Monday, May 7, 2012

Chinese Holiday Giving

Today is May 1st, International Labor Day, where all the workers in virtually every country in the world (not the USA!) are honored.  We have the day off!  We also had yesterday off, and would have had Sunday off too had it not been for a school activity with kids and parents.
China, however has a strange way of providing holidays for its workers.  Students and many employees will have to work on a Saturday prior to and a Saturday after a holiday period in order to make up for lost days.  In the case of this holiday, since they gave everyone an extra day off, we all had to work Saturday.  It actually feels less like a holiday and more like a weekend with the days moved around.
I don't like these holidays.  We used to use the phrase "Indian giving"  for something like this.  If you were going to give this practice an ethnic slur, "Chinese giving" might be more appropriate.  Come to think of it, when you consider the land taken from American native people, then reservations granted, then taken away also, "White man giving" might be the most accurate term.
Whatever you call it, it's a sucky way to administer holidays.

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