说,这些中国特色有时令人着迷,有时令人困惑。

1. Christmas is treated more like Saint Patrick’s Day or Valentine’s Day.
人们对待圣诞节更像是在过圣帕特里克节或者情人节。

That is, it’s a lighthearted day for going out and being with friends, not for staying in with family, as we do in the West. Typical ways to celebrate include seeing a movie, going to a karaoke bar, or shopping. China Daily says Christmas Eve is the biggest shopping day of the year. Young couples often treat it as a romantic day. Ice skating and amusement parks are popular destinations.
也就是说这是外出、和朋友们在一起的放松日,并不是像西方人那样和家人在一起。中国人过圣诞节的典型活动包括看电影、去卡拉OK吧或者购物。《中国日报》的报道称,圣诞前夕是年度销售额最大的日子。年轻的情侣们经常把圣诞节当作一个浪漫的日子过,滑冰场和游乐园是很受欢迎的目的地。

2. Chinese Christians still face restrictions against a Western-style holiday.
中国式圣诞节的宗教色彩很淡。

As huge numbers of urban Chinese celebrate a commercialized and religiously sterilized version of Christmas, the country’s 68 million Christians (about 5 percent of the population) have a tougher time. Religious practice is tightly regulated by the government, with acts such as caroling variously forbidden or allowed. It’s better than it used to be; informal “house churches” are officially forbidden but typically tolerated. When the government began allowing the more commercialized version of Christmas to prosper starting in the 1990s, it had the effect, deliberate or not, of overshadowing the Western-style version, reducing the holiday’s religious connotations. In a way, the more popular Christmas gets in China, the less Christian it becomes.
大量中国城市居民庆祝的是一个商业化、宗教色彩很淡的圣诞节,而中国680万的基督徒(占人口5%)的日子不怎么好过。中国政府对宗教活动进行严格控制,比如是否允许唱颂歌都是因地而异的。这已经比过去好很多了,虽是官方禁止的非正式“家庭教会”但通常都是被容忍的。从1990年代政府允许商业化的圣诞节开始兴旺,中国圣诞节就有意无意地遮蔽西方圣诞节,减少节日与宗教的联系。从某种程度而言,基督教在中国越是流行,它与基督教的联系也越不紧密。

3. There is a “war on Christmas” in China.
民族主义者反对中国过圣诞节。

Some nationalist critics have accused the West of using the holiday as a tool of foreign imperialism. This is from Chinese journalist Helen Gao’s great article on Christmas’s evolution in China:
一些民族主义者指责西方利用圣诞节作为外国帝国主义的工具。以下是一位中国记者所写的关于圣诞节在中国的发展的文章节选:

While some in America fight to resurface the holiday’s spiritual significance, Christmas-bashers in China warn against allowing Western culture to contaminate Chinese civilization. Shortly before Christmas in 2006, ten post-doctoral students from Peking University, Tsinghua University, and other elite colleges penned an open letter asking Chinese people to boycott Christmas and resist the invasion of “western soft power.” They warned, “[Christmas celebrators in China] are doing what western missionaries dreamed to do but didn’t succeed in doing 100 years ago.” The letter added, “Chinese people need to treat Christmas cautiously, and support the dominance of our own culture.”
一些人在美国为复兴圣诞节的精神意义做抗争,而另一方面,中国反对圣诞节的人则警告不要让西方文化污染中华文明。北京大学、清华大学、和其它名校的10名博士后2006年圣诞节前夕曾发公开信,请求中国民众抵制圣诞节,抵抗外国软实力的入侵。他们警告称,“中国的圣诞节庆祝者是在做西方传教士100年前一直梦想但却没有成功的事情。”公开信中还提到,“中国人民需要小心对待圣诞节,支持自己文化的主导性。”

4. Fancy,cellophane-wrapped ‘Christmas apples’ are a common gift.
用玻璃纸包装的“平安果”是常见礼物

This is because the word “apple” apparently sounds like “Christmas eve” in Mandarin. The apples might bear fancy wrapping and be printed with holiday messages, such as this apple bearing Santa Claus’s likeness and the words “Merry X-Mas.”
这是因为苹果的普通话发音与“平安”有点像。苹果可以用各种有新意的方式进行包装,印上节日信息,例如这只苹果上可以印上圣诞老人头像或者“圣诞快乐”字样。

5. Jesus who? It’s all about Santa (and his “sisters”).
耶稣是谁?圣诞节是圣诞老人和他“姐妹”的节日。

Americans are familiar with the shopping mall practice of having young workers, typically women, dress up as Santa’s “helper elves.” In China, the fact that these costumed women are supposed to be elves is apparently lost in translation sometimes, with the women simply known as Santa’s friends or “sisters.” And Santas often travel in packs.
美国人已很熟悉购物中心让年轻的工作人员尤其是女性打扮成圣诞老人的“精灵助手”的做法。在中国,本应被打扮成精灵的女性显然是迷失在翻译中,这些女性被称作圣诞老人的朋友或者“姐妹”。圣诞老人经常成堆出现。

6. In China, Santa Claus is often shown playing the saxophone.
在中国,圣诞老人经常演奏萨克管。

The holiday’s mascot is well-known, although for some reason he is portrayed, with startling frequency, as jamming out on a sax, Bill Clinton-style. Sometimes he is playing a trumpet or French horn. I have tried and failed to find the roots of this tradition.
作为圣诞节的吉祥物,圣诞老人是众所周知的。不过,他越来越多地以演奏萨克管的形象出现,有时候演奏的是喇叭或者是圆号。这个潮流不知起源于何故。

7. Chinese state media now brags that China makes American Christmas possible.
中国官方媒体称,中国使美国人过圣诞节成为可能。

That’s right: not so long after the Chinese government persecuted Christians, sometimes violently, its largest media outlet is boasting that Christmas would not be possible without China. The state-run People’s Daily on Monday announces, “American fellows, it is Christmas time, a time to wake up, have a strong cup of coffee, and see what gifts a Chinese Santa Claus really delivers.” The article argues that the West could not celebrate Christmas without China’s exports and that we should spend the holiday expressing gratitude for Chinese manufacturing. The article concludes, “This Christmas morning, when you wake up and smell this couple of coffee, accept your gifts with gratitude.”
这是真的,《人民日报》周一写道:“美国人,这是圣诞时间,是醒来的时候了,喝上一杯咖啡,看看中国圣诞老人给你们带来了什么礼物。”这篇文章称,如果没有中国的出口商品,西方将无法庆祝圣诞节,西方人应当在过圣诞节时向中国制造业表示感谢。文章称:“在这个圣诞节早上,当你醒来时,闻到咖啡的香味,请心怀感谢地接受你的礼物。”

8. A 19th century Chinese Christian leader claimed to be Jesus’s brother, then started a civil war.
19世纪一个中国基督徒领袖声称是耶稣的兄弟,引发了内战

A man named Hong Xiuquan, born in 1814 as missionaries were spreading Christianity in China, had visions that led him to believe that he was the second son of God, who had commanded him to ride China of sacrilegious practices. Hong formed a movement called the Heavenly Kingdom, which rose up and came to control vast swathes of southern China. The civil war of 1850 to 1864, also known as the Taiping Rebellion, ultimately killed perhaps 20 million people, or approximately as many people as World War One. I don’t want to suggest that this justifies China’s treatment of Christians today, but perhaps it can give you a sense for why the religion can make the government so skittish.
1814年出生的传教士洪秀全在中国传播基督教,他相信自己是上帝的第二个儿子,而上帝让他帮助中国摆脱亵渎神灵的行为。洪秀全发起了太平天国运动,控制了中国南部大部分地区。这场从1850年持续到1864年的内战被称为太平天国起义,最终大约200万人死亡,相当于第一次世界大战的死亡人数。提到这件事并不是要为中国现在对基督教的政策做辩护,而是从这个例子可以看出为什么政府对于基督教会如此忌惮。