Should We Celebrate Foreign Festivals?

Pros and Cons

Whether Chinese people should celebrate foreign festivals has always been a topic of debate, and the debate has resurfaced again ahead of the Christmas this year.

Those in favor argue that we should embrace cultural diversity and promote inclusiveness. If we choose to resist just because we fear that the rise of foreign festivals will destroy our own traditions and culture, it will reflect not love for but an extreme lack of confidence in our own culture.

On the other side of the aisle, there are people who think celebrating foreign festivals is akin to worshipping and having a blind faith in foreign things, and it will eventually lead to a gradual loss of interest in local culture.

PROS

YAN LINGYANG

Writer

Guangdong Province

A truly culturally confident nation can allow multiple cultures to exist. Chang’an, the capital of China’s Tang Dynasty (618-907), was full of foreign envoys, monks and business travelers. Cultural exchanges between the East and the West reached the peak at that time. Today, China is the second-largest economy in the world, and it should have such an open and inclusive mind.

Nowadays, many foreign countries have designated Chinese Spring Festival as an important event, and many businesses attract Chinese customers on that day with special offers. Most people like to celebrate a foreign festival because of curiosity or simply because they think it is fun, no matter what kind of festival it is. In fact, as long as the youth have a good time, the purpose of having festivals is fulfilled. Even if you disagree with celebrating these festivals, you don’t need to oppose it because it is not part of our traditional culture.