Christmas in China

Last year around this time I was teaching research methodology to Chinese undergrads in a freezing university class room too far from Shanghai. Christmas was just another working day and so was New Year’s Eve. The birthday of Jesus and the annual tradition of Christmas trees, bells, reindeers and all things that could be related to the Christian holidays (glowing red substances hanging in departed trees, romantic chimney fires and too fat Santa Class Coca Cola ads) seemed to be a mere abstract Western phenomenon to the vast majority of my class room. So what!? I thought, I am what many believed to be an atheist myself (although I am not so sure of that just yet). However, it made me think (rest assured it was just for a second).

China has according to Wikipedia about 4 million Catholics and 10 million Protestants, India has according to that same source 24 million Christians. Now, 40 million on a population of 2,5 billion (almost half of the world population) who do not believe that Christmas is relevant for their spiritual survival, is not a staggering lot. We can come to a couple of obvious conclusions here; a) those European missionaries did an awful job b) the lack of Christianity does not seem to hold people back from enjoying their lives and c) there is a lack of evidence that religion and capitalism are interrelated (sorry Weber!). However, perhaps we could come to even broader questions. I remember talking about Christmas in my classroom, where it came from and what it meant. One of my students raised his hand and asked me a question which I already initially was afraid of to be asked.

Student A: “Why is Jesus white and looks so European when is he is born in the Middle East”?
(He had me nailed there.)
Me: “Well… that is a good question; uhhhh… Jesus is a Western religion and thus people feel more comfortable with a reflection of something that looks similar to them”.
Student A: “So, if I want to believe in Jesus, I can claim he is Chinese looking?”
Me: “Sure, Christians claim to be benevolent, so why not?”

Soon the dialogue evolved in a general discussion among everybody in the class, something which is quite unique in Chinese classrooms. Somebody else raised her hand and asked:

Student B: “Why do we have to believe in Jesus, Sir?” Somebody told me that if we don’t believe in him, we go to Hell – is that true?”
(That put me again in an awkward position.)
Me: “You don’t go to Hell if you don’t believe in Him, don’t worry”
Student B: “So we can interpret the Bible as we want?”
Me: “yes”
Student B: “So if everything written in there is relative, why does the Bible exists”?
Me: “So that everybody is nice to each other and follows general rules”
Student B: “So Jesus is like our politicians?”

I smiled at her, turned back to the school board and continued my lecture on comparative case studies. Jesus skipped China in his legacy and Christmas will most likely remain a normal working day for the forthcoming two millennia. God bless.