China city bans Christmas in schools, warns over 'Western' culture

jus

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Women wearing bikinis and Santa Claus hats participate in a promotional event to celebrate the upcoming Christmas at a ski resort in Xuchang, Henan province, December 23, 2014.

A Chinese city has banned schools from holding Christmas events, state media reported on Thursday, highlighting official suspicions about the increasingly popular festival because of its foreign origins.

China's Christian population, currently estimated at around 60 million, is rapidly growing and Christmas is increasingly marked in the country ruled by the officially atheist Communist Party.

But the government education bureau in Wenzhou, an eastern Chinese coastal city sometimes called "China's Jerusalem" because of its large Christian population, banned schools from holding "Christmas-related" events, the Global Times reported.

Local officials "hope schools can pay more attention to Chinese traditional festivals instead of Western traditions", said the tabloid, which has close ties to the Communist Party.

But authorities in Wenzhou this year launched a demolition campaign aimed at local churches, with more than 400 forced to remove visible crosses and some completely destroyed.

The ban came as a university in central China required students to watch a documentary about Chinese sage Confucius instead of celebrating Christmas.

"Be good sons and daughters of your country, stand against kitsch Western holidays," a banner on the campus of Northwest University in the ancient city of Xi'an said, according to photographs posted online.

"Resist the expansion of Western culture," read another.

A university spokesman told the state-run Guangming Daily that the school appealed to the students to pay more attention to Chinese traditional culture, and not to "idolise foreign festivals".

The newspaper added: "Each year Christmas brings debate, with one side saying that the festival can bring a lot of new fun things, and another side saying that we should not fawn over foreign things and overlook Chinese traditional festivals."

China's Communist party periodically issues broadsides against "Western cultural infiltration" amid growing consumption of foreign movies, music and other goods.

The microblog of the ruling party mouthpiece, the People's daily, displayed pictures of around 10 university students in the central province of Hunan holding an anti-Christmas street protest.

China city bans Christmas in schools, warns over 'Western' culture - Times LIVE
ummmmmm no comment
 

nrj

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I am surprised that this was permitted previously.
 

Redhawk

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When I lived in Zhongshan City, Christmas cards were sent among Chinese and if not actually celebrated in the Western manner, it was at least seen as a time to be marked by exchanging Christmas cards through the post.

And in Taiwan, Christmas decorations went up in department stores and everyone wore a Santa Claus hat in shops. Christmas was commercially promoted if not celebrated in Taiwanese households.
 
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Redhawk

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"Be good sons and daughters of your country, stand against kitsch Western holidays," a banner on the campus of Northwest University in the ancient city of Xi'an said, according to photographs posted online.
Quite right! The Chinese don't need kitsch Western holidays when the Chinese have their own kitsch Chinese holidays to observe. :lol:
 

Ray

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The Chinese are very apprehension of all religions since religion can influence the minds of the people that may be contrarion to the teachings and diktats of the Communist Party of China and its political thought. If religion takes control of the mindset of even a few Chinese, it can lead to disharmony and instability. Such situation would be most dangerous for the CPC and may go out of control.

That is the reason why all religion are monitored by the CPC and the priestly class can preach only what is vetted, cleared and authorised, by the monitoring CPC apparatchik.

The Chinese are even more worried about 'foreign' religions such as Christianity and Islam since they are influenced by external heads of the Church or the Muslim religious order. This thus can subvert the Communist Party party line. from the Chinese point of view what is happening in Tibet and Xinjiang are examples. The Dalai Lama has been portrayed as a cannibal even though such harsh epithets are not addressed to the Muslims for political reasons since China is dependant heavily on the Middle East and North Africa for oil. Had there been no oil in these areas of Muslim dominance, China would have abused them in even more strident terms.

Christianity is making great strides in China and it has got the CPC scared and hence they are doing everything to dilute the influence like demolishing Churches, putting obstacles and 'educating' the people to avoid non Chinese kitsch.
 
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Redhawk

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Christianity is making great strides in China and it has got the CPC scared and hence they are doing everything to dilute the influence like demolishing Churches, putting obstacles and 'educating' the people to avoid non Chinese kitsch.
Again, quite right. They should avoid non-Chinese kitsch like the plague and stick to their purely homegrown Chinese kitsch. :laugh:
 
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mattster

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Pretty soon China may start telling its citizens when to take a shit......:rofl:
 

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