First of all, more Chinese celebrate (or at least acknowledge) Christmas than one would imagine. By the end of the week I thought it kind of sad that they celebrate a Western holiday that really doesn't have any meaning to them. Infiltration of Western culture, blah, blah, blah.
All the Drake people (including foreign and Chinese friends) had our own Christmas celebration. A wine and cheese party! My lips and teeth got so stained from the wine it was repulsive. We had a white elephant gift exchange and I ended up getting some tea (my second choice to a bottle of wine). Good times had by all!
On Tuesday evening we went to the Christmas Banquet for Foreigners held by the municipal government. There were about 200 or so foreigners there with Chinese friends. Our Australian friend, Francis, was chosen to make a speech on the behalf of all foreigners of the city. He was "a bit tossed" (as he put it) before giving the speech. The most hilarious part of the speech was, "Sure, Shijiazhuang doesn't have the modernity of Hong Kong, the shopping of Shanghai, or the beauty of Guangzhuo, but..." and at that point I just started cracking up. Francis is one of the most obnoxious (but hilarious) people I've ever met and I have no idea why they picked him to give a speech. Anyway, they had a wonderful buffet and there were more than a few familiar faces. Megan and I also performed "Last Christmas" for the entire banquet...seemed like a crowd favorite from the foreigners' point of view! Afterwards, a bunch of us went out together.
Well, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been planning on performing at Christmas parties here in China for almost two months, and it finally came to pass. I practiced a couple of times with a British teacher named Rick. We practiced "Save Tonight" by Eagle Eyed Cherry, "Well Respected Man" by The Kinks, "All My Loving" by The Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles, "Man On The Moon" by R.E.M., and "All Rise" by Blue (a British boy band). We performed two nights. The first night was at just one hotel but the second night was at two hotels. We performed on four separate stages (each hotel had an upstairs an downstairs party, the upstairs parties were for the richer folks). We played guitar and sang to the first 5 songs on repeat (with a couple of solo ones by Rick that I added some flare to) for about an hour. Then we sang "Save Tonight" and "All Rise" on stage with the actual music as background. Not only did we dance like retards and make complete fools of ourselves (as we were paid to do), but we were dressed in jeans, frilly silk shirts, and cowboy hats. The only two gay cowboys in China that I know of, haha. So after our final performance last night, Jake, Lan (Jake's boss who set up the shows), Rick, the host from our last show, his girlfriend, and I went out to a restaurant. They served some of the best shrimp I have ever eaten. Jake, Lan, and I slammed beers (Rick, having puked "through his nose" the night before, was refraining from such shenanigans) and we all had a great time. Then I met up with Angela and we had a beer together at our famed McDonald's/Foreigner Bar. What an amazing Christmas...celebrated in a way that I will never ever celebrate the same way again. Pictures will be posted soon enough.
Despite not being religious at all, it was quite an awesome week to celebrate the birth of our Lord. Haaaaaaaaah.
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