Christmas in Shiyan, the Hubei Province of China, was big. Huge. Massive. Saturday and Sunday, apart from being weekend days and sunny, which in itself is reason enough to bring anything with a cell-count of more than 2 to the streets, were double as popular because of Christmas; houses all over Shiyan were empty.
I doubt whether there was a single establishment here which did not have a decoration, a Santa Clause or some sort of other Chirstmas paraphernalia stuck up somewhere to celebrate the fact.
The basics of Christmas are well known here – put up a tree and buy stuff. Little kids just want, want, want and, did I realise, so do adults. The giving part of Christmas, I think, got muddled up in the translation and is known to a few only.
It was an early start for me on Saturday at 11.30am. I was ready, costume laid out, for action. I donned the black mask and and cape… er, sorry, wrong Blog. I donned the Red Suit and Hat and whilst The Restaurant was still empty I was ushered outside to “Ho ho ho”, “Merry Christmas” and “Sheng4 dan4 kuai4 le4″ ( 圣诞快乐 ) random passers-by. It was rather chilli, but underneath The Red Suit I wore only a t-shirt and track-suit bottoms and were nice and toasty. What do they make that suit off anyway?
By lunch time there were no available seats in the 120 odd seater restaurant and young and old, fat and thin, were all stuffing themselves with Christmas cheer, presented buffet style at a very reasonable price.
Lara was at the door looking cute in her Mrs. Claus outfit and I couldn’t help but stare when I had a moment. Moments, however, were few and far between as Santa was a soft target for being poked by little kids and harassed by kids little and not so litte, for Li3 wu4′s ( 礼物 ). One thing is painfully obvious in any language: Santa carries presents.
The tide of people had subsided by about 14.30 and Uncle W was nice enough to give myself and Lara a break together. We first attempted some window shopping, but were swept away by the crowds too many times and settled on soaking up some sun in Liuyan Square instead. There were thousands of people every where and in my Chinese lessons today I learned a nifty phrase meant for such masses, which translates literally to “People Mountain People Ocean” and is clear and accurate in it’s description.
At 17.00 we were back at The Restaurant, ready for round two. Little did I know…
At around 17.30 the first guests started to arrive. The restaurant filled up quickly and queues formed and I eventually left when there were only a few tables left at 23.30. Santa diligently did his rounds, wishing each table a Merry Christmas or a Sheng Dan Kuai Le and passing presents and Christmas hats to those who liked them. Several kids came up and hung on and around me, but that was expected as Uncle W did ask me earlier the evening to ‘entertain’ the kids, should they require entertaining… and did they require entertaining. They can only eat so much.
Eventually I had to beat them down with my sack of presents as they started getting just a tad annoying. What was helpful though was being able to practice my Chinese on them. The kids speak nice and slow, plus they articulate, very propperly, the sounds of the Chinese words and thus is an invaluable source of brushing up and practising my pronunciation. Plus I expanded my vocabulary with all sorts of handy phrases and words like “No, I don’t have any more presents” and “sorry, I only have one of those” and “I already gave you 3 types of presents, that’s all I have” and lastly “go and sit down for a while, I’m tired now”.
I divided my time between being inside the restaurant and by the door. At one point a group of 10 school kids from the No. 12 Middle School arrived and wanted to enjoy the buffet, but the restaurant was packed and the only seats able to accommodate 10 people were taken. So they were told to come back in half an hour, but such is the nature of a buffet that people will sit and wait until they are hungry again so that they can have a second round. Thus half an hour later they were disappointed again.
I felt bad for them, so I thought I’d give them each a hat to spread a bit of Christmas cheer. There is a flight of stairs leading down to The Restaurant from the road level and I bounced up a few to catch up with them to hand them the hats. However, as I reached into my bag I was suddenly overwhelmed from all corners by hands outstretched and voices screaming “li wu! Li wu!”. I got pushed back down the stairs and pinned against the glass door and had to fight my way through back into the safety of The Restaurant in order to avoid a potentially dangerous situation.
At the height of the buffet, The Restaurant packed, with several more tables and chairs added from sources on which I am not exactly clear, it was time for the night’s entertainment (as if I had not been entertaining enough). King was asked to come and sing, but he specialises in Gospel. So I was requested to sing a more upbeat song. Thus, on came Rudolph The Red-nosed Reindeer and I felt thankful for the previous week at school – as this and “Santa Claus is coming to town” where the only songs that I taught the kids.
Microphone in hand, waitresses and kids lined-up behind Santa Claus, we hopped, skipped and jumped around the restaurant, me singing the song with great enthusiasm.
As the music was loud and had a high pitched artist singing, it complemented my super-bass voice nicely. After skipping through this and the neighbouring restaurant, conga-line in tow, the song had repeated 4 times and I “ho ho ho”‘ed over the microphone and said “mei ge ren sheng dan kuai le” ( 每个人圣诞快乐 ), which I hopes means “everybody, a Merry Christmas” and everyone gave us a standing ovation. That was nice.
Afterwards King and I belted out “Silent Night” before he gave “Noel” a solo go and received more applause. We had some food and eventually King left to go home whilst I waited for Lara.
She had to eat and I took the opportunity to present her with the chocolate my mom had sent me from South Africa. Not a huge gift, but sentimentally very valuable and, in my opinion, pretty thoughtful.
We were seated to the back of a couple, the man a foreigner, who had taken full advantage of the wine with the buffet and were well pickeled by this stage. They were loud and boisterous, like drunk people are, and I was tired and agro, like tired people are. Needles to say, they rubbed me up the wrong way and spoiled my mood and then as they left as the same time Lara and I attempted too, they insisted we join them to go dance.
I was, however, hell-bent on not joining them, but Lara seemed keen, which also pissed me off, as she has on all previous occasions rejected my invitations to go dancing. So I fumed for a minute like a child (which I realised in hind-sight). After wanting to throw my toys and saying I want to go home she said we should go to another place.
We ended up going to the place we had gone to before. Alas, on the way there I moaned again about being unsure as to what she wanted.
But, it was Christmas, the music was thumping, the club was busy and the floor was bouncing. We spent maybe an hour and half dancing before the tiredness got the better of both of us. At one point I leaned over, she thought I wanted to say something in her ear, but I kissed her cheek instead. She seemed pissed off, but I didn’t care, it felt good.
After a few more songs and seeing a stuffed Santa Claus flung into the crowds only to have it’s head ripped off and torn to bits, we departed.
On Sunday I again attended The Restaurant, but this time in the evening only. It was more of the same, although slightly more sedate as it wasn’t THAT busy. I had some fabulous fun as there were more children and they seemed less mob-like (maybe less sugar than yesterday). I also had some fun with Lara and again I sang “Rudolph the red-nose reindeer” and we had a longer conga-line going, waitresses, children and a birthday party of about 8 teenagers all joined the line.
I departed at about 10 o’clock and unceremoniously said bye to Lara and left. I went to Tina’s restaurant to say goodbye when Lara phoned me to ask what time I was going home. I was confused and after chatting to Tina for a bit, went back to The Restaurant again, but then she seemed different and said I should go home.
Women in general are strange creatures that are difficult to understand, but with the language barrier strange becomes weird and difficult becomes nearly impossible. This morning I SMS’ed her to say hi and to ask if I could see her today. She hasn’t replied. That was my last SMS to her and I am not sure when I will see her again. Sigh.
Last night I first phoned Jarrod, but by the time I got home he was already asleep. I also phoned my mom and sister and bantered with them for a while before I finally went to bed.
Christmas has come and gone with a mixed bag of emotions. Whatever will happen next…