Throwback Thursday: Merry Christmas, Foreign Detainees!

A turn for the absolute bizarre in this week's Throwback Thursday as we look at a particularly festive time courtesy of China Daily circa this time 2010. The newspaper lovingly gave inmates of the Beijing No. 1 Detention Center the opportunity to recall what free life is like, if your free life happened to be singing KTV on a Thursday afternoon with your work colleagues with no booze for eternity. Despite the inherent sadness of being locked away anywhere, these guys are able to let go of their woes for a brief moment and give it their best X-Factoring, and in doing so reminding us of a valuable Christmas lesson – whatever you do, don't do it in China, and absolutely don't get caught!

Christmas has become more common and celebrated around China over the years and highlighting this trend is the celebration at Beijing No. 1 Detention Center.

In a scene of bizarre festivities, "A special Christmas party was held at Beijing No. 1 Detention Center on day before Christmas Eve, where some 40 foreign suspects detained there had the chance to celebrate this Western holiday with police guards", China Daily has reported, complete with a video to judge whether your Christmas measures up.

To see the video, click here.

– Original article by Lauren McCarthy

On that note, if you're not happy that you're not in Chinese prison this Christmas then you deserve to be. On that latter note, I apologize and wish you all a very Merry Christmas from us here at the Beijinger! *Cues video, sings along, wonders if these people are still inside*

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Email: tomarnstein@thebeijinger.com
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Screenshot: China Daily