11.22.07
May Day! May Day! China Cancels Holidays
Momentum has gathered, and now the State media is heavily advancing, though not clearly rallying around, the view that the 7-day long Labor Day holiday in May is no longer necessary (People’s Daily Article). The plan as currently contemplated would reduce the May holiday to one day off (as is done in Hong Kong), and add 3 new one-day holidays of Dragon Boat Festival, Tomb Sweeping Day, and Mid-Autumn Festival.
State media articles point out what what everyone knows is bad about these 1-week melees. People Mountain People Ocean. Tickets for anything are scarce. Trying to book transport will stress you out as you find yourself competing with the non-queuing masses. OK, so I haven’t seen State media mention the part about the line cutting, but add in other issues of ecological damage and price gouging, and a strong argument emerges for reworking the holiday system.
The main reasons against cancelling the May holiday are summarized here (with my take), i.e., it takes away an opportunity for people to go home (plausible concern given that China has the largest rural-urban migration and seasonal labor flows in human history; the people do need a chance to go home), the pent up travel demand will cause an explosion, making the October holiday a “diamond week” of ultra-hellish travel (I’d kind of like to see how bad things could get), and that people and systems are now accustomed to the May holiday whereas shorter holidays could easily be morphed away during busy periods at the office or factory (which in China is always – it is harder to take away an entire week from workers than it is a day, but China is making real progress in improving its labor laws to protect workers and guarantee overtime and other protections, so this is less of a worry than it may have been just a year or two ago) Buried in some stories, such as this one, is the sentiment of keeping the 3 1-week holidays and adding the 3 traditional holidays. That’d be awesome, but wishful thinking most likely.
The most exciting development has not been mentioned in the news – if China really goes through with reinstating its traditional holidays this will be a great thing for Chinese people. This is a country proud of its 5000 years of history, yet 2 of its 3 holidays are elongated communist-inspired contemporary festivals. Cutting back on on the Labor Day hoopla is just a bonus; the savorable prize is that Chinese people everyone – not just those in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and other overseas Chinese communities – can commemorate their unique and special holidays with a day off from school and work. This will be a welcomed correction to what has been an on-going mistake. And, while there have been murmurings about the possibility for years, this time I think it’s finally going to happen.
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