What happens when an agnostic Jew goes Christmas caroling in an atheist country?
I found out yesterday when my English teaching colleagues and I donned Santa hats and serenaded Chinese students with such Yuletide favorites as “Frosty the Snowman,’’ “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,’’ “Jingle Bell Rock’’ and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.’’
We performed our impromptu show in five classrooms, standing in front of the blackboard and singing along to background music taped by our co-worker Jennifer. She acted as our unofficial musical director, setting the order of the songs, printing out lyrics and telling us which parts to skip. Jennifer also had the best voice in our group, which included six teachers, one spouse and a 12-year-old bongo player.
Darren, a young Scotsman of Chinese descent, was the only teacher whose crooning was worse than mine. We both mumbled the lyrics and tried not to be conspicuous.
Even so, the students gave our ad-hoc choir a rousing reception. They laughed, clapped, tried to sing along and sent us off with an ovation.
Who needs the Mormon Tabernacle Choir?
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If you’re bothered by the rampant commercialization of Christmas in the U.S., you should come to Zhengzhou, where the holiday is barely recognized.
Christianity is a growing but still relatively small religion in China, where Buddhism and Taoism have the most followers. Accurate figures are hard to come by because the ruling Communist Party is atheist and only reluctantly tolerates religion.
At my university, there are almost no signs of Christmas besides the holiday wreath on our office door. I’ve seen a couple of Santa posters and one sickly Xmas tree, but that’s about it.
I’m sure there’s more visibility in Beijing and Shanghai, where Western influence is greater than in provincial cities like Zhengzhou. But if Christmas is your favorite time of year, China isn’t the place to be.
