Next Spring Festival Holiday Could Be Extended To Ten Days
Perhaps it’s fitting that on Women’s Day, one national representative, a woman from Anhui Province, earned herself the national spotlight for proposing what netizens are calling a darn good idea – extending the Chinese New Year holiday.
Li Xiaoli’s proposal at the National Congress on Saturday would lengthen the official Spring Festival holiday from the current seven days to around ten days for China’s working population.
She argues that the extension would not only allow people to spend more time with their families but could encourage increased consumer spending, spurring domestic demand and stimulating economic growth.
Weibo users predictably blew up in support of the proposal, but many were quick to point out the possibility that the extension would come with added makeup days – a caveat that, for most commenters, would be unacceptable.
One influential user (username 扎哥吖 zhāgēyā) put it like this:
Currently, the Spring Festival holiday is generally set for seven days, including one weekend + three days of Spring Festival holiday + two makeup days. In other words, the Spring Festival actually only lasts three days, because the other four days were originally meant to be taken off anyway.
The user went on to argue that ten days is actually not enough and that the official holiday should last 15-18 days.
Another top comment by user wandylv read:
Given the choice between extending vacation days and adding paid annual leave, I’d take the extended vacation days, because companies are not willing to add manpower to make up for workers taking off, so it ends up increasing the workload of everyone else. That’s not really paid vacation in my book.
Although we know where the public stands, this proposal will surely be a matter of much debate among representatives. Nonetheless, here’s hoping for a longer break next New Year go round.
READ: Find Out Which Weekends You'll Have to Work to Earn Your Holidays in 2021
Images: Bank of Oman, Newtoday.cc, Weibo
