It doesn’t really matter. Focus on eating dumplings instead comrades. Love you all x
- a Chinese person
this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2024
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filling my guts with Пероги for a heckin slavy the ukraine to celebrate lunar new years
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as a black person...
On the one hand it doesn't matter. On the other hand, this is the exact kind of rhetorical salami slicing that western propaganda engages in against it's enemies. I think in the context of rising Sinophobia and Asian people getting hatecrimed on the streets, it is good and useful to push back against this sort of thing.
Idk about you but I've seen stores and restaurants near me brand clearly Chinese things as "Hong Kongnese" or "Taiwanese", presumably to avoid hate crimes and backlash. One particularly egregious example is that news headline that framed 冰糖葫芦 as a Korean snack:
Edit: I think a good comparison is pushing back when Israel tries to claim falafel as its own dish. Falafel won't stop being delicious either way and it's not a hill to die on, but fuck Israel for trying.
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It's commonly called "Lunar New Year" among non-Chinese English speakers in Southeast Asia, since it's a holiday in many countries there.
Well that makes sense. Chinese New Year is not called Chinese New Year in China, it’s just the New Year.
When you go somewhere where “New Year” or “Lunar New Year” means something else, for example the Gregorian New Year, the generic term that works in your own country might cause confusion for others, necessitating a distinction.
But within an American context, specifically relating to the Chinese diaspora, the shift in terminology is undeniably due to the political climate vis-a-vis China.
Those are different holidays.
What we “celebrate” in the west is Chinese new year. It has red envelopes and a rabbit in the zodiac, which means it’s not Vietnamese New Year or Malaysian New Year or Japanese New Year, which are distinct and different holidays
Friendly reminder to Liberals that flattening culture and being a “cultural melting pot” is genocide and white supremacy. Culture is defined by its distinctiveness and specificity, the more you broaden it and make it vague the more you destroy it.
The idea of “cultural melting pot” came out of a Fordist-type industrialist making his employees in the US do a play where they go into the pot in their indigenous and cultural outfits and all come out with suits and the same hair cut. This is the process you are attempting to apply to a Chinese holiday to remove it or it’s specific features and erase it
The reason it’s called Chinese New Year and not Lunar New Year is because 农历新年 translates to “Chinese calendar New Year.”
农历 literally means “agricultural calendar” but somehow it was translated into “Chinese calendar” in English. If you want to be literal with the translation it should be called the “agricultural calendar New Year”.
In fact, the name was only changed in 1970 when it was previously called 夏历 (Xia calendar), which refers to a very specific calendar from the Xia dynasty, where as many as 102 different types of calendar have been known to exist throughout the entire Chinese history. The agricultural calendar is built upon and evolved from the Xia calendar to form a type of lunisolar calendar (Yin Yang calendar) that combines the Yin calendar (阴历, i.e. lunar) and the Yang calendar (阳历, i.e. solar), so it’s not entirely correct to call it a lunar calendar, or Lunar New Year.
农历新年 (Chinese calendar New Year) is used to distinguish it from just 新年 (New Year) because the Gregorian calendar has been used in official capacity in China since the late Qing dynasty, and continued by the Republic of China in 1912 and then the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
In China, Chinese New Year is also called 春节 (Spring Festival).
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I've seen Steam call it Lunar New Year on their sales for years now. They sure as fuck never meant Ramadan, but plenty of Americans are so 
that even mentioning China invites people screaming at you and sending death threats
This seems like its going to be a large struggle session on here...
I honestly don't care if someone calls me a lib online because of me saying "Lunar New Year" or tankie or ebil CCP shill for "Chinese New Year"....
I know this has a geopolitical context but it's like "Happy Holidays" vs "Merry X-Mas" to me again...
Edit: Honestly, could be worse.... it could be Taiwan New Year for all I know
That being said, if they INSIST on saying LUNAR New Year, if I say Chinese, we gonna have a problem...
the barista at starbucks wished me a bountiful LUNAR new year! wokeness has gone mad!
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Calling it Lunar New Year is more inclusive. I can't tell if this is a bit or not.
It is not “more inclusive”. Unless you think it’s also more inclusive to stop calling Ramadan “Ramadan” and start calling it “the fasting”. In fact, it ignores the diversity of different lunar new years in different cultures.
Chinese New Year is a distinct, Chinese holiday. It is not the same as the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, for example.
In order to conform with the new extreme anti-China zeitgeist, references specifically to the Chinese Lunar New Year are being replaced with the generic term “Lunar New Year”.
My impression is that they're using Lunar New Year as a way to include all the cultures the celebrate it, not as a way to be Sinophobic.
Do you think they should just list all of them?
I find it hard to accept that saying Lunar New Year is more Sinophobic than not saying Tet is exclusive of Vietnamese people.
When Chinatown celebrations are having to use “Lunar New Year” instead of “Chinese New Year” due to fears of being branded Chicom agents here to kill white people, it is Sinophobic.
The default assumption when discussing the “Lunar New Year” is still the Chinese Lunar New Year. The only difference is you don’t have to use the word “Chinese”. Its adoption is being pushed not to include other holidays but to avoid associations with China or assumptions of evil Chicom disloyalty. In any case, even if one were to assume this change was made in good faith, it does not make sense to erase the differences between culturally distinct holidays just because they’re Asian and they involve the zodiac. They are different holidays. Are we supposed to fix the underrepresentation of other lunar holidays by erasing their distinct character?
Would you accept turning Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah into “Winter Holiday” as if they were the same and then almost exclusively using it to refer to Christmas?
Alright I'm going to take a step back: is there some specific event you're referring to?
No? It’s a general trend. Chinatowns, whom I highly, highly doubt are celebrating Tet, are having to switch to “Lunar New Year”.
It’s like how the Russian bakery near my place had to put up a stand with Ukraine poster because they got vandalized and had their windows broken.
Similarly, the rise in Sinophobic hate crimes is closely correlated with the current political climate. Associating yourself with China invites accusations of disloyalty similar to the situation faced by Japanese-Americans in the lead up to and during WWII. You know how westerners freak out when they see non-Christians in traditional religious clothing? It’s not quite on the same level, but this is getting close to concealing that you are, for example, a Muslim and just saying “I’m religious” so as not to be targeted for it. Or saying “I’m partaking in a religious fast” during Ramadan.
They are having to avoid specific references to their own culture and having to substitute a generic term.
Regardless of matters of self-identification, the principal issue is that westerners, who have up until recently used “Chinese New Year”, are now using “Lunar New Year” to refer to the same specific holiday in order to avoid mentioning China. It is not more inclusive of other Lunar New Years because, in the minds of the vast majority of westerners, it still refers to the Chinese New Year. This is easy to tell with regards to Tet as the zodiac is not exactly the same.
I don't think I share your opinion. In my city, where there are large numbers of both Chinese and Vietnamese people, there are specific events for CNY, specific events for Tet, and general events meant to be inclusive of both. In my experience, the east Asian diaspora populations in the US express a significant amount of solidarity with each other. Through this lens I see the "rebranding" as a willingness to share and to acknowledge that the Chinese aren't the only ones who celebrate a new year at this time. Part of this is that I think large amounts of the populations are now second generation. They went to school here and grew up with Vietnamese or Chinese neighbors and friends who they could share (in some respects) a holiday with. The Asian neighborhoods in my city are very heterogenous.
In my opinion, this is more like people starting to say "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas". I think the change came from an instinct to be inclusive rather than attempting to hide because of the rise in anti-Asian violence. Most younger east Asian-Americans in the US are liberal and have, like white liberals, adopted the language of inclusion.
I doubt you'll agree, but my outlook on it isn't as dim as yours. Anecdotally, when I'm with my Chinese and Vietnamese friends in mixed company, they (and myself) tend to simply ask each other what they're doing for "new year" rather than bothering to say CNY for the Chinese friends or Tet for the Vietnamese friend.
Again, The Lunar rebranding is principally viewed from the outside POV. Of course Chinese people are not going to call the holiday “Chinese New Year” because it’s just the New Year.
The Lunar New Year is the Chinese New Year for the vast, vast majority of non-SE Asian Americans. CNN and company is not referring to “Lunar New Year” out of the goodness of their hearts but rather to further entrench the idea of ties to China as acts of treason. This is like if “Happy Holidays” referred to Christmas, and only Christmas.
If you go to most American calendar apps now, turning on Chinese Holidays gives you “Lunar New Year”. I think this is a key example.
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The problem is that the US's conception of Lunar New Year is basically Chinese New Year, so it's very obvious that the push has more to do with malding over China than being inclusive. For example, giving kids red envelopes is largely done in Chinese New Year and Vietnamese New Year (Tet). For Japanese New Year, they have a totally different style of envelope and for Malaysia, the envelopes are green. So, if your "Lunar New Year" is just giving out envelopes of a particular design with a particular color, then it's more whitewashing than inclusivity. Different Lunar New Year has different traditions. Chinese New Year and Tet might share the same color envelopes, but the Chinese zodiac and Vietnamese zodiac are different. Last year was Year of the Rabbit in China but Year of the Cat in Vietnam, so if your "Lunar New Year" celebrates the year of the rabbit last year, then "Lunar New Year" isn't Tet because the rabbit isn't part of the Vietnamese zodiac. And as a final point, the Lunar New Year isn't universal, meaning it can fall on different days depending on what country you're talking about. So, it isn't a given that Chinese New Year and Tet fall on the same day and if your "Lunar New Year" perfectly matches the date of Chinese New Year, then "Lunar New Year" is just Chinese New Year.
You can see this in the 2023 Lunar New Year article from CNN: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/lunar-new-year-2023-illustrated-guide-hnk-intl/index.html
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"Saying goodbye to the Tiger, we enter the Year of the Rabbit on January 22, 2023." Goes back to what I said about Tet being the Year of the Cat, so they're already excluding a particular lunar new year.
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The first graphic is just the basic aesthetics associated with Chinese New Year. Red is only the definitive lunar new year color for Chinese New Year and Tet. It's not particularly relevant for the other lunar new years. Eastern dragons aren't that prominent in the other lunar new years either. Some of the other zodiacs don't even have the dragon.
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The spring banner graphic. I mean, it's just stuff written in Chinese. People in Korea aren't hanging up red banners with Hanja lol. I don't even know if those Chinese phrases are meaningful in Korean Hanja.
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The food is just Chinese food. Every lunar new year has their own particular set of dishes to consume with their own particular symbolic meaning. Like, it would actually be inclusive if they had a dish for each different lunar new year, but it's just Chinese food for totally-not Chinese New Year.
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Going back to what I said earlier about red envelopes, that's largely a Chinese New Year and Tet thing.
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Xin nian kuai le and gung hei faat coi are just greetings in varieties of Chinese. One Japanese greeting during Japanese New Year per Wikipedia is kotoshi mo yoroshiku o-negai-shimasu. For Tet, Vietnamese people would say Chúc mừng năm mới. It isn't really inclusive if you only have traditional Chinese greetings in your article about not-Chinese New Year.
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Goes back to my earlier point about different Asian countries having different zodiacs. You can't really have a one-size fits all zodiac, so they settled for the Chinese zodiac.
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At the end of the article, we finally have acknowledgment that other Asian countries other than China exist. Like, they had a grand total of two sentences devoted to lunar new year traditions that aren't related to Chinese New Year.
Taken by itself, you could chalk this up to dumbass white people thinking Asia is just China, but given the geopolitical realities between the US and China and the role of MSM as a component of the state apparatus, as shown in the ridiculous weather balloon saga, we absolutely cannot give these dumbass white people the benefit of the doubt.
I would personally chalk it up more to the liberal language of inclusiveness rather than Sinophobia. I bet most liberals in the US are aware that the lunar new year is celebrated in other cultures, but know very little about those other celebrations. In this light I can see the instinct to be inclusive and then getting details wrong. I expect they see it as a "I should say happy holidays rather than Merry Christmas" sort of thing.
What's the adage? Never attribute to malice what could just as easily be attributed to ignorance?
Little personal anecdote: I used to live in the Bay Area and the town would put up banners that said "gung hay fat choy (sic)" on the lampposts around new year. Tonight I was coming home from the airport in my new city which has a much larger Vietnamese population and the little traffic advisory sign said "chuc mung nam moi".
What's the adage? Never attribute to malice what could just as easily be attributed to ignorance?
Taken by itself, you could chalk this up to dumbass white people thinking Asia is just China, but given the geopolitical realities between the US and China and the role of MSM as a component of the state apparatus, as shown in the ridiculous weather balloon saga, we absolutely cannot give these dumbass white people the benefit of the doubt.
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Except the Chinese calendar is not lunar, it's lunisolar. Also, dozens of other regions, cultures, and religions have their own lunar calendars which have new year's at a different time.
So by being "inclusive", not only is the term inaccurate, it also erases the lunar new years of other cultures.
I don't get it either. I'm from one of these countries that celebrate the Lunar New Year but live in the imperial core, and I've been to parties or gatherings with a mix of East asians celebrating and I don't think anyone there took issue with it being called Lunar New Year as a quick reference to the different holidays around the same time. You can phone your parents and use your own lingo then but when returning to English it really is no big deal?
I get the "Chinese" in CNY being a boogeyman thing for western whitewashed people, but personally as someone from East Asia I think Hexbear who think this is 100% a Sinophobic thing should log off and go to a new year party.
No it’s specifically made to de-Chinafy it and is clearly done via sinophobia due to the recent push.
Using “inclusion” to bulldoze and destroy culture is disgusting. It’s more inclusive to make Hanukkah non-Jewish amirite? Why don’t we just call it Candelabrah and make it non-denominational for everyone to be more inclusive :)
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Nothingburger.
Chinese games that aren't afraid to place Chinese culture forward call it Lunar New Year in the west too.
My hometown has a lot of Chinese people and a lot of Vietnamese people. Lunar New Year seems appropriate.
Genshin impact is made by libs who will submit to whatever bullshit the west comes up with to make more money.
You can still celebrate Chinese culture, you just have to make it clear you’re not “connected to the PRC”.
Chinese people having to change the names of their holidays in the west because of this is not a “nothingburger”.
Guy whipping up a moral panic about "the woke left's war on Chinese new year" could be a funny bit.
I like it lol
You cannot outrun the euphemism treadmill.
I've noticed this for a while too, the more gusano-filled a city is here the more they call it Lunar New Year instead of Chinese New Year
They did the same thing last year
How was last year my 2 favorite animals and it still sucked so hard?
how can it be year of the rabbit AND year of the cat
China and Vietnam have different zodiacs.
Most every other nation that celebrates it bases it off the Chinese New Year. It's been going on for thousands of years. It isn't something Mao invented. Good grief empire get a grip.
It's not even just the White House or whatever. I've seen a lot of mentions of "Lunar New Year" this year over "Chinese New Year." One need only look at the individual sales over on Steam. It's "$company Lunar New Year's Sale" this year. It's...kinda depressing for some reason. Probably cause the shift was unwarranted at the end of the day.
They called it lunar new year on steam at least as far back as 2019 because I have some emotes from then
Ah. Still makes me sad one way or the other.
It's literally compiled from astronomical observations and the calculations are based off of a specific longitude. Which governments make the compilation? The PRC and the ROC. What Longitude do they use? Beijing. Japan uses western New Years, I'm pretty sure Tet is a completely seperate holiday/date and the Koreans can go fuck themselves and make their own damn calendar.
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They could at least call it the spring festival like they call it in China.
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I call it "the real new year"
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