The New Year’s Eve trampling tragedy in Shanghai that killed 36 people and injured 49 has become a hot-button issue in China, and now is on the verge of becoming politicized. The Modern College of Northwest University said the dead and injured are all the proof they need to show Western holidays shouldn’t be celebrated in China.

The university famously demonstrated before the holidays saying Chinese people shouldn’t celebrate Christmas, and banned students from participating in holiday activities. In an essay posted to their official website, the Xi’an university explained that this decision to ban students from celebrating Christmas has been justified in light of the deadly Shanghai stampede.

Modern College is concerned the victims were mostly young people, a large majority of whom were university students. By banning Christmas from its university, Modern College is convinced it has saved lives:

If the incident in Shanghai happened in Xi’an, and if this Xi’an incident were to happen on Christmas Eve, and if a trampling incident were to have happened that involved the deaths of university students, then the decision made by the authorities of the Modern Academy (to ban the celebration of Christmas) is even more pronounced!

Ignoring the fact that trampling fatalities are a huge problem all over China each year, Modern College is sure that western holidays are to blame:

This proves that there was an inevitability to this tragedy. If it didn’t happen in Shanghai, it could have happened in other cities. If it didn’t happen on on New Year’s Eve, it could have happened on Christmas Eve. If the victims weren’t students that belonged to this university, then they would be students belonging to another university. This is all because the external conditions of this tragedy are the same:

Decades ago, a tide of Westernized trends came and swept everything up. Young people became infatuated with foreign festivals. Their way of celebrating would be to wander aimlessly without direction in a meaningless, euphoric haze.

It seems the popular adage among these precious young people is “Chinese New Year is for family, Christmas and New Year’s Eve is for friends”, but that still won’t do for the Xi’an University.  Modern College instead urges all Chinese to celebrate festivals with their families, and to stay away from places where masses of people converge.

Photo: Guangzhou Live