In China itself, the festive celebration was originally called Nongli Xinnian（农历新年）which means “Lunar New Year” … The festival does not have an ethnic or national connotation. She was eventually forced to apologise and change the greeting to “Happy Chinese New Year”. They added that she had forgotten that she is still a Chinese national （中国人). She was criticised by Chinese netizens for not being patriotic. In 2018, Liu Wen, a well-known mainland Chinese model used English to wish people a “Happy Lunar New Year” via Instagram. The translation error by Xinhua News reflected a trend in the thinking of some Chinese nationals about their position in the world. In fact, it should be a “Happy Lunar New Year” (恭祝农历新年). It is impossible that an Indonesian president wished his citizens of Chinese descent a happy “China’s New Year”. Three years ago, a reporter from Xinhua News in Indonesia translated Joko Widodo’s Lunar New Year message “ Selamat Tahun Baru Imlek”as “China’s New Year” (中国新年). The ethnicisation of Lunar New Year has become the fashion of the day.Īpart from an ethnic label, Lunar New Year has now been given a national label by Chinese nationals as well. I notice that in Singapore, “Chinese New Year” is often used on English-language television programmes as well as the English-language newspapers. From my personal observations, in recent years, the English term “Chinese New Year”, abbreviated as CNY, has become enjoyed more popular usage than “Lunar New Year”. Increasingly the English translation that reflects the ethnic Chinese perspective prevails. The term, however, becomes problematic when it is translated into English as there is an issue of a literal translation that reflects ethnicity. This mirrors the practice in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In Malaysia and Singapore, ethnic Chinese refer to the Lunar New Year as Nongli Xinnian, or most frequently, Chunjie. This is owing to two factors: the term “Cina” is derogatory and many indigenous Indonesians are suspicious of the People’s Republic of China. Given that the term “Cina” can also mean China, politically conscious Chinese Indonesians purposely avoid the term to refer to the festival. Occasionally non-Chinese Indonesians called it Tahun Baru Cina, or Chinese New Year.
Former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono used the term to refer to the Lunar New Year – and so does current President Joko Widodo. It was first popularised by the Peranakan Chinese (local-born Chinese Indonesians who speak Bahasa Indonesia as their home language) and later became the official Indonesian term for the Lunar New Year in Indonesia. In Indonesia, Chinese Indonesians call the Lunar New Year Tahun Baru Imlek. The term Imlek came from the Hokkien pronunciation of Yinli (阴历), which means Lunar Calendar. A woman (L) wearing a facemask looks at decorations for sale at a market in the old quarters of Hanoi on 7 February, 2021, ahead of the Lunar New Year or Tet celebrations. In Vietnam, the term for Lunar New Year is Tet or năm mới âm lịch (the Vietnamese New Year). With the rise of nationalism in Asia, South Korea and Vietnam also celebrate the Solar New Year (often called Western New Year), but at the same time many Koreans and Vietnamese also celebrate the Lunar New Year. Since 1999, the South Koreans have re-adopted the Lunar New Year as a Korean traditional festival, known as Seollal, which means “Lunar New Year”. During the Meiji Restoration, Japan abandoned the practice of celebrating Lunar New Year and adopted the Solar (Western) New Year. Through the centuries, different countries have found it necessary to change the nomenclature associated with celebrating the festival. Of course, they did not call it “Chinese New Year,” let alone “China’s New Year”. In fact, in the past, people of many East Asian countries such as Japan, Korea and Vietnam celebrated the Lunar New Year. The festival does not have an ethnic or national connotation. In China itself, the festive celebration was originally called Nongli Xinnian（农历新年）which means “Lunar New Year”, but it is more popularly known in Mandarin as Chunjie （春节）which means the “Spring Festival”. Different countries, however, use different names for the festival, this reflecting the complexities underlying the position of ethnic Chinese across the region amid an ascendant China. The Chinese in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and the ethnic Chinese outside China are celebrating the Lunar New Year this week.
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