China-style Christmas

(warning, this is practically book-length).

For all of you that were wondering (and really, even if you weren’t wondering), I had a great Christmas. My students and friends really helped to make it special. They were so excited to learn more about Christmas. They knew that it was important to me so they brought cards and presents and Christmas wishes. Once a student said, “We have a language barrier and our cultures our different. We don’t always understand each other, but we have warm hearts.” In these past few weeks I have definitely experienced the warmth of their hearts.

On Christmas Eve I had one of my classes over for a Christmas party. I was busy refilling food and drinks while they made snowflakes and Christmas cards. They started playing some card games (the girls and guys even playing together!). I’m not sure what they were playing, but they were laughing and yelling and really getting into it! I was exhausted, but I liked watching them have so much fun.

The Christmas Eve service that I was kind of dreading I actually ended up really enjoying! Something about being around so many people is exhilarating, and I have never seen so many people in Yangzhou as I did on Christmas Eve! Christmas is starting to become popular in China, but it is mostly celebrated on Christmas Eve, by going out to dinner or partying in town.

Several students went with me to the service, and we left about an hour earlier. When we got to the bus stop outside the campus gate, there were already about 20 people waiting. Normally there are about 2. Two buses passed by without stopping because they were too full to take on any more passengers. Not America full, but China full, meaning it would be physically impossible to squeeze one more person through the door. Finally the third bus stopped. There were still about two feet of space in front of the door, so it let us on. About a dozen people crowded into that space. It was definitely the most crowded bus I’ve ever been on, including the ones I took in Beijing.

We got off at the stop near downtown and walked the rest of the way. Everyone who lives in the Yangzhou area must have been downtown. I’m a terrible judge of numbers, but there must have been thousands. We passed the Pizza Hut and the 100 foot line outside. The buildings were lit up and purple, green, and blue spot lights swung across the sky. Shops competed with one another to see who could blare their music the loudest.

Guards were waiting at the door of the church to ward off anyone who did not have tickets. The building was already packed past capacity. We were ushered to an empty pew at the very front to the side of the stage. We had a great view of everyone in the audience and of the twelve foot Christmas tree by the stage. And we could see about half of the performance.

The performance was definitely Chinese. Since that doesn’t mean a whole lot to you, it’s hard to describe. The choir sang Christmas songs. Young women danced traditional dances and old women performed traditional drum routines. Men performed skits and recited poetry. Cute children danced and sang. A group played classical Chinese instruments. I’m not sure what they all were, but my favorite was the guqin (zithers) because they sounded similar to harp.

Altogether there were 16 performances. It was certainly not peaceful or candlelit. Throughout the whole performance, there were people talking, walking in front of the stage, and loudly blowing their noses. Babies were crying. Children were running around, playing with the Christmas tree, and playing with the impromptu stage curtain. But they were enjoying it. I couldn’t understand the skits, but I smiled when everyone laughed because I loved to see their happiness.
At the end, the choir sang the Hallelujah Chorus in Chinese. If you've ever heard the Hallelujah Chorus performed, it sounded nothing like that. It was joyful cacophony. I think about half of the notes were off, but it was still incredible. Sung in Chinese, sung in China, the song had new meaning. I had tears in my eyes. It would have been a perfect ending, but then Santa Clause came out and sang Silent Night in English. It was random. That’s how things work in China.

Afterwards we decided to walk home. The buses were still running, even though they normally stop at 6:30pm, but they were still packed. It was only about 45 minutes back to campus. The night was surprisingly warm and still filled with lights and people. As we got outside of the center of town the night became quieter and cooler. It was beautiful.

On Christmas morning I celebrated with the rest of the team. We opened stockings and had brunch (with homemade cinnamon rolls and gingerbread) in my apartment. Then we opened presents in Christina’s apartment. We got presents for each other. The Brennans had gotten several things when they were in Beijing (Dr. Pepper and Starbucks coffee!), the rest of us found things in Yangzhou (hats, gloves, pink bunny ears…), and a package from my family arrived just in time on Christmas day!

That evening we went out to dinner with some brothers and sisters we meet with here. They are special people. We still have the same language and culture barriers, but our common bond brings us close. We went to a restaurant near campus and ordered all our favorite dishes. Then we came back to play games and eat desert. Certain games can be challenging because of the language barriers, but we laughed a lot and everyone had a good time.

Before Christmas I was stressed and just wanting it to be over. After Christmas (namely, at 6am Monday morning), I was wishing it had lasted longer. I talked to my family on my Christmas but it wasn’t Christmas for them yet. Then I talked to them for just a minute on their Christmas before I rushed to catch the bus to go give my finals. Weird. It will also be weird at New Years. I’ll be in 2006 for a whole day before the rest of you get there. And yet, for the rest of China, it won’t be the New Year until January 28th.

While you may be feeling the after-Christmas blues, for me the best is yet to come. I’ve just got two more weeks of finals and then I’m headed off to Thailand! Warmth, sunshine, sandals. No long underwear, no gloves, no wool socks. The thought almost makes me delirious. Of course, before then I have to give (and grade) about 200 final interviews, record my final grades (and explain why several students failed), finish my Wheaton work (about 7 assignments to go…), clean the chaos that is now my house, and eat the 10 kg of oranges that the English department just delivered. We counted...51 oranges to divide between Corrine and I. I'm going to have so much vitamin C that germs will flee from me. :)