What should we say when our new year comes?
The Chinese Spring Festival has just begun few days ago, lots of celebrities updated their posts on social medias. Liu Wen, a supermodel from China, also sent her New Year greetings to fans via instagram. However, lots of people accused her for using “happy Lunar New Year” rather than “happy Chinese New Year”. Those people regard “Lunar New Year” as a sign of showing a friendly attitude towards countries like South Korea, while watering down the significance of “Chinese” part. Having so many people complained about this, Wen has to delete the old version, saying “Happy Chinese New Year” instead.
Like the new year in other countries, Chinese or Lunar New Year should be the best time of the year that all people look forward to. But wrong words can get one in trouble, especially at this specific point. People are willing to hear good words. Therefore, anything related to “death”, “evil” and “sadness” should not be mentioned. But why Wen is to blame? Don’t people say that in China? Actually I myself was confused when I saw that news.
Lunar New Year is not only a perfectly correct, but a scientific way to define the time. The calendar we usually use nowadays is the solar calendar. Correspondingly, there’s a lunar calendar. In ancient times, Chinese people used lunar calendar more often, because it is related to the solar term and the growth of crops. Then the first day on the lunar calendar is reasonably called the Lunar New Year. As we all know, the ancient China has a great cultural influences on other adjacent countries. So many asian countries also use lunar calendar and celebrate the Lunar New Year. Chinese people like to name it “the Chinese New Year” , because China is the main area celebrate this festival, and in this way, they can distinguish their festival from others’.
Recent decades, people are more sensitive towards things related to Chinese culture. Several years ago, Korea robbed the Dragon Boat Festival as its original idea, which makes no sense. Similar things happened during years. People in China want to grab their ancient treasure from ancestors tightly. I’m glad that people are conscious of protecting their own cultures and traditions. But this time, they overacted. “Lunar New Year” is definitely a correct way to express a broad idea, while “Chinese New Year” will be more specific. As a world class supermodel, Wen has fans all over the world. As long as she didn’t say things like “Happy Korean New Year”, people should not blame her. In China, different people have different preferences choosing either of those two ways to send their greetings. People are too picky on this event. Why don’t they think that Wen should say things in Chinese, for the meaning can never be translated to other languages perfectly?? It’s ridiculous.
