X'mas May Get Cold Shoulder

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 ◆ X'mas May Get Cold Shoulder

Shrewd domestic business people are sparing no efforts to promote the festival atmosphere and thus open wallets over the Christmas holiday, but a survey by Horizon Research indicates that Santa may get the cold shoulder in China. Some experts predict that traditional Western festivals such as Valentine's Day and Christmas will win more and more favor among Chinese citizens as the country accelerates its pace of internationalization after its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, Horizon Research's survey based on 4,676 urban residents from 10 major domestic cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, Nanjing, Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Dalian and Shenyang - found that most Chinese (88.9 percent) still regard Spring Festival as their top-priority celebration of the year, while only 4.5 percent of those surveyed prefer Christmas, the high-profile traditional Western holiday. Under such circumstances, entrepreneurs' wishful visions of huge profits from people eager to travel, shop and enjoy entertainment theater during the Christmas season are not likely to be easily realized. But their business expectations will not come to naught thanks to enthusiastic youngsters keen on following fashionable trends. Among young people between the ages of 18 and 24, there is more enthusiasm for celebrating Christmas. And the younger they are, the easier it is for them to accept Western-style celebrations. About 13 percent of young people polled expressed a preference for Christmas over Spring Festival, and 11 percent said the two big occasions carried about the same weight for them. More than half (58 percent) of the young people between 18 and 24 eager to celebrate Christmas said they would prefer to spend Christmas Eve in shopping malls, friends' homes, or in bars and hotels.