A Christmas Tree in Beijing: Rockefeller Center Style
No visit to New York City during the Christmas season would be complete without seeing the famous Christmas tree which has been erected in Rockefeller Center every year since 1931. From late November/early December when the tree is first lit in a grand lighting ceremony especially broadcast on NBC, to the second week in January when the tree is taken down, Rockefeller Center is packed each and every day with thousands of people who have come to admire the tree.
The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is an annual tradition which began during the Depression-era construction of Rockefeller Center, when workers decorated a small balsam fir tree with “strings of cranberries, garlands of paper, and even a few tin cans” as recounted by Daniel Okrent in his history of Rockefeller Center. In the months preceding Christmas, a helicopter scouts the surrounding states of Connecticut, Vermont, Ohio, and New Jersey to find a proper tree, usually a Norway spruce 75 to 90 feet (23 to 27 meters) in height. In 1966, the tree spotters actually had to travel 518 miles away to Ottowa, Canada to find one that was suitable.
It seems that this time honored American tradition has now come to China. An equally tall (23 meters high) Christmas tree, the tallest in the nation’s capital, was erected at Jiadebao square in Beijing this year. Of course, no celebration in China, even Christmas, would be complete without fireworks, something that would never be allowed in the heart of New York City.
When I first came to China in 1993, it was very hard to find any signs of Christmas. Today, however, big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are as lit up and decorated as any in the United States. During the first week of December, I traveled through China with a first time visitor to the country who was amazed by how “Christmassy” everything seemed. This was something he hadn’t expected.
With the large inflows into China of expatriates from Christian countries, more and more people in China, especially those in the big cities, are celebrating Christmas. For most people in China, it is of course not a religious celebration, but just another occasion to have lunch or dinner with friends and relax.
Because business visibly slows down towards the year-end, we encourage our staff at ASIMCO to take their annual vacations during the weeks before and after Christmas, and we actually close the office on Christmas Day. While we only have a half-dozen or so expatriates in China, most of us do head home for the Christmas holidays. With three grown children and now a grandson living in the United States, getting back for Christmas and New Year’s is a must for my wife and me.
With China becoming so much a part of the global world we live in, it should come as no surprise that the country would begin to celebrate great holidays such as Christmas, while at the same time maintaining its own traditions and celebration of Chinese holidays such as Spring Festival. The celebration of Christmas in China, something that would have been unheard of 20 years ago, is but one more demonstration of how small and integrated the world has become.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to readers of Managing the Dragon, wherever you happen to be!
