Reflections | Amid Chinese supermodel storm, why Lunar New Year isn’t right choice if you want to be inclusive

After being blasted for her Instagram post, Liu Wen quickly changed the message to ‘Happy Chinese New Year’. Perhaps it’s time to coin a term that speaks to all ethnicities who celebrate the festival

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Dong Ky villagers perform a lion dance on the fourth day of Tet, or the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, in Dong Ky, Bac Ninh province, Vietnam. Picture: Luong Thai Linh

Wee Kek Koon

Published: 6:00pm, 21 Feb 2018Updated: 11:53am, 22 Feb 2018

Supermodel Liu Wen recently faced a barrage of online abuse for using the term “Lunar New Year” in an Instagram post. The foaming-at-the-mouth vitriol of Chinese jingoists and their violent threats have cowed many, including retailers and university professors outside China, and Liu is no exception. She quickly changed her message to “Happy Chinese New Year”.

Increasingly, the phrase “Lunar New Year” is used instead of “Chinese New Year” outside China (and even within China, including in the South China Morning Post) because the festival is celebrated not only by the Chinese but also by Koreans, Vietnamese, Mongolians and so on.

This attempt at inclusivity is, however, slightly off the mark because the traditional lunar calendar used by many Asian peoples is, in fact, a lunisolar calendar, in which both lunar and solar phases interplay to construct a practicable calendar.

Chinese supermodel Liu Wen sparked controversy over which term is more appropriate, “Lunar New Year” or “Chinese New Year”, after posting this picture with Wendi Deng Murdoch on Instagram. Picture: Instagram/@liuwenlw

I don’t have a problem wishing “Happy Chinese New Year” to other Chinese, but when one is in a multi-ethnic location like, say, California, where there are Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese and so on observing the same holiday, or when one is sending online felicitations “to all who celebrate it”, then “Chinese New Year” would seem exclusionary.