Shenyang university bans Christmas celebrations on campus to ‘resist corrosion of Western culture’

Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?

A university in Shenyang has said that it wants to see absolutely no Christmas cheer of any kind this holiday season, notifying student organizations that celebrations of Western religious festivals have been banned on campus.

The notice was released on Monday by the Communist Youth League of the Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, which said that in recent years, too many young people had fallen under the influence of Western cultures, becoming “blindly excited about Western holidays.”

In order to reverse this trend, “resist the corrosion of Western religious culture,” and “build [Chinese] culture confidence,” the university’s student associations have been ordered not to organize or promote activities or celebrations for holidays like Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the notice said.

Back in 2014, a similarly Grinch-like university in Xi’an also tried to cancel Christmas by sealing up its school grounds on Christmas Eve, barring students from leaving without permission. Meanwhile, banners were plastered up around campus reading: “Strive to be good sons and daughters of China, oppose kitsch foreign festivals” and “Stop Western culture from expanding.”

That same year, university students dressed in traditional Chinese costumes showed up on the street in Changsha, calling for a boycott of Christmas with yet more red banners emblazoned with messages like: “Chinese people should not celebrate foreign festivals” and “Foreigners have created Apple. What about us?”