Hong Kong's War on Hanukkah

Those of you who live in the USA know all about the so-called "War on Christmas" which, for those not in the know, is basically the notion that there is censorship on the word "Christmas" and on the celebration of Christmas in the public sector of life in the USA and that this is a bad thing. So for the most part, in the USA whenever you see, hear, or read any sort of message about the holidays in December, you will usually see something like "Happy Holidays", as opposed to "Merry Christmas". This is to be sensitive to the folks (like me) who don't actually celebrate Christmas. Regardless of what you may think, I like this concept because it sends a message that in fact everyone in the USA does NOT celebrate Christmas, and that people must be sensitive to this fact.

However, in Hong Kong it's a completely different story. I'm not going to bother spending time trying to find the statistic of how many Christians there are in HK, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and posit that as a % of the whole country, there are more Christians in the USA than there are in HK (remember I'm talking % people, not hard numbers). Hong Kong is an extremely diverse place, with people from all over the world calling it home. So why oh why are there "Merry Christmas" banners on the lightposts on my street, the entrance to my office building, and on the door to my apartment building (I would post pictures here but my camera sucks)? (I haven't been to any malls lately but I'm quite sure they will be similarly decorated.) It doesn't bother me (trust me, I've gotten used to being in the minority with this), but I just wonder why such a culturally and forward-thinking place (I can't use the word country because in fact HK is not a country) would be so publicly insensitive to the religions of all people. As we would say in the USA, "Why should my tax dollars be spent pubicly promoting other people's religions?" Maybe the reason that people here don't care so much is that their taxes are so low!

Now I know that for many people in HK (and throughout the world), Christmas is less of a religious holiday and more of a frame-of-mind-get-in-the-spirit type of holiday - it's a time for the family to get together and spend time with each other and give gifts and all that fun stuff. And in fact, when I was growing up, all of the stores were closed on Christmas and there was nothing really to do, so by default Christmas was also a day for my family to get together and spend time with each other (because we had no other choice really). We used to go to the movies and then out for, funnily enough, Chinese food (because they were the only restaurants open).

And now that I'm living in Hong Kong, I can safely say that as years past, I will most likely be going out for Chinese food on Christmas (I'll be in Beijing at the time). And this is not because the Chinese food restaurants will be the only places open on Christmas (I'm pretty sure most restaurants will be open on Christmas). In fact, Christmas Day is not a day off from work for people in mainland China, because China is a communist country, and the official religion of China is atheism. This is because the Chinese government thinks that religious belief and membership are incompatible (that is, membership in the Communist party).

So for all of you out there upset with the USA's "War on Christmas", come to Hong Kong and see all the public displays of "Merry Christmas" that you want. For all of you out there who don't celebrate Christmas, come to China and eat Chinese food with me!