Making Christmas

Since the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, Shanghai has been China’s forefront of western culture. As the most popular festival, Christmas was brought to this city by the foreigners who settled in Shanghai after the Opening of Shanghai in1848. From then on, the prelude to the conquest of Shanghai’s Chinese residents was lifted. By studying the media text related to Christmas and published in Shanghai from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, the author divided the conquest into three stages:from the late Qing Dynasty to the1910s, most Chinese residents in Shanghai only observed Christmas celebrations occurred in Concession. Such as celebrations included holidays, festival decorations and Mass customs by which Chinese people became familiar with Christmas, but they also made some misunderstanding. For example they mistakenly called it foreign winter solstice. From the1910s to1920s, with the help of commercial consumption and the occasional stimulation of Chinese Revolution, Christmas successfully captured Shanghai’ Chinese and became one of the most popular carnival festivals in Shanghai. By this way, Christmas was successfully incorporated into Shanghai people’s social life; Since the1930s, Christmas has become a regular celebrated festival in Shanghai. To celebrate this festival, those people went to shop, have big dinner, watch movies or dance, but ignored the national calamity and war references. Some patriotic persons constantly criticized the celebration of Christmas. In this paper, by discovering a history of Christmas in Shanghai during the Republic of China, the author aims to restore people’s initial reaction to the western culture and rebuild Shanghai’s city life in that period of time.