Disneyland posted a video of the parade commemorating the Lunar New Year at Disneyland in California on its official social network service (SNS) on the 17th, ahead of Lunar New Year. The video showed an oriental dragon beating a drum, Mickey in a hanbok, and Minnie Mouse, followed by Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese subtitles such as “Happy Lunar New Year!” (HAPPY LUNA NEW YEAR) and “Happy New Year.”
Then, Chinese netizens started making unreasonable claims by posting comments such as “Chinese New Year” rather than “sound theory.” On the same day, Chinese netizens repeated the same claim on the feed related to Lunar New Year posted on the official social media account of Disneyland in Japan.
Seo Kyung-duk, a professor at Sungshin Women’s University, said, “So far, big events have been held in Chinatown in major Western cities for the Lunar New Year, and for this reason, it has been widely introduced as a scene of major news and recognized as a ‘Chinese New Year’.”
At the same time, he pointed out, “The Lunar New Year is not a holiday unique to China, but a holiday celebrated by various Asian countries such as Korea, Vietnam, and the Philippines, so it is correct to mark it as ‘Lunar New Year’.”
He also said, “It is foolish for some Chinese people to terrorize the universal culture of Asia throughout the world as if it were their own culture.”
SALLY LEE
US ASIA JOURNAL
