Li Lele, a tourist from Xiamen, Fujian province, beams with joy after receiving a gift from Santa Claus on the Christmas Eve in Sanlitun, Beijing, on Dec 24, 2015. ZOU HONG/CHINA DAILY

An apple, whose Chinese name pingguo sounds close to the word for Christmas Eve, was reportedly sold at 176 yuan ($27) on the Internet during Christmas, with the extra benefits including a fine wooden box for the apple and handmade flowers and chocolate. Costly as it is, the package has been purchased by many Christmas celebrators in the country. A comment on rednet.cn questions such festival-oriented spending and attributes it to the spiritual emptiness of a number of Chinese people:

True, one is entitled to celebrate the Christmas carnival and other sorts of festivals, without being morally judged. But it is a totally different case if Christmas is merely used as a stunt for commercial promotions that may lead to a wave of irrational purchases.

In fact, Christmas, as a part of the Christian religion, is meant to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, although for ordinary Westerners, the traditional holiday is now more about giving and receiving gifts, family reunions, and feasting.

However, the celebration in China has nothing to do with any of that; instead, it basically does not go beyond commercial promotion and excessive consumption, which has deviated from not only the Christian religion but also the embedded cultural implications.

With the lack of faith and the ill-considered pursuit of extravagance combined, many Chinese people are more than willing to celebrate these artificial festivals, no matter whether homegrown or imported.

Singles Day on Nov 11, for example, has succeeded in turning a normal day into a nationwide shopping gala. Despite the colossal commercial success as total sales reached $9 billion this year, it has a lot in common with Christmas. The manufactured consumerism evident in both mirrors the spiritual emptiness of many in China.

What is even more noteworthy is that the media outlets are used to covering the annual spree without noticing the latent dangers.

(China Daily 12/29/2015 page8)