As the State Council Information Office (S.C.I.O) published the legal holidays arrangement of 2024 yesterday, it sparked heated discussion regarding working on New Year’s Eve. Such vibe of crowd repeated many times in past several years, although the bone of contention is different.

There is an ancient fable in China called “Three Chestnuts or Four” which tells a monkey trainer wanted to cut down the monkey's rations. In the first time, he tell the monkeys that he will give them three chestnuts each morning and four each night. The monkeys vehemently objected to this proposal. So he changed the strategy to four in the morning and three in evening. At this time, monkey accepted delightedly.

In my view, the current debates about holidays are reminiscent of these monkeys. They may not realized or intentionally ignored the real issue.

I'm puzzled by the authority that grants the S.C.I.O the power to decide when billions of people can have holidays. Besides, they didn’t just tell you which days of the year are holidays. They employ various tactics to extend the holidays, creating what they call 'small vacations' that span several days.  Whereas, the total number of legal holidays in China, which has remained at 11 days, has not changed since 2007. While compared with HongKong, there have 12 days of legal holidays and 5 days of public holidays.

Even if the S.C.I.O have the right to make such decision. The decision-making mechanism of such thing is still a black box. No one has opportunity to express their opinions in ahead. Our only option seems to be waiting and accepting.

I don’t have answers to these questions. I hope that everyone has the right to live in a responsible country that cares about its people.

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