Even Santa is political - China's battle over festivals

Echoing Xi Jinping’s repeated calls since 2014 to bolster “cultural confidence,” local authorities, schools, and universities have issued directives to ban Christmas celebrations. Red-and-green decorations are ordered removed, Christmas-themed advertising censored, and Santa and his reindeer banished from malls.

However, with no nationwide directive from the central government to ban Christmas, these prohibitions remain localised and ad hoc, unable to stifle the strong commercial drive to celebrate the holiday. Public pushback is widespread. A common argument draws comparisons between the United States and China: if the U.S. openly embraces the Lunar New Year, with California even designating it as a public holiday, why is China so apprehensive about Christmas? Critics argue that if cultural confidence is demonstrated by shunning perceived competitors, it is merely insecurity and paranoia in disguise.

There is a strong commercial drive to celebrate Christmas in China, despite efforts to prevent it. Image: Wikimedia Commons

Indeed, it seems almost paranoid to fear Christmas as a form of foreign infiltration. In a country where the majority of people are not religious, Christmas has never been more than a consumerist celebration. Growing up in a small town in China and later moving to Beijing for university in the post-Olympic glow of 2008, I vividly recall the uniquely Chinese way of celebrating Christmas, which grew more popular with each passing year: the gifting of apples on Christmas Eve. Known in China as “Peaceful Night” (ping an ye), the name sounds similar to “apple” (ping guo), giving rise to this charming tradition. Apples adorned with ribbons or placed in elegant boxes were exchanged among friends, lovers, students, and teachers alike. Classy restaurants were always fully booked, florists thrived on bustling streets, and cinemas overflowed with holiday cheer. It is a harmless expression of consumerism that brings joy to all. Such celebrations feel even more essential today, as China grapples with sluggish economic growth and rising unemployment unseen in decades.

A more sophisticated approach than banning Christmas is to redefine it. For years, loyalists of the Communist Party of China (CCP) have advocated “Maomas”, celebration of the birth of Mao Zedong on 26 December. Jesus is not our saviour, they argue; Mao is - he saved China from imperialism, colonialism, poverty, and capitalist oppression.

Christmas apples for sale in Beijing, China. Image: Wikimedia Commons

However, the push for “Maomas” underestimates the deep controversy surrounding Mao’s legacy, from the Great Famine, which claimed millions of lives, to the Cultural Revolution, a decade of political purges that plunged an already impoverished China into further chaos. In provocative response to the Maomas proposal, liberals and dissidents countered with a satirical observance of Mao’s death on September 9th, cooking cured meat as an allusion to Mao’s preserved body still on display in Beijing’s mausoleum.

Mao has inspired yet another unofficial festival among satirically minded dissidents: the Egg Fried Rice Festival, celebrated on November 25. On this day, many share images of the dish on social media as a form of tongue-in-cheek commemoration. This holiday draws its inspiration from a tragicomic episode in Chinese history: Mao Anying, Mao Zedong’s son, perished during the Korean War, allegedly after an airstrike targeted him because he requested egg fried rice—a rare luxury for high-ranking cadres when many soldiers barely survived freezing conditions. The festival highlights a peculiar divide: pro-CCP supporters denounce it as a smear campaign against Mao’s legacy, while anti-CCP critics see it as a darkly humorous reminder that China avoided a hereditary dictatorship like North Korea. Some even refer to this day as the Chinese Thanksgiving.

Mao Zedong and his son Mao Anying in 1949. Image: Wikimedia Commons

The informal festival’s ideological undertones have even ensnared unwitting individuals. Celebrity chef Wang Gang, whose no-nonsense cooking tutorials attracted tens of million followers, posted a video demonstrating how to prepare egg fried rice on November 27, 2023, unintentionally sparking widespread outrage. Some even called for him to be prosecuted under new laws criminalizing the slander of martyrs and heroes. Despite deleting the video and issuing a tearful public apology, Wang was banned from all social media platforms for two months.

Even Halloween has become a flashpoint for political expression. In the wake of the 2022 "White Paper Revolution"—a rare nationwide protest against strict COVID policies and censorship—young people found creative ways to mock the government during Halloween 2023. Costumes such as surveillance cameras and all-white COVID testers wielding giant cotton swabs flouted authority. This October, Shanghai authorities cracked down pre-emptively, deploying heavy police to patrol the streets. Officers arrested revellers and stripped away costumes and makeup. In China’s most liberal and diverse city, a playful holiday devolved into yet another standoff between creativity and control.

So yes, to answer the question from the start, Santa can be political. China once thrived by opening up and embracing the world—or at least by pretending to do so. There was a time when its leaders believed a brighter future was possible only through economic and political reform, with one of its most beloved Premiers calling for changes “especially in the leadership system of our party and country.” But today, a combination of economic stagnation, growing distrust of the outside world, and a reversion to Maoist tactics is fueling nationalist fervor, driving away international visitors, and deepening ideological divides - turning Santa and egg fried rice into unlikely casualties of these bizarre cultural battles.

Asia Media Centre