Monday, December 14, 2009

Chinese Santas

At the Australian Consulate Christmas Party last week, our children pointed out that it was their first time to see a "Chinese Santa".


We've spied lots of Santas around Hong Kong, in shopping centres and schools and restaurants, but so far they have been the typical fair-skinned, blue-eyed version like this one...



And this Father Christmas was even singing an English carol...




It seems that, as is often the case with artwork of Jesus, countries alter the appearance of Santa Claus to suit their own specific nationality. For instance, I remember in Cote D'Ivoire there were a few African versions of "Papa Noel", like this carving below.




So I checked online to see if there were very many Saint Nics of the Asian variety out there, and I managed to find a few...






When Craig saw the photo above, he said, "Santas on postie bikes? So that's why all the Christmas mail arrives late in Hong Kong."


2 comments:

  1. How about the Asian Noah family we saw represented at Man Wa Noah's Ark replica?

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  2. The other day Chenelle said: "Mum, I know Santa is not real, because in Africa they had brown Santa's and here they are white." Looks like you're not the only one that spotted the difference. Out of the mouth of a 7 year old. :-) Enjoying your blog, thanks Renee! Love to all. Liesl.

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