I always loved Christmas in Canada - the presence of snow as well a childhood memory of our most important
holiday.
Christmas in Hong Kong shows Hong Kong as a big tourist city, and that otherwise money grubbing landlords
have plenty to spend on their winter electrical bills, with magnificent lights strung around buildings that may contain few
Christians.
Everywhere the Shop Shop Shop ethic of Christmas prevails.
And yet at one Hong Kong owned school in Shenzhen, the Western teachers, deeply touched by the sight of children
making Christmas gifts for their teachers, were surprised to be bypassed on Christmas Day as the gifts were delivered only
to the Chinese teachers!
Try to imagine a Canadian school where the most important Chinese holiday - Spring Holiday - is glowingly celebrated,
with visitors from Chinese countries being ignored by the Caucasian children - it would cause a minor government scandal!
There must be some happy and truly felt Christmases felt here, and I think they would be in families who are
from countries where Christmas was an integral part of their society.
The first Hong Kong Christmas sight I viewed here was a crowd of locals descending on the Tiger Balm
mansion wearing red Santa Claus caps. These inane-looking hats are a staple here.
I had decided to see the beautiful home of the family that so cleverly discovered the ointment sold all
around the world as a mild headache reliever. The ingredients are commonplace, and I swear it's that adorable tiger
logo that made the product stand out on store shelves.
The great wealth of Hong Kong
means there are a huge amount of Noel activities going on, and at least the kids enjoy free Santa Claus visits, and hopefully
candies and gifts.
I saw dozens of school children
led by a woman conductor with blond hair, waving a baton, in a huge shopping mall. This sort of noisy activity
can also serve as public relations for both the mall and the school.
I did not hear one classic Christmas
song sung, and there is a limit to how many times you can hear Jingle Bells, especially when it is played here around the
year on cell phones.
Still, this must a big treat for
the kids, so you would not want to deny them that.
The trees here used by the big
hotels and in the lobbies of famous corporate buildings are breath-taking, imported from Canada and Russia, twenty feet tall
and perfectly formed.
I watch the mall staff fussing
with these trees, hanging the bulllbs and the tinsels at perfect mathemathical distances, and that is when my heart catches
in sorrow at the loss of my own culture, for I know it is under threat of being fired from their jobs that these
men in perfect uniforms attend so closely to their tasks.
The pressure cooker that this city is, it's sometimes turned lower, yet never off - even the Christmas charities
demand designer clothes on those who give.
Sometimes in today's too rapidly
changing world, the mechanisms ironically not only stand still in neutral, they turn around and drive in reverse.
Arielle Gabriel,
Hong Kong, December 20,
2005.
