Our Cultural differences

Shanghai in NY

I had a friend visiting here in New York City from Shanghai this week, spend a day with him exploring the city is an eye opening experience, especially during the holiday season in the big apple.

On the first day of his arrival to NYC, I took him on a walking tour around Union Square and the Chelsea neighborhood. When he saw the Christmas village in the square, he was amazed that American was really into shopping for gifts during the holidays, which is a different type of shopping than in Shanghai it is all about self-indulgence.

If you recall a post 2 years ago on my first Christmas in Shanghai, I wrote that there is no Christmas spirit there. In the materialistic world of Shanghai Christmas means nothing more than open season for bargain hunters. Time to get a new outfit for less for the well to do Chinese. For most foreigners in that city is either time to go visit their family or party on all the Christmas specials offered by the bars and restaurants.

When my friend saw children waiting in long lines to visit Santa, he was shocked. He knew a little about Santa, which he recalls as “Father Christmas”, but it is not a common sight in Shanghai, and virtually unknown in the rest of the rural areas of china. I found it interesting that an English speaking young professional knew very little about the Santa tradition. Come to think about it, I did not recall seeing Santa images anywhere in shanghai either. Isn’t that interesting?

As we walk along the streets on Chelsea, he saw vendors everywhere selling Christmas trees on the sidewalk, I explain to him that Christmas trees is a very important part of the Christmas tradition, the center piece of Home décor in the west, no different than the peach tree blossom during the Chinese New Year adorn the Chinese homes, except in Mainland China, that tradition is dying. I did not see any live Peach blossoms for sale at all, there are some broken off branches in some of the florists. No wonder he did not really understand why we have a tree at home.

When my friend finally saw the tree at the Rockefeller Center, and the crowded scene just to get a glimpse of the tree, he said he never experience so many people in one place even on the most crowded street in Shanghai, he definitely think we are over the top.

Our Christmas and thanksgiving is almost equivalent to the Chinese New year in scale. However, we hold on to our traditions more dearly than the Chinese to theirs. I am not sure how it is like in the rural areas. I can only speak of my own experience in Shanghai.

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