Changing views on Christmas

Two students hold sign reading "Resisting Christmas. Chinese don't celebrate Western festival" on Christmas Eve in Changsha, Hunan province, on Wednesday. [Photo/chinanews.com]

It is not the only case. Modern College of Northwest University made the students watch a documentary on Chinese traditional culture on Christmas Eve with the warning that any absentee or person who celebrated the holiday will be punished for three sessions by the university, reported The Beijing News.

This anti-Christmas idea seems more intense in Changsha, Hunan province, reported chinanews.com. College students dressing in Chinese traditional clothes showed up at some Christmas event and held "boycott Christmas" sign to appeal to highlight Chinese traditional festivals instead of over-promoting Christmas.

According to a poll conducted by sina.com, 67.1 percent of total 1,156 participants support the Christmas ban in favor of enjoying China's own festivals. Over 80 percent describe themselves as "people who never celebrate Christmas".

More than 70 percent of respondents think Chinese use the festival as an excuse to only have some fun rather than digging into Western culture or religious.

Though people seem very cool about Christmas according to the poll, the traffic on Christmas Eve on Wednesday said the opposite.

Beijing's transport authorities had warned of "serious traffic congestion" ahead of Christmas Eve and brought forward the peak time to 3:00 pm on that day.