My Fulbright Year in Taiwan

My first Christmas in Taiwan was in 1987. I “celebrated” by going to a concert in the evening at the National Concert Hall in Taipei. It was a strange experience for me, to be in an environment that sort of observed Christmas, but not really.

This year was my sons’ first time to experience this feeling. The people in Taiwan, especially in the schools, have at least an intellectual appreciation that Christmas is an important holiday for Americans, but the holiday doesn’t have the emotional connotations for Taiwanese people that it does for Americans. It must be something like how Chinese people in the US feel on Chinese New Year. Americans know that it’s a big holiday for Chinese people, but we don’t really appreciate how important it is.

December 25 is Constitution Day in Taiwan, observing the date that the constitution was ratified. In 1987, the day was a national holiday, so schools were closed. Ever since Taiwan shifted to a five-day work week, the number of days off for holidays was reduced, and Constitution Day was one of the holidays that was sacrificed. This means that schools are in session on Christmas Day in Taiwan.

Having to work on Christmas day was a strange experience. My kids were indignant, and the ETAs were dismayed.

Evan was a bit indignant that he had to go to school on Christmas day.

We did our best to observe Christmas at home. We bought a Christmas tree, and did stockings for the boys. My sister Margaret sent a great package of silly goodies for the boys, too (Thanks, Marg!).

My parents sent some cookies and candy from the US. We watched “White Christmas,” “Charlie Brown Christmas,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

My ETAs’ schools elementary schools took the opportunity of having a foreign teacher to put on performances to celebrate the holiday. I went to as many of them as I could. The performances were an opportunity for the kids to show what they could do in English. There were skits, songs, dances, and a lot of Chinese Santas.

On the evening of Christmas Day, we went to Li Xing 力行 Elementary school’s performance. It was two hours of dances by all six grades (three classes of each grade), plus the kindergarten, special ed class, and the student teachers. That’s a lot of dances! The ETA at that school, Jessica, was very stressed at having to choreograph nine dances (and dance in one of them). But it was a great show.

We also bought big presents for the boys.

Evan got a Kindle, and Ian got a new computer (the display on his computer is slowly dying – about a third of the screen is dead).

By the end of the day, the living room was a mess, and the kids were engrossed in their loot. Another successful American-style Christmas!