Mentally, Shanghai is the westernmost city in China - with the exception of the special administrative areas - so there is something like Christmas here. The average Chinese, however, does not know the festival and does not celebrate it, it is a matter for the international retail chains. At my school, which is also international as a foreign language school, many students know it, are curious or they have even spent some time abroad and have already seen the feast in their German host families in Leer in East Frisia, Gütersloh in East Westphalia or Hanau and baked cookies with German grandmothers. My school has organized a lot for us foreign teachers, among other things with the aim that we can celebrate Christmas in community. I was asked if I had anything planned over the holidays, with the thought that I shouldn't be alone. The Chinese understand the meaning of Christmas very well. There is the Chinese New Year here, which in my opinion is much more important than Christmas in Germany. For the Chinese, being alone at the New Year festival would be quite shocking, which, by the way, hit some of my colleagues last year because of Corona, as their families live in other provinces.
The German department - at least 14 colleagues - celebrated Christmas; not all of them can be seen in one photo because we partied in the afternoons during school days and some came later. There was also mulled wine and Christmas delicacies flown in from Germany such as marzipan potatoes, dominoes, but also Chinese delicacies such as hawthorn berry skewers etc. The next day, the school invited the foreign language teachers and some Chinese language teachers to the Intercontinental Hotel for a Christmas dinner. A rather solemn evening with the consuls of the nations whose languages are taught at the school. And on Christmas Eve we colleagues had made an appointment, a few friends joined us and it was an atmospheric, happy get-together until late at night. You could have thought it was New Year's Eve. What was missing was the solemn and contemplative mood. That seems to me to be something very German, which perhaps has its origins in Romanticism, the epoch of longing. You long for a white Christmas, carefree days and much more. But longings are associated with the feeling that what you long for will not be achieved. Contemplative - the synonym is "thoughtful", "submerged". Do Germans have a penchant for this? In many countries, Christmas is celebrated louder and louder.
Und während Weihnachten auf dem Höhepunkt war, merkt man jetzt allmählich die Vorboten für das größte Fest der Chinesen, das Neujahrsfest.
Es wird das Jahr des Tigers und in wenigen Wochen lassen es die Chinesen richtig krachen - allerdings leider wieder mit starken Einschränkungen wegen Corona.
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