圣誕節(jié)在中國 不涉及靈魂方面

Christmas lost its soul in the west around the timethat I stopped believing in Rudolf, and it’s been asource of angst for those who care about suchthings for all the decades since. But in China theholiday never had much soul to begin with. That’swhat makes it such fun.

大約是在我不再相信世上真的存在紅鼻子馴鹿魯?shù)婪?Rudolf)的時候，圣誕節(jié)(Christmas)在西方失去了它的靈魂。自那以來的幾十年里，它已成為在意這些事的人的焦慮來源。但在中國，圣誕節(jié)從一開始就不涉及多少靈魂方面的內(nèi)容。正因如此，它才變得如此有趣。

Christmas in China has nothing to do with history, tradition, relatives or regifting. It is,gloriously and unashamedly, about money and fun. Mainlanders celebrate Christmas — andthey do celebrate it, even though it’s not a public holiday — by shopping, eating out, maybedoing a bit of karaoke and then more shopping. There’s none of the guilt, stress or familyfriction of Yuletide in the west (or for that matter, lunar new year in China).

在中國，圣誕節(jié)與歷史、傳統(tǒng)、親屬或禮物轉(zhuǎn)送無關(guān)。它堂而皇之且無愧坦然地只關(guān)乎金錢和歡樂。中國內(nèi)地人慶祝圣誕節(jié)(他們真的慶祝，盡管它并非公共假日)的方式是購物、外出就餐，可能會唱唱卡拉OK，然后繼續(xù)購物，絲毫不牽扯西方圣誕節(jié)期間(或中國春節(jié)期間)往往會涉及的自責(zé)、壓力或家庭摩擦。

China does have Christians, but it has far more people who celebrate Christmas than believe init. That disconnect exists globally too. But in China, Christmas without the benefit ofChristianity is more of a romantic holiday than a pseudo-religious one.

中國確有基督徒，但中國慶祝圣誕節(jié)的人要比信基督教的人多很多。這種脫節(jié)在全球都存在。但在中國，不附帶基督教精神裨益的圣誕節(jié)更多的是一個浪漫的節(jié)日，而非偽宗教節(jié)日。

Last year on Christmas Day, for example, 250 couples married at the registry office in onedistrict of one southern city alone. In the west, few people choose to marry on that day, toavoid grousing from guests about having to skip the Christmas goose to attend theceremony (guests don’t attend registry weddings in China anyhow). In China, Cupid and Santaseem to have interbred to give Christ’s birthday a romantic flavour. At Christmas time lastyear, aspiring blind daters at a matchmaking event in Shanghai were encouraged to tell Santawhich of the other participants they fancied most, so that he could help them hook up. Giventhe low success rate at such events, it might have been better to ask for an iPhone.

例如，去年圣誕節(jié)當(dāng)天，僅在中國南方一座城市的一個區(qū)，就有250對新人在婚姻登記處登記結(jié)婚。在西方，很少有人選擇在圣誕節(jié)當(dāng)天結(jié)婚，以免賓客因要出席婚禮儀式不得不錯過圣誕鵝而發(fā)牢騷(反正中國的賓客不出席登記處婚禮儀式)。在中國，丘比特(Cupid)和圣誕老人(Santa)似乎已合為一體，給耶穌的生日帶來浪漫的情調(diào)。去年圣誕節(jié)期間在上海舉行的一場婚介活動中，主辦方鼓勵躊躇滿志的相親者告訴圣誕老人他們最喜歡哪一位參與者，這樣圣誕老人就可以幫助他們牽線搭橋?？紤]到這種活動的低成功率，可能當(dāng)時還不如向圣誕老人討要一部iPhone。

So why do the Chinese celebrate Christmas if it’s got nothing to do with Christ, mass or virginmothers (that last matter being particularly unpopular, if not illegal, under the so-called “one-child” policy)?

如果中國的圣誕節(jié)與基督、彌撒或處女母親(最后一類事物在所謂的“一胎化”政策下即使不違法，也是特別不受歡迎的)無關(guān)，那么中國人為何還要慶祝這個節(jié)日呢?

Adrian Cheng, heir to the Chow Tai Fook jewellery store empire that has been selling baubles tomainlanders for decades, says the past five years have experienced a big boom in givingChristmas presents. “Chinese love festive occasions. If you give them a reason for a festiveoccasion they will do it, even if they don’t understand the meaning behind it,” he says.

珠寶零售帝國周大福(Chow Tai Fook)的繼承人鄭志剛(Adrian Cheng)說，過去五年出現(xiàn)了送圣誕禮物的大熱潮。他表示：“中國人喜歡節(jié)日場合。如果你給他們一個歡慶某個節(jié)日的理由，他們就會去慶祝這個節(jié)日，即使不明白其背后的意義。”周大福在內(nèi)地市場銷售飾品已有幾十年了。

Chinese sociologists say a lot of it has to do with working too hard; Chinese workers are underso much pressure to perform that they seize any excuse to lighten up.

中國的社會學(xué)家表示，這種現(xiàn)象在很大程度上與工作太辛苦有關(guān);中國勞動者工作壓力非常大，因此他們會抓住一切理由放松自己。

Lucky for them the older generation doesn’t celebrate the holiday at all — so they don’t haveto visit them. The twenty-somethings may pick up a fetching set of reindeer antlers to wear ona date, but they leave the rest of the decorating to restaurants and shopping malls. Fewbother with trees at home — what a relief that must be — and no one makes their owncranberry sauce.

對他們來說，幸運的是老一輩人從不過這個節(jié)，所以不必去看望他們。二十多歲的年輕人或許會在約會時拿出一套引人注目的馴鹿角戴上，但他們會讓餐館和購物中心來負(fù)責(zé)其余的裝飾工作。很少有人勞神在家里布置圣誕樹(這肯定讓他們省了不少心)，而且沒人自己做蔓越莓醬。

“In the west we make turkey at home, but when I go to holiday meals in Beijing, the turkey iscatered by Kempinski and the log cake is from the Ritz,” says Sara Jane Ho of Institute Sarita,etiquette maven to the nouveau riche.

瑞雅禮儀(Institute Sarita)的何佩嶸(Sara Jane Ho)說，“在西方，我們在家里制作火雞，但我在北京吃節(jié)日大餐時，火雞是由凱賓斯基(Kempinski)制作的，而樹根蛋糕來自麗茲(The Ritz)。”瑞雅禮儀是向暴發(fā)戶傳授禮儀的專業(yè)機構(gòu)。

“In China, there’s no Black Friday,” she says, referring to another “tradition” that didn’t existwhen I believed in Rudolf. “But in China, the whole of December is black December” as retailerscompete for that Yuletide renminbi.

“中國沒有黑色星期五(Black Friday)，”何佩嶸在提及另一項“傳統(tǒng)”時說道。這項“傳統(tǒng)”在我相信世上存在魯?shù)婪驎r可并不存在。“但在中國，整個12月都是黑色的”，其間零售商會彼此展開競爭，爭取在圣誕節(jié)前后多賺人民幣。

Christmas, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving — China shopped in the culturalsupermarket and decided to import them all. But watch out: the trade in holidays is no longerjust one way, says Global Times, the English version of the official People’s Daily. It claims that“Single’s Day”, the $9bn shopping holiday popularised overseas by Alibaba and known in Chinaas “Double 11” (as it occurs on November 11), may be China’s first exportable modern holiday.

圣誕節(jié)、萬圣節(jié)(Halloween)、情人節(jié)(Valentine's Day)、感恩節(jié)(Thanksgiving)——中國置身于文化超級市場，決定全部引進(jìn)。但要注意：官方喉舌《人民日報》(People’s Daily)旗下刊物、《環(huán)球時報》(GlobalTimes)英文版稱，節(jié)日貿(mào)易不再是單向的。該報稱，由阿里巴巴(Alibaba)推廣到海外的、銷售規(guī)模達(dá)90億美元的購物節(jié)日“光棍節(jié)”(由于發(fā)生在11月11日，在中國也被稱為“雙11”)，可能是中國首個可出口的現(xiàn)代節(jié)日。

“The Double 11, a festival created by Chinese people, is now shoulder to shoulder withwestern festivals like Christmas or Valentine’s Day, and perhaps even overpowers them,” thepaper crowed, adding that its “strong emotional appeal has started to infiltrate foreigncountries” and could become “the first symbol of China’s ‘soft power’”.

該報得意地稱：“中國人創(chuàng)造的節(jié)日‘雙11’現(xiàn)已可以比肩西方的節(jié)日如圣誕節(jié)或情人節(jié)，甚至可能蓋過了它們。”該報還稱，這個節(jié)日“強大的情緒感染力已開始滲透到國外”，而且有可能成為“中國‘軟實力’的首個標(biāo)志”。

That’s one way to fill the spiritual void, I guess: pack it full of Taobao packages. Probablyworks as well as filling it with Christmas trees.

我覺得，這是一種填補精神空虛的方式，即用淘寶(Taobao)包裹來把它塞滿。這很可能與用圣誕樹來填滿它一樣管用。