Chinese Lunar New Year greeting by Donald Trump’s granddaughter sparks huge media interest

Video posted on Twitter by Ivanka Trump shows her five year-old daughter, Arabella, singing traditional ‘Happy New Year’ song in Putonghua

China society

Kinling Loin Beijing

Published: 12:27pm, 3 Feb 2017

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A video showing the granddaughter of US President Donald Trump singing a traditional Lunar New Year song in Putonghua has attracted huge media interest – both in China and the United States, mainland media reported.

Arabella, aged five, was shown singing a traditional children’s song called “Happy New Year” while carrying a Chinese lion dance puppet in the video posted on Twitter on Thursday by her mother, Ivanka Trump, the tabloid newspaper Global Times reported.

A Twitter post by Ivanka Trump, showing her daughter, Arabella, holding a Chinese lion dance puppet. Photo: Handout

The girl was also seen blowing a kiss and bowing to her online audience at the end of the video.

“Arabella singing a song she learned for #ChineseNewYear,” Ivanka Trump wrote in a caption accompanying the 37-second-long video.

Arabella singing a song she learned for #ChineseNewYear. Wishing everyone an amazing year to come during these days of celebration. 新年快乐！

A video posted by Ivanka Trump (@ivankatrump) on Feb 2, 2017 at 4:30am PST

“Wishing everyone an amazing year to come during these days of celebration.”

Ivanka Trump then added in Chinese characters: “Happy New Year!”

The post appeared after Ivanka Trump took her daughter to the Chinese Embassy in Washington to attend a reception celebrating the annual spring festival on Wednesday.

‘She really likes China’: Ivanka Trump is surprise guest at Chinese embassy’s Lunar New Year party

The visit and her Twitter message were the only personal new year greetings made by the Trump family to the Chinese community because the US President – unlike his predecessors – has not sent any new year’s greeting on the official White House website.

An image of the video of Ivanka Trump’s daughter, Arabella, singing a song in Putonghua, which was posted by China’s Global Times newspaper. Photo: Handout

Ivanka Trump has often shared videos and pictures of Arabella speaking Chinese and celebrating Chinese culture because her daughter has been learning the language since she was 18 months old. Arabella was shown wearing a red Chinese-embroidered dress while reciting a poem in Putonghua in a video posted on her mother’s Twitter account during last year’s holiday.

Why is Donald Trump giving Chinese leader Xi Jinping the apparent cold shoulder?

Donald Trump’s relationship with China has been tense since his election campaign after he called the country a “currency manipulator” in his campaign pledge on trade.

But he did speak to President Xi Jinping by phone in November, after his election victory, before he took office.

One comment by a reader on the mainland news website news.163.com, who watched Arabella singing in the latest video, said: “Cute girl, good singing. Pure children do not have conspiracies.”

However, other netizens were not happy that the US President had not sent any personal Lunar New Year greeting, saying: “He is just trying to brush us off with this five year old girl.”

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