Gone from cities are rituals like kowtowing to elders and burning the Kitchen God. (As is also the case with the fortune cookie, large Chinese New Year parades like San Francisco's are an American invention.) Almost every one of the Chinese New Year traditions has been banned at some point in recent decades. It's as if the U.S. government outlawed and vilified Santa Claus costumes, nativity scenes, and Christmas lights.How the Grinch stole Chinese New Year. - By April Rabkin - Slate MagazineAhem! The U. S Government frequently does...oh, never mind. But Slate is correct that the Chinese Government goes further in its persecution of Chinese traditions than the American government does.
No one in America is prohibited from having a nativity scene in their home, where as Chinese aren't allowed to have the traditional Kitchen God in their house.And as well as persecuting Chinese New Year, the Chinese government does persecute Christmas and Christians too. I wrote in the year 2000 that the War on Christmas is worse there:
Christmas Day, 1999 – Catholics in Nanguan Machi Village were arrested and fined the equivalent of 60-$120 for holding an illegal Christmas worship service in a vegetable shed. Christmas Eve, 1999 – Three Catholic leaders and a 12 year old girl were detained in Liangzhuang Village, Hebei Province, and beaten with electric batons for holding an illegal Christmas Eve service. Injuries sustained caused the need for hospitalization.China—Christian Persecution in China.Of course, the reason for all this persecution is that China is officially committed to being an authoritarian atheist Communist state, under the rule of the party. What excuse is there for the War on Christmas in America, which isn't supposed to be like that?
