A recent official notice from southern China circulating online bans local schools from foreign festivals, sparking public concerns. In a Dec. 20 notice, the Education Bureau of Rong’an county, Guangxi Province, requested local primary and secondary schools and kindergartens to prohibit any foreign festival celebrations on- and off-campus. The notice claimed to uphold the “spirit of the higher-level documents,” and all teachers and students, especially members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) should follow it strictly, according to Lianhe Zaobao, a Singapore-based Chinese language media, on Dec. 24. The official department warned that Western festivals like Christmas with strong religious overtones have been promoted by some Western countries to “implant Western values and lifestyles in China” through cultural communication and its “growing social influence seriously affects our country’s traditional culture.” At the end of the notice, a local public security agency’s telephone number was left for reporting incidents. On Dec. 21, …