How to celebrate Thanksgiving in China
1. Order a pre-made turkey from Sam’s Club
2. Make a bunch of food on a hot plate
3. Celebrate!
As you know, China doesn’t exactly have a history of English pilgrims settling and sharing a feast with the native inhabitants, so the concept of Thanksgiving is a little foreign here.
That’s not to say they don’t know what the holiday is. When I taught my students about it this week, many of them told me they had learned about it before. There’s even a name for the holiday in Chinese — 感恩节 (pronounced “gǎn ēn jié”).
Around Shenzhen, Western businesses held Thanksgiving dinners on this week. I opted for the cheaper route — having a small dinner with some of my CTLC friends on Thursday night. We prepared chicken, mashed potatoes and vegetables. It was warm enough outside to eat on the rooftop.
CTLC went all-out for Thanksgiving on Saturday, holding a banquet at one of the area public schools for the 120 foreign teachers living in Shenzhen. They ordered four pre-made turkeys from Sam’s Club. If you wanted to eat, you had to bring a dish to share, so I brought a big pot of Italian pasta — a meal I hadn’t actually prepared since before I left for China.
Unfortunately, both dinners lacked pumpkin pie. But when you’re able to get Turkey and mashed potatoes in China, you really can’t complain!
Related posts:
Bridget O'Donnell, 22, is a designer for the 
