Globalization and Chinese Spring Festival

Mgr. Shuangping Xu, B.A.

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Recent years have brought a decline in the traditional flavor of long-standing Chinese festivals, including the most influential Spring Festival. Conversely, the Western celebration of Christmas seems to be more welcomed than the Spring Festival. Despite the fact that there is much discussion about these two festivals in China, few scholars have carried out empirical research to analyse how Spring Festival has actually changed in the context of globalization and the spread of Christmas. Through conducting a survey as well as qualitative interviews with young people in Guiyang, China, I explore how the meaning and the celebration of Spring Festival has changed and whether such changes are related to the rise of Christmas in contemporary China. The findings from my research reveal that Spring Festival is still very important for many Chinese young people. The rise of Christmas does not threaten Spring Festival. First, Spring Festival still retains its vitality but is understood and celebrated in some new ways. Second, the Western Christmas holiday has been glocalized since its arrival in China. Therefore, the claims of some scholars that the popularity of Christmas has made Spring Festival drop into decline are simply overstated.

Keywords

Christmas, globalization, glocalization, Guiyang, modernization, Spring Festival, Westernization, young Chinese

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 21. 5. 2012

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 12. 6. 2012
• Supervisor: doc. Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky, Ph.D.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Social Studies

Master programme / field:
Sociology / Sociology (Eng.)