The Chinese Santa in 2018
Jinjiang Santa went viral in the Chinese community
I know Christmas when I was a kid, a typical Chinese second-tier city born kid. I remembered there are red hats and green Chrismas trees everywhere, and there will be a small gift my parents brought but said it was Santa giving me put in my hanging sock at the balcony. I can’t connect religion or consumerism with Christmas. For me, it’s just a happy family day.
Just for your context, China has been trying to ban the celebration for Christmas for several years, and this year might be the most serious.
Universities and schools in China are broadcasting everyone that no one should celebrate the festival. Some of the organization even warned that send “Merry Christmas” in Chinese to other people through text message is prohibitive.
But this can’t stop Chinese people’s desire to send their best wishes to friends and share happiness through this festival. They can always find a way out.
Then this year’s Santa on Chinese group chats, text messages, and IMs looks different from the traditional one：
It all begins with a Weibo (Chinese Twitter) of the actor Jinjiang Xu, who posted his stage photo from a famous movie with words: Old guy with a red hat and white beard wish you all the best!
The famous character is from a 1994 Hong Kong comedy film《九品芝麻官》<Hail the Judge>. I believe 90% of the millennials in China have watched this movie and impressed by the character 雷豹. He is a super ferocious and powerful character you can never forget. The scene that 雷豹 threating the hero(Stephen Chow) has been edited with a gift on his hand with Christmas decoration. The contrast between the original character and the Christmas theme made this gif super funny to most of the Chinese:
This Jinjiang Santa image not only matches with the popular understanding of Santa - Old guy with a red hat and white beard, but also a very well-known character that based on a story happened in Northern Song Dynasty in China. You can’t criticize someone unpatriotic for sending a picture with a Chinese character on it.
Jinjiang also acted another famous character Ao Bai in <The Deer and the Cauldron> looks very similar to Santa (cover image of this story is Ao Bai).
Since Chinese people love this idea so much, there’s a set of stickers Jinjiang Santa became hot, the copyright holder of the movie replied on Weibo and gave permission to launch the emoticon and let people use this character for free.
Personally, I think no one can really ban any culture or any trends these days. The only way to push our own tradition is to make it great, fun, happy, and it needs time.
Because of the reason I wrote at the beginning of this story, Chinese people don’t even want to send a traditional Santa picture to their friends through chat. But I received a bunch of similar replacement— Jinjiang Santa.
Let’s enjoy some of the Jinjiang Santa arts and Merry Christmas!
