Gobble, gobble, toil & trouble
- Source: Global Times
- [21:31 November 25 2009]
- Comments
Pilgrims pursue their quarry in New York on November 22, 2006, during the fifth annual Thanksgiving Turkey Chase.
By Global Times Special Report team
As Moon Festival is to Chinese, so Thanksgiving is to Americans: Nobody else in the world cares about your big day.
"I've heard of this day," said Li Yan, 27, a translator, "but I have no idea what day it is."
Don't ask Canada. The Canadians already celebrated their Thanksgiving Day on October 12 and they aren't into it half as much as Americans.
"Thanksgiving? Is that in December?" said Chen Jing, a 25-year-old project manager. "Sorry, I'm not interested."
The Global Times took an interest and find out what our lonely American pals would be doing, where and why. As our reporters found out, today is all about being an American…
Karl Eiselen
TV miniseries and film actor
Ten years ago, when I first came to China, nobody invited me. As I get older and more successful, I get invited to more Thanksgiving parties.
In America, turkey is pretty cheap. It's basically a big bird that's not very delicious, so nobody eats it usually except for Thanksgiving. I have never bought a turkey myself, but I think my friend can just go to a supermarket for foreigners or five-star hotels.
You need a big oven to cook, basically a western style kitchen with imported western stove. I mean, you have to have a nice, big western house to even be able to cook a turkey.
A cheap gas stove in the store costs less than 300 yuan, but a real oven probably costs at least 7,000- 8,000 yuan. It's three times more expensive than the average Chinese house has for cooking.
So it's not just that the turkey is expensive, it's that most people are not going to have that kind of equipment in the house, and most foreigners who rent an apartment are not going to have an oven. They might have a portable grill thing, but you can't cook a turkey in that. You can cook a turkey sandwich.
Ninety percent of Americans here cannot go to a five-star hotel and have turkey. They don't have an oven. They don't have a big house for a party, so they're not going to have Thanksgiving.
It depends on which group you are in. If you are in a group of lawyers, everybody celebrates Thanksgiving. But most expats are not in the lawyer, diplomat, rich businessman group. The other people maybe go to Sanlitun to have a beer and say, "Happy Thanksgiving!"
