Bah humbug! Chinese city bans Christmas

Christmas decorations have been banned in the northern Chinese city of Langfang.

Christmas decorations and gifts at the Yiwu International Trade Market in east China's Zhejiang province, where 60 per cent of the world's Christmas decorations are made. Picture: AP

Christmas decorations have been banned in the northern Chinese city of Langfang, despite hotels and shopping centres in China’s major cities including ­Beijing and Shanghai featuring Christmas trees and festive lights.

A statement by the Urban Management Bureau of Langfang, a city of four million people on the outskirts of Beijing, ­which was circulated on Chinese social media this week, ordered shops to ­remove decorations, including Christmas trees and Santa Claus costumes, and stop Christmas sales to “maintain stability”.

The notice said anyone caught selling Christmas trees, stockings or Santa Claus figures would be punished and urged the public to report anyone who was “practising relig­ion” in public places in the city.

The statement said all bureau employees would have to be on duty from December 23-25 to ­inspect any Christmas-themed promotions and ensure there were no public gatherings for religious activities over the Christmas season­.

The Chinese Communist Party’s Global Times newspaper said this week that the action was not targeted at Christmas but was ­designed to help Langfang’s entry into China’s “National Civilised Cities” competition.

“Managing roadside stalls and migrant vendors is our routine work,” the Times quoted a bureau employee who did not want to be named. “Christmas is a time when such illegal activities are prevalent.”

He said retailers often used the period to sell more goods, “sometimes in unlawful ways”.

The newspaper displayed a photograph of garbage outside a shopping mall near the city centre of Xian, in Shaanxi province, which had piled up on the streets after Christmas Eve celebrations.

Christmas is not celebrated in China, a country that has no official religion and which bans Communist Party members from having any religion.

But major shopping centres and hotels in big cities are increasingly using Christmas decorations to mark the winter season and to drive retail promotions.

Chinese retailers have eagerly followed Western festive traditions such as Valentines’ Day and Halloween as a way to promote more sales.

Under China’s constitution, its citizens are theoretically allowed to enjoy freedom to practise their religion, but the government has introduced new legislation this year requiring all organisations wanting to practise religion to register with the government.

The government also bans any preaching or religious celebrations in public places.

While many major retailers have been eager to use Christmas decorations to promote sales, there has been a backlash in some quarters against the enthusiastic adoption of Christmas decorations in recent years.

Last December, members of the Communist Youth League at the Shenyang Pharmaceutical University were asked to sign documents saying they would not participate in any Christmas-­related celebrations, to counter the “corrosive” influence of Western culture.

The decision by Langfang comes as Chinese authorities have cracked down on worshipping in underground churches.

Three underground churches have been shut down since Septemb­er — in Beijing, Chengdu and Guangzhou — after new laws came into force this year allowin­g local authorities more power to act against unregistered churches.

The latest involved a raid by more than 60 police officers last weekend on a Bible class in Guangzhou.

That raid followed the shutdown of the 1500-member Zion Church in Beijing in September and the 500-member Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu a week ago.