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November 21, 2013

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Hangzhou expats celebrate Christmas

By Xu Wenwen | November 21, 2013, Thursday | Print Edition

When John Rosenwald came to China about 30 years ago, Chinese people called him Karl Marx because of his brown bushy beard. When his beard turned grey, they called him Colonel Sanders. Now with Christmas coming, he will be Santa Claus.

Last Christmas was a little crazy for the 70-year-old American who dressed up as Santa Claus at a store in Hangzhou. Many children sat on his lap to say hello, but so did men and women, parents and even some grandparents.

“I feel like thousands of people have sat on my lap,” Rosenwald says, laughing. But he is going to do it again this year to “delight more people.”

Christmas is becoming trendy in the city as more locals like celebrating it along with the growing expatriate population, like the idea of exchanging gifts and sampling a traditional Christmas meal.

Shanghai Daily talks to some expat families in the city to find out how they will celebrate.

Ann Arbor and John Rosenwald (American)

Rosenwald’s Christmas journey in Hangzhou began in 2001, when he and his wife Ann Arbor moved to the city.

The couple, both poets and writers, began teaching in China in 1987. They traveled regularly between their home in Maine and various universities in China, most recently Zhejiang University and Hangzhou Normal University in Hangzhou.

In December 2001, Rosenwald was invited by his friend Zhu Jinxiu, who runs Innocent Age Book Bar, to dress up as Santa in her store. The gray-haired and bearded American accepted the offer.

This Santa is probably quite a bit different from the Santas who are stationed in shopping malls across North America as he speaks Chinese, English, German and Upper Norsk (Santa’s native language). But a translator friend who dressed up as an elf was on hand just in case Santa needed some help.

When the couple moved back to Hangzhou last year, Zhu invited Rosenwald, whose bushy white beard has now turned white, to be Santa once again.

“For some mysterious reason, the old Santa Claus costume still fits me perfectly,” Rosenwald says. On weekend afternoon days leading up to Christmas, he sat at the gate of Innocent Age Book Bar, which is at Baoshi Hill.

His cheeks turned red due to the chilly winter wind, matching his Santa suit perfectly.

Everyone was welcome to spend some time with Santa and sit on his lap for a photo. Some asked if there was a fee, but no, Santa says he doesn’t sell tickets.

Arbor, who is also a photographer, took many pictures. The couple also bought gifts for colleagues and the bar’s staff.

“I was very moved to see that they bought gifts for people they don’t know, I believe this is the spirit of Christmas,” Zhu says.

Santa Claus will again visit Hangzhou just before Christmas this year.

He will be at the Innocent Age Book Bar on the afternoon of December 14.

John Carroll (Irish) and Shen Qin (Chinese)

Irish singer/band player John Carroll will start a winter tour of China this week and will record his new album in Yuhang around Christmas, his sixth Christmas in Hangzhou, and the third with his wife and daughter, and his wife’s parents.

Back in 2007, Carroll says he did not feel the Christmas spirit in Hangzhou.

“I didn’t know where to buy a Christmas tree and decorations, neither could I tell whether it was Christmas,” he says. “There was no Christmas music, and no real understanding of the festival in Hangzhou. And there were also much fewer foreign people living here then.”

In his eyes, the festival is mainly a commercial holiday in Hangzhou, so he is trying to create an Irish-style Christmas for his family.

He brought Christmas movies and cartoons from Ireland for his daughter, bought an artificial Christmas tree for the apartment and even learned how to cook a turkey. The couple also sit with their daughter and write a letter to Santa Claus, and the little girl “receives a reply every year.”

“My in-laws are curious about the festival but I don’t think they really understand it,” Carroll says. “But it is important to have them join the Christmas meal every year.”

“Some places hang Christmas decorations all year round and let them get dirty and old-looking, and I know the holiday is not special to those people,” he says. “So I do my bit to keep it special for the people I care about most and try not to get frustrated about all the commercial nonsense.”

Greg Moore (American) and Shao Chenchen (Chinese)

This will be Greg Moore’s eighth Christmas in China. Once a “single lonely guy,” his is now a proud husband and father.

He, his wife Shao Chenchen, and their three sons, aged six, four and one, will gather around the tree and read from the Bible, usually chapters 1 and 2 from The Gospel According to Luke, and discuss the meaning of Christmas. 

The Friday before Christmas Day the family will organize a party with friends, including food and a gift exchange.

And the Sunday before Christmas Day they will spend at church to celebrate the birth of Jesus, who Christians believe is the son of God. 

“The meaning of Christmas is not actually Santa Claus, good food, opening presents, reindeer, but rather the birth of the Messiah into the world, who came to save all humans from their sins and reunite them with God,” Moore says.

Also, the Sunday before Christmas Day they will go to church “to sing classic Christmas hymns, read passages together from the Bible describing Christ’s birth, and hear a special message about the true meaning of Christmas.”

 

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