Cup of Cha
This is China

To be honest, I’ve never really celebrated Thanksgiving in China. My first year (2001) the university I worked at sent all the foreign teachers to a Chinese restaurant. The director of foreign affairs clearly had no interest in being there, and sat himself at a table of his cohorts and did not speak to the foreigners. Which was fine, because when someone hates foreigners, there’s no real incentive to speak to him. Later that year he stopped showing up for work, but the woman in the office who actually handled the foreigners told us not to worry, he was still getting paid.

Back to Thanksgiving. The second…I can’t even remember what I did. I guess nothing. At the time I was in Chengdu and the original Grandma’s Kitchen was out there (still is). They had some dinner deal for 180 kuai or something, which at the time seemed absolutely ludicrous. 22 bucks for a meal! Outrageous! So I probably went to a noodle shop or something. All the missionaries went the Grandma’s, but I think Jesus picked up the tab. Or their church or something. I don’t really know how that stuff works.

So now that I look at it, Thanksgiving has not exactly been the most exciting time in China. I guess it’s still better than in Scotland when I forgot about it until Friday.

To be honest, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday in America, but when I’m not there, it’s a little tough to celebrate with the same gusto. Christmas works out a little better because I can more or less stay in my normal US routine.

For tribe members, Christmas is known as Chinese Dinner and a Movie Day. So when you’re in China it’s just called, Tuesday and a Movie. Plus, Thanksgiving is utterly baffling to Chinese people, whereas Christmas somehow makes sense, even if they don’t get where Christ fits into the whole equation. So I’ve had some crazy experiences with Chinese Christmas. The most insane was a parade that they had in Chengdu. It was more like Mardi Gras than Christmas tree lighting.

Thousands of young Chinese people poured into the main street, with beer and inflatable baseball bats in hand. Every few seconds you would hear this big roar and a mob of 20 year olds would start whacking some poor guy with their bats. Sometimes big groups would break into playful fights, and then it was just mayhem, with everyone yelling and swinging wildly in every direction. Nothing about it seemed to be particularly Christian, or even Christmas-y. But it was terribly amusing.

Religion in general seems to confuse a lot of Chinese people. One day I was talking with a student who had been targeted by the Chengdu missionaries. I was really curious to find out what she thought about the religion–and the missionaries themselves. Other than this guy with the Chinese name 高飞 I didn’t like them too much. He was a pretty nice guy, but the women targeted the women, so my student mostly had contact with the missionettes who were unfriendly and dim.

Anyway, she told me that she was interested in what they were selling, but explained, “It’s a really busy time in my life. I’ll graduate school and there’s a lot of pressure. I definitely don’t have time for Jesus this year. Maybe in a year and a half or two.” Apparently she thought Christianity was something like a bowling league. She went to their Christmas party, but told me 10 minutes into the Jesus video she began wishing she hadn’t accepted the invitation.

But it’s not Christmas yet. It’s still Thanksgiving, and my beloved Jets are playing American football against the Cowboys（I think they are anyway…they’ve only won two games this year, so it’s tough to follow everything closely from 12,000 miles). I’ll be asleep as they inevitably get routed. So I’ll spend my evening having some fried rice and a Yanjing. It’s not turkey, but it’s not chopped liver either.

Tags: expatriate, food, holidays
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