Episode 40: The War for Lunar New Year
This is our 2022 Lunar New Year special edition. We hope you enjoy this episode and Happy New Year!
Every year around late January or early February, people all over the world celebrate the Lunar New Year according to the traditional lunisolar calendar.
As for the United States, in the 1950th, grand celebrations and American style parades in San Francisco Chinatown brought the concept of the Chinese New Year to the general American public, first to fight against racism and to show loyalty to the United States during the Cold War, as well as to boost Chinatown tourism business, although reinforcing the modal minority myth as well as other racial stereotypes , these public displays of Americanness during Chinese New Years celebrations contributed to a unique identity forward for Chinese Americans as well as for Chinatowns all around North America. Then, in the 1970s, American presidents started wishing the public "Happy Chinese New Year". In the 1980s and 90s, we see the transition from "Chinese New Year" to "Lunar New Year", we see an Asian American and AAPI identity emerging.
Throughout these historical changes, much like the "War on Christmas", for a Chinese celebrity or an international institution, to say "Happy Chinese New Year" or "Happy Lunar New Year" can be seen as a political stance. Was there really a war on Chinese New Year? Or, should we all fight for the Lunar New Year in observance of solidarity as well as intersectionality in today's America as well as the world?
Recommended Books
1. Making an American Festival: Chinese New Year in San Francisco’s Chinatown By Chiou-ling Yeh
2. The Color of Success, Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority By Ellen D. Wu
3. Scratches on Our Minds: American Images of China and India By Harold R. Isaacs
The American Presidency Project
John Woolley and Gerhard Peters
UC Santa Barbara
Cover Photo Title
Crowd of people watching a dragon at a Chinese New Year Celebration, Los Angeles, [s.d.]
Cover Photo Source
Public Domain. Credit to University of Southern California. Libraries and California Historical Society. Digitally reproduced by the USC Digital Library.