Has Thanksgiving become an official local holifay?

[suMMit]

I have seen at least 50 happy thanksgiving moments posts from locals sitting at tables eating turkey and cranberries. maybe 2 were from americans. has it become an official chinese holiday? or maybe its a global holiday?

[abcdefg]

No sign of it being a recognized holiday here (Kunming.) No special displays in stores or promotions in restaurants that I've seen.

[DavyJonesLocker]

I had about 5 well wishers from Chinese yesterday. I gave up trying to encourage some people  to perhaps educate themselves on other culturals outside China

 

The whole concept of The West = America is somewhat irritating at times. 

 

(No criticism of USA or its folks!)

[roddy]

Do they stay up late the night before and do a countdown and cheer at midnight?

[ChTTay]

We had turkey at work but wasn’t really “in your face” about why. I had one person wish me happy thanks giving but I assume they think I’m American or as davy says above... American = Western. 

[suMMit]

I AM American, and i really hope i'm done with 美国人 in textbook dialogs. Really wish they could pick some other nationalities... 

[ChTTay]

I have been watching some of the old 快乐汉语 . It’s nice for practice but ridiculous sometimes. The foreign girl is Eastern European or something but of course is American in the show. Then one time she cooked for them for a weekend... every meal was hamburgers. And for some reason everything had “seafood sauce” on it. Bizarre. 

 

I will try find the Thanksgiving episode if there is one. 

[Brian US]

We received an email from the local Chinese CEO wishing us a Happy Thanksgiving, but makes sense since we are an American company. I couldn't find any restaurant serving Thanksgiving meals in Hefei.

 

Had one co-worker initially ask if it was Christmas, and another thought Canadian and US Thanksgiving were on the same day.

[Dawei3]

On a slightly related note, KFC is extremely popular in Japan at Christmas because...... KFC is a traditional food at American Christmas(?).  

 

Except KFC isn't an American Christmas food (KFCs are likely all closed on Christmas in the US).  An article in the Wall St. J. noted the tradition in Japan began when an American wanted turkey for Christmas and instead settled for KFC.  This started a trend.  According to the WSJ article, Japanese begin reserving their "Christmas KFC" in October to ensure they can get it.  

 

While Thanksgiving is unquestionably a US/Canadian holiday, it does have influence in the UK too (not just China).  Recently,  while in Europe & watching the BBC, it had a news piece on Black Friday in the UK.  i.e., Even though the UK doesn't have Thanksgiving, retailers still have Black Friday sales.  

On 11/29/2019 at 5:24 AM, ChTTay said:

old 快乐汉语 . It’s nice for practice but ridiculous sometimes

Sounds like fun....

[Moshen]

Quote

Except KFC isn't an American Christmas food (KFCs are likely all closed on Christmas in the US).  An article in the Wall St. J. noted the tradition in Japan began when an American wanted turkey for Christmas and instead settled for KFC.  This started a trend.  According to the WSJ article, Japanese begin reserving their "Christmas KFC" in October to ensure they can get it.  

 

That is very funny.  In the US, Jews have the tradition of going out to Chinese restaurants on Christmas because they're generally the only ones open.  Chinese restaurants and then the movies - or vice versa.

 

Interesting how traditions build up.

[Lu]

On 11/29/2019 at 3:31 AM, suMMit said:

has it become an official chinese holiday? or maybe its a global holiday?

More likely a case of 'the more holidays the merrier' combined with 'the US = 外国 and 外国 is cool & interesting'.

 

Here in the Netherlands, gift-giving at Christmas has been mainstream for several decades (and it didn't use to be, we have our own gift-giving holiday which is not Christmas). Halloween is making inroads, starting with young adults who like a party with dress-up and now slowly making its way towards children (we had our own holiday where children dress up and get candy from neighbours which is not Halloween). Black Friday (and Singles' Day) have been 'celebrated' for a few years now. I love my own unique culture, I do not like all these American inroads for holidays that we didn't need. If Thanksgiving is next I will be highly annoyed. We already have a national liberation day (from WW2/the Germans) and my city has another, local liberation day (from the Spanish in the Eighty Years War). No need for another one. But what can I do but grumble.

[DavyJonesLocker]

7 hours ago, Lu said:

I love my own unique culture,

 

 

One if the negative effects of globalisation is that cultural differences are starting to erode and the world is becoming more and more bland. 

 

I remember doing a 4 month solo backpacking tour in Europe  in 1992 . No Euro, no phones, no internet, and English was no where near as widespread as it is now (especially south Europe). Every country and their people  had a very different vibe to it . 

 

Even beijing seems much less culturally isolated that in when I first came in 2007. 

To some people that's positive I suppose. 

[ChTTay]

15 hours ago, Dawei3 said:

An article in the Wall St. J. noted the tradition in Japan began when an American wanted turkey for Christmas and instead settled for KFC.  This started a trend

Interesting. I’ve seen that part of the story before and also something about a Nun asking for Turkey. Then also I’ve seen something about the first Japanese KFC manager just wanting to push people to eat KFC but there being no tradition for it in Japan. All the holidays etc had foods associated with them but Christmas in Japan... wide open! So he pushed a marketing campaign aimed at making KFC the Xmas thing. It worked and now it’s tradition. That chap went on to manage the Japanese operations I think.

 

I feel like the latter story makes more more sense than some Americans asking for Turkey and getting deep fried chicken instead (or a version of that). If that was the beginning, feel like it wouldn’t have spread so widely. 

[kanumo]

On 11/29/2019 at 10:26 AM, roddy said:

 

Do they stay up late the night before and do a countdown and cheer at midnight?

 

this made me laugh way too hard  ?

[Dawei3]

I found the WSJ article. It was a “non-Japanese”, not an American who wanted KFC as a turkey substitute. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/christmas-cheer-here-requires-reservations-with-the-colonel-1450477246  It notes wait times at KFC at Christmas in Japan can be 6 hours (which seems impossible to believe). 
 

Another fun aspect of the article: 90% of kids 3-7 years old in Japan believe in Santa Claus. 哈哈?

Edited December 6, 2019 at 12:00 AM by Dawei3