Eric's Beijing Diary

I'm really not a party animal, but I couldn't say no to these kids. They wanted me to be a judge for the contests at the Halloween Party. Halloween, at least the way it is celebrated now, is really a pretty American holiday, so it is interesting to see how it has been adopted by Chinese young people. I say Chinese, because although the coffee bar is frequented by many different kinds of people, when there is a party of this nature, it is primarily Chinese young people who show up. I guess other countries don't adopt holidays like this quite so quickly. And the Americans themselves are busy with their own parties, either at their apartments, or at places like the Lush, which are more oriented toward drinking and loud music. The bars do attract people in wierd costumes, but they don't have pumkin carving contests, and games like bobbing for apples. The one American holiday that has never really caught on in China is Thanksgiving, except in the churches. In the Chinese church at Thanksgiving, people bring all kinds of fruit and vegetebles to church. It really is impressive. I'm still not sure what I think of it, because the idea of bringing food to God doesn't really seem like a Christian practice. But at least I can say that the Chinese Christians do make a big deal of giving thanks to God during this time. Christmas is big in China, but still pretty much commercial. There is no vacation either from school or work during Christmas.