Lunar New Year vs. Chinese New Year CONTROVERSY

the controversial debate rages on this year should you call it Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year who knows maybe by the end of this video we come to a solution yeah well you know the truth is it probably depends but guess what the debate rages on every single February on Reddit Andrew this time it was framed in the sense of cynophobia let's look at the viral post it says people are trying to erase the phrase Chinese New Year let's run the clip in question even during Chinese New Year the biggest holiday for Chinese people Chinese New Year when we see each other during Chinese New Year the way we greet each other is we say in canones I'm sure you've heard that at least prly right means hope you get rich that's not happy New Year do you understand the go-to phrase during Chinese New Year isn't hey happy New Year it's yo Hope You Get Rich hope you get rich hope you get richer than all these other hope you get so rich man hope you get rich and also hope you better hope I get rich we got hope each other going both get rich together oh my goodness Andrew Ronnie Malaysian Chinese always sparking it up I mean uh long story short Andrew this naming thing has become a proxy war for a lot more than just the name right yeah it's definitely fueled by geopolitical beefs and things that are going on over in the motherland country because this is a traditional holiday that comes from Asia comes from China originally but obviously we understand that a lot of different cultures they do celebrate it but with their in with their own twist their own specifically what Vietnamese and South Koreans are probably the next two biggest right right right right and then obviously a lot of Chinese overseas in like Malaysia Indonesia but they'll probably call it Chinese New Year 50-50 I don't know hey shout out to T shout out to Cil Chuck Muk David it's not t it's th right th and S which is uh so I think my overall take and I get that people debate this all the time because there's all these comments that are like no it's not Chinese New Year or no I don't care I'm not going to call it Lun new year I'm calling it Chinese New Year that's where it came from so I guess like both people are right it's obviously that it's not you can't say that it's not Chinese New Year because it is but it's also other things as well you know so we are going to get into the weeds of it guys make sure you like subscribe and turn on your notifications but you know what is not controversial smalla sauce check it out almost sold out please get yours right now all right back to the proxy war thing Andrew um people are trying to separate always from the ancient sinosphere right we just pop up a map like China was incredi influential in the ancient days still influential to this day but now there's a lot of modern day geopolitical beef and there's only one word for Chinese andw there's no like ancient Chinese civilization word modern word CCP word Chinese Malaysia it's all just Chinese and China there's only one word I guess we're not calling it like Han New Year I don't think that would be any more help in Malaysia they call itad so they have some but then everybody's got learn Mandarin and know what quad David I I kind of look at it like fried rice or egg rolls I think pretty much everybody understands that those things originated from China and and it's not wrong to call those things Chinese but the Filipino Lumia and the Vietnamese jazo are by all means to me Superior egg rolls even though the basis of it comes from China yeah I would say they taste better then the and everybody has their own fried rice it it it seems like the egg fried rice originated from China but Koreans do kimchi fried rice which is delicious Vietnamese have theirs Malaysian have their Indonesian fried rice is delicious but it probably stems from originally Chinese now not to say that you have to call it Chinese fried rice every time or Chinese egg rolls I don't think you have to so I guess that's kind of like sort of how I'm looking at it nowadays you know what I mean right um I think that it is true though Andrew that although there's all these things it's like it's so complicated You could argue the history the atmology or the root of things the companies probably more so cater to Chinese New Year right yeah so I think this is where this is actually a pain point for a lot of like I would just say Vietnamese people or Korean people who celebrate I think it's a pain point because when the companies are trying to sell something when Lululemon wants to sell something when G Diva wants to sell something when when all these Gucci LV Brands want to come out with their like half the consumer brands have some Lunar New Year collection but it doesn't it looks very Chinese right when Hennessy throws big parties for lunar new year they I believe most of the time call it Chinese New Year they'll say Chinese because that's the market with the biggest purchasing power and here's the thing if you don't call it Chinese New Year some of the big Chinese uh I guess Rich Chinese people won't like it because they'll be like well why are you calling it Lunar New Year just call it Chinese New Year but I've been noticing that brands in the past three years let's be honest post ID post ID 19 have been more they've been more going with Lunar New Year because and this is what I think the original op was referring to was the sinophobia from ID 19 mixed with the geopolitical beef mixed with the people trying to separate themselves from the ancient sinosphere it's just they feel like it's a lot of persecution saying due to the fact that Chinese or China is not any more liked or or cooler in the past 5 years so therefore more people are going to be rolling with the I guess the anti-chinese way of saying the new year which is Lunar New Year right right right like we said the West in general has soured relationships with China I mean at least FR ofy but probably increased on the Rivalry enemy side right um other Asians souring relations with China specifically disputes over the South China Sea and people feeling like China is just becoming too powerful so it's okay to punch up it's kind of like Christmas when people started calling it exus I remember at church they were like no they're trying to delete the Christianity ASI Church by the way they're like no they're trying take out the Christ out of Christmas don't let him do that don't call it exus if you're Christian you got to call it Christmas right and uh so I guess it's kind of one of those I guess it's one of those situations but I will also say it it it definitely um yeah I guess I guess it's interesting so who's caught up in this Andrew Chinese Southeast Asians who really have a lot of ancient Southern Chinese culture but absolutely zero relation to the modern government they're like living as Chinese in Southeast Asia Indonesia Malaysia Thailand and they're just like yeah but I'm Chinese what's wrong so wrong with that I I have nothing to do with that uh so that confusing right yeah but then that's also the whole thing of Chinese versus China there's no other words right there's Chinese versus China there's no like you Chinese actually does not equal China which is the interesting part because Chinese people are all over the world but it could equal China it could but it doesn't necessarily you know um ABCs who have no clue what's going on overseas in Asia in general they're like wait why am I is it is it okay for me to say it I'm just like familiar with my second third fourth gen upbringing um Mainland Chinese who want to be proud underneath attack and they're engaging in the proxy wars identitarian proxy wars with like Vietnamese or Korean people um I would say it's not that serious ultimately but I feel like some people were even saying like if you correct me on me calling it Chinese New Year I'll cut you out of my life wow wow so it is some it is serious well David we're going to get into the comments section but you guys want to know one little funny fact and I don't know if this really matters but it's technically not even Lunar New Year it's technically not Lunar New Year right because if you base it off the moon then it it gets a little bit wacky right it's lunar solar lunar solar new hybrid calendar it's actually technically if we want to get technical it's the lunar solar calendar yo why don't we call it lunar solar New Year that is the most scientifically accurate term Lunar New Year is not accurate because there's multiple Lunar New Year that people celebrate right from the Middle East and lunar solar lunar solar new see man we don't even need that that's the solution it's not Lunar New Year we got it all wrong let's get into some interesting comments somebody was saying and this is true I look this up five years ago if you typed Happy Chinese New Year into iMessage around this time only Chinese New Year would trigger the animation but nowadays Lunar New Year and Chinese New Year trigger figure that iMessage fireworks celebration doesn't that go to show you things have changed in the past 5 years yeah yeah yeah yeah um of course there's people arguing it is Lunar New Year I mean I think that you know especially a lot of Vietnamese people they feel very passionate about this right now there's a lot of beef going on right now over Waters yes so um but then a lot of people going back and forth being like hey why don't I just call it what I want to call it and then you call it what you want to call it I don't think this is wrong I mean listen everybody knows what you're refer to Vietnamese people want to say Hey you know I don't exactly celebrate Chinese New Y year I celebrate that I'm like yeah because you guys have your own Customs that are a little bit different now the zodiac is similar but you guys have slightly different animals one animal's different yeah a couple animals are different and then you do things a little bit differently you guys eat different food because you're Vietnamese and you're eating Vietnamese food so that's cool so I'm like that's fine but don't it's not not Chinese New Year you know what I mean like Chinese New Year somebody said it's not the antithesis it's being inclusive sorry you basically think that it's cynophobia and not done for inclusivity reasons it totally is so the truth is some people don't want you to call it Chinese New Year for Chinese I don't know where this Chinese New Year versus Lunar New Year thing is coming from in China people actually call it the Spring Festival TW right so if we just call it tan well not in Chinese but if we called it Spring Festival in English O Asian Spring Festival Asian Spring Festival is that wrong that's technically accurate but then not all Asians celebrate spring festiv it is true by the way guys don't get offended it's countries that used to be part of the ancient sinosphere year but Spring Festival if you celebrate the Asian Spring Festival unless the Asian spring festival means something different in like the Philippines or Cambodia or something you know what I mean maybe they Thailand has their own Spring Festival Eastern Spring Festival Luna solar Spring Festival oh my God lunar solar Spring Festival yeah but hey cambodians come I they have their own New Year believe it is their own they definitely own that one this guy said uh I see both sides guys let's just keep the context in mind if you're talking to other Chinese people you can call it Chinese New Year but then when you're talking to everybody else call it lunar soon Lunar New Year for the sake of inclusivity but you know even within Chinese sometimes it gets complicated Andrew if you say like Shan qua to a Cantonese person they're just like why didn't you just say sun and you're just like dude listen man um you know there's just so much like inter beefs share something how how can everybody just share the new you know what you know at this point about taking the context and the audience into mind it's actually super logical if everybody was neutral and unemotional about this issue but people are emotional and not super neutral on this issue how about people just not be so emotional about this right um somebody said that there's a difference between Western cynophobia and just inter Asian beef that is true I agree with that yeah it's not necessarily cynophobia in the same way cuz that's putting it on a western lens it's kind of like it's just like rivalry comp comptition um there is some I I think you can be an Asian and still be sinophobic in a different way I think it's possible but yeah I I I it's complicated within Asians I mean I think I see some you just see a variance across the board but it's definitely a fraction yeah um ultimately this person said you know I'm part Chinese myself but I'm part Lao I'm part Vietnamese I'm part M I have people in my family that are Korean it's so interesting it's like a circle people want to be more inclusive but then in the course of acknowledging the diversity of our community we end up being seen as a monolith again and eliminating all the Nuance Mongolian New Year Ted salal Chinese New Year and then it just all becomes Lunar New Year because actually Mongolians have one called uh I'm I'm sorry I got to mess up the pronunciation s sangar so I'm saying that basically it's so confusing because China was so influential in the past but it's so hated in some ways in modern day so when you're dealing with the ancient past and then this modern day and then like all these layers in between everybody's tapped into a different layer all right I got this I got I got a solution I got a solution David I have a solution to all this Chinese government and just like all the rich Chinese people they hire a bunch of Koreans to Rebrand and make Chinese New Year cooler so that people don't hate it as as much it makes sense cuz korean's Got The Branding game on lock so you you got to go hire them as consultants are you talking about like how Chris Woo and Jackson Wang were like trained in Korea you have to train the Chinese New Y year in Korea to bring it back to China so that everybody can enjoy it oh and then you hire Japanese designers to do the aesthetic pack to redo the aesthetic pack so it doesn't look so ancient and then you get vits to throw the night club uh the club nights DAV D how do you feel about it what's your solution what's your personal how are you going about life and calling it cuz we talked to all different types of Asians we know I have a lot of Viet friends right right right um for me man if somebody wants to make it a big deal I just call a lunar new year because I'm just not even trying to make it a thing you know what I mean but like I could see the Chinese Chinese for that I could see the Chinese perspective where it's like man we created it and we created that calendar and we created the Zodiac and then we can't even get credit for it in the west because everybody thinks we're whack and we're not cool or we're like the ancient grandma that like got excommunicated from the you know what I mean the you know what I'm saying like where it's almost like you're so influential but then you're taught to kind of like downplay yourself because you're not cool yeah whereas everybody else can upay themselves because they're a smaller group and then but it's like are we supposed to downplay ourselves like like in the way that like Anglo-Saxons or like I guess prior to that Greek people or Roman people dominated the Western civiliz but then they they can't be say it anymore either but I don't think we ever were in that position that like where like Anglo people have to downplay themselves you know what I mean with the Christmas and the xas it's it is confusing because everybody perceives like I said there's so many hyper there's so many layers of this argument and everybody's tapped into a different geometric plane and they don't really intersect it's almost like you know what I mean like you could be just tapped into like it seems super unfair for the Chinese kid not to be able to call a Chinese New Year but everybody could call a vietnames or Korean New Year in a micro but in a macro sense everybody else the inclusive argument makes a lot more sense yeah so it depends on like I guess like your scope and your focal length that you're viewing the issue at or like what is your goal so I don't know I just think the these things they always exist Andrew Andrew did you know there's a big fight right now is Giannis Greek or Nigerian you talk about jannis and DMO yeah is he Greek or Nigerian if you look in the Instagram comments let me tell you there's no agreement on who gets to take credit for how great of a b the classic like people look at us and be like oh you guys are just American just like everybody else and we're like I don't know the French national players is that a is that a win for Africa or is that a win for France when France wins the World Cup but all the players are from Africa uh it's hard to simplify things nowadays for me I think that I'll be cognizant about the audience that I'm speaking to um but at the end of the day the way I celebrate it I celebrate Chinese New Year like we will say it in Chinese like I'm Lunar New Year in a way it is allinclusive term so I'll use it but it doesn't fully mean anything to me because it's like what is Lunar New Year it's a more generalized is it the red packets that's fine but does the red packets say Chinese or Vietnamese on it or does it say English on it or does it not have any words on it you know what I mean right is the Hong B like you know so I celebrate Chinese New Year but obviously I'm not going to tell Vietnamese people that they celebrate Chinese New Year they celebrate T because it's a little different right and I'll just say hey it's a similar thing you guys understand like whatever it's similar fried rice this from China but it's everybody has their own version right I like the I like Korean fried rice better maybe you know what I mean like whatever but I think I think I'll say Chinese New Year but if anybody and no one can tell me I'm wrong for that but I'm not going to tell them to say it either I'm not going to be like yo Koreans you celebrating Chinese New Year I'm like n you're doing your thing it's kind of weird that Asians get caught up in the this English nomenclature like Point scoring for like identity points or like um contribution points or something it's so weird but it is we are all living in the west I would I think all Chinese people I don't even say Chinese New Year to other Chinese people I say like sun fock orines I say it in Chinese even to other ABCs which is even a little weird for me right but like I mean like it seems like a little bit more rare to do that but it's like I just don't it doesn't even make any sense to me to say Happy Chinese New Year to another Chinese person in English yeah yeah I do think people who make this a big deal are um they're definitely have some other deepr rooted feelings about Chinese that's not like if you get pissed about it then you feel offended by like just Chinese culture in general or Chinese people or China in general you know but taking it out of that I don't think it's a big deal so I'll say Chinese New Year I'm not going to correct you I'm not going to be like no no no no remember it's Chinese New Year but also if you tell me hey don't call it Chinese New Year I'll be like well I mean I can call it what I want and I can that is also an accurate description of it so like we said I mean everything in 2024 Andrew with magnetism with gravity it is getting jiujitsu or Judo to push other people's agendas or or like you said deeper root you know what's even a a more tight-knit Asian thing to do is to be an Asian on Asian and be like yo you celebrate New Year and it's February just and you just know it just say new you just know you just know hey hey just say New Year hey hey quac quac HOA you you uh you celebrating the New Year how's your new year and it's like February and you already know it's that new year no it's kind of fire that's kind of fire if all how you know yeah if you just dab each other up and say happy New Year you don't even got to say Lunar New Year feuth and you go up to a Korean or Japanese even I mean I know a lot of Japanese people don't celebrate right but but even if I just go to they'll they'll get it get it just That's The Insider thing is new year in February all right so say happy new year to all your Asian friends in February don't even qualify it with no Gregorian versus lunar solar qualifications or anything just say happy New Year mid-February all right you guys let us know what you think in the comments section below until next time with the hop hop boys we out peace