Celebrating the start of a new year is a strictly human phenomenon. Humans across the globe decided to label time, by dissecting it and recording it down to days, months, years. The invention of the calendar has changed the nature of time, castrating it as gods did with Kronos’ Scythe. What belonged to the realm of the heavens and gods has now changed to something down to earth, once boundless now measurable. Time, now locked in its cage of predictability, was used to pave our way for the future. Cultural variations led to different calendars — it is no surprise that different cultures celebrate different holidays. And even when most of the world uses a solar calendar, multiple parts of Asia celebrate the new year of their lunisolar calendar, also known as the Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year.
While each of the countries celebrating the Lunar New Year has their own name for it such as Seollal, Chūnjié, Shōgatsu, and more, the differentiation between them is not so clear to those who do not celebrate it. Adding a tinge of orientalism into this situation gave rise to the name “Chinese New Year”, which is not necessarily based on an appreciation of the holiday’s cultural roots, but on ignorance. While more and more people have begun calling the holiday “Lunar New Year”, quite predictably, Chinese radicals saw this change as an infringement of their culture. On January 25, hundreds of toxic retweets flooded Disneyland’s official twitter account for using the term “Lunar New Year”.
In a way, the name of the holiday really doesn’t matter. The celebration of a new year is a reason for families to gather and spend time with each other. The traditional meaning and cultural significance of the day itself — the zodiacs, the food, and more — are still a huge part of the holidays, but honestly have begun to lose its luster in this modern age. It is not so much about what we call the holiday; it’s about the celebration. Everyone should be allowed to call it using the name familiar to them, in the way they are taught to. However, the issue is gaining traction as some claim that the renaming of the holiday insinuates an intention to “steal” Chinese culture.
New Year celebrations in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam have their cultural basis in the Chinese traditional calendar known as Nónglì, which is presumably the oldest known calendar in the world. This lunisolar calendar has a twelve-year cycle, where the zodiac signs of twelve animals originate. To the Chinese, this symbolizes the greatness of ancient Chinese heritage as well as its influence on nearby countries. Using the term “Chinese” in the name is therefore not a representation of their country but rather the holiday’s cultural roots. Hence, the removal of it could mean denial and censorship of such past influences in order to take the holiday for one’s own. They are not exactly wrong. But they are also missing the point, by large.
The argument against the new name indicates that the phrase “Chinese New Year” is culturally incorrect. The development of culture is not something that can be retained within the borders of the geopolitical landscape. Affected, yes, but ultimately futile in claiming a nation’s culture will stay unique and contained forever. As Greeks influenced the Romans, Muslim societies affected the Medieval West. Similarly, the traditions, inventions, and culture of the Chinese Empire had flown into different countries of East Asia. But literally centuries have passed since the initial adoption of such culture and the adaptation of the holiday in each sociocultural environment — which changed so much that it would be criminal to call them the same. Even the present day Chinese customs themselves must be a lightyear away in comparison to the initial celebration intended by Huángdì himself. Renaming takes into account this precise fact. As someone who lived in China for around a decade, each holiday is incomparable to each other.
To call it the Lunar New Year is not an attempt to overlook its heritage, but a warm inclusion and recognition for cultural variation. It’s an acceptance of how different types of celebrations can exist. It’s an acknowledgement of how different cultures were influenced and became independently unique. It’s why we have the holiday on a Gregorian calendar in the first place; it recognizes that not all cultures derive from the same roots. Even without all this — it’s easy to be mindful and respectful to others. When you understand that there are other cultures celebrating the same holidays, it’s not the hardest thing to be inclusive instead of claiming cultural appropriation. So in my eyes, screaming “it’s a lunisolar calendar!” and pointing fingers at others for cultural differences does not only show superficiality but also tragic ignorance and arrogance.
This type of arrogance might be more familiar to me than some. During my time in China, I would come across people who claim historically inaccurate facts to boast their nationalism. Some even went so far as to say that Korea is a vassal state of China. Every time, I would laugh it off since not everyone is this delusional, but the frequency at which I met such people worried me. Only later did I realize the existence of Sinocentrism, a belief or attitude that Chinese culture — or just China itself — is superior to those of others. Controversies regarding China’s cultural appropriation have risen to the surface over the years, seemingly related to this very idea. Famous cases include Chinese attempts to include hanbok in the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony and to distort history to incorporate ancient kingdoms of Korea into Chinese territory. There are so many other cases that have caused indignation among Koreans. To Koreans, the threat of cultural appropriation is nothing compared to the controversy surrounding the Lunar New Year. It happens so often that it’s almost akin to Halloween horror stories that haunt us every year.
China was an overwhelming presence in East Asia throughout history, and it still is. Yet the followers of Sinocentrism need to realize that the world has changed. The global stage of the 21st century is not one that is easily domitable by brute force and they would need to learn how to harmonize and live together. If there is one thing they need to learn from these heated debates, it’s that they are betraying the teachings of respect and politeness from their ancestors.