Showing posts with label lunar_calendar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lunar_calendar. Show all posts

Friday, February 12, 2021

For English teachers in Taiwan, is it "Lunar New Year" or "Chinese New Year"?

149431413_10159317761911202_5240439660156475160_n


I hear that other cultures celebrate Taiwanese New Year as well. Apparently it's also a thing in China. 
(Please don't take this meme too seriously). 


Just a quick one for the first day of the Lunar New Year. 

When I first arrived in Taiwan, I called it Chinese New Year or CNY. Then I realized that wasn't the best term, as many cultures outside of China -- including Taiwanese culture -- also celebrate this holiday, and it's probably not good practice to tie it to China. It also ties in with CCP attempts to co-opt every cultural touchstone they see as "Chinese", promote it as theirs alone, and force people who don't identify as Chinese to accept Chineseness. Gross.

Like most people who go through this phase, I landed on Lunar New Year, and I still think that's the best choice. Only once has someone pointed out that it's technically decided by the the farmers'/luni-solar calendar, not the "lunar" calendar, but honestly, the goal is to pick a culturally neutral term and I'm not sure we need to go down a deep rabbit hole to find one. Plus, such arguments are usually a tad disingenuous; the people who make them often want to keep "Chinese New Year" as the common term by de-legitimizing everything else. 

(If you want to call it Lunisolar New Year, I certainly won't stop you.)

However, I quickly became a massive prig about Lunar New Year, to the point of correcting other people who said "Chinese New Year". I regret this. It's my holiday or part of my culture. I had no right to be correcting anyone for whom it is.

That didn't work either, though. A lot of students and trainees whom I knew didn't identify as Chinese and wanted to be able to talk about their cultures without having to link them to China still called it "Chinese New Year" for lack of a better term, especially as the word "Chinese" doesn't appear in any rendering of the holiday's name in any Sinitic language that I know of. The issue wasn't thinking that was the best word, it was an absence of alternatives -- a linguistic information gap. Some hadn't learned the word "lunar" yet.

I now recommend my current approach. I call it Lunar New Year,  clarify the word "lunar" if there's any confusion, and explain why if the context is right. When someone calls it "Chinese New Year" and I'm in a situation where it's clear my suggestion wouldn't be unwelcome, I point out that "Lunar New Year" is an option and why if necessary. Then I follow that up with "...but you can call it what you want" or "you can choose". 

The idea behind this is that language is a toolbox, and people who choose to take a language class (or study to become a teacher -- my main job these days is training) want those tools. They don't want or need to be told what to call things from their own culture in a foreign language. So instead of pushing cultural information -- forcing learners to accept that New Year is "Chinese" or not depending on your whims as a language authority -- it provides language information that can help them make their own choice. It raises awareness and offers options rather than providing a single 'way'. 

This also provides room for the argument for "Lunar New Year" to be persuasive enough on its own merits, not because it was pushed on anyone. It also opens up that space for Taiwanese learners of English to discuss the issue themselves and either choose to disagree or come to a resolution. Plenty of Taiwanese activists are already doing this work; "Lunar New Year" was not a term invented by foreigners. If they want to push harder for Lunar New Year, they have a better foundation to do so than someone who's not from here. We can support them but I don't know that we can ever be them. 

If a student or trainee continues to use "Chinese New Year", do I flinch a bit? Deep down in my heart of hearts, yes. Taiwan is my home and I do have opinions about it, as I've lived here a long time and have many local connections. But can we really call ourselves conscientious teachers of a language with an undeniably problematic history if we foist those opinions on people actually from the cultures we live in? The tools we offer can never be neutral, but they can be imbued with choice and their non-neutrality can be acknowledged.

So, I try not to show an outward reaction, even as I continue to call it Lunar New Year.

In other words, in the Year of the Ox, let's keep fighting CCP bullshit, but without resorting to their tactics of cultural imperialism. "Lunar New Year" will probably win out, because the case for it is sufficiently persuasive without your having to tell anyone what to think. 

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The Inaugural Post - Firewalking and More

I'm starting this blog for the sake of collecting information on Taiwan, with a focus on cultural activities or other events and activities of interest to a visitor, student or expat here.

The thing is that most of this information is available only in Chinese, or in English, but sporadically; often, it's out there, but you have to hunt it down in person, which can be time-consuming or even impossible for a shorter term traveler or someone on a busy work schedule.

With that, I bring you information gleaned from Bao'An Temple regarding their annual cultural festival. It's based on the lunar calendar so I've looked up dates in my 2009 daybook as needed.

Activity 2009 / Date / Lunar Calendar Date / Time

Temple Parade - Baosheng Dadi
Thurs. April 9
Lunar 3/14
1pm +/-


Firewalking
Friday April 10
Lunar 3/15
1:30-3:30 +/-


Temple Parade - Sengung Dadi
Wed. May 20th
Lunar 4/26
12:30-1:30 +/-



All of these events begin at Bao'An Temple near Yuanshan MRT in Taipei City. It's on the map in the station there, and noted on most city maps, including those in the major guidebooks.

The information comes from a 2008 brochure, with the lunar calendar dates projected forward into 2009 - fortunately my daybook cites the lunar calendar date for each day under the main calendar. If there are any changes or other interesting activities during that time, I'll update when I become aware of them.

What to expect at one of these events? The "parades" are really "God's Border Inspection Tours" - the idols from the temple are taken out on palanquins and paraded around town. They are usually accompanied by a long parade including martial artists in traditional face make-up, large "puppet" costumes (they're not really puppets - they're immortals and other spiritual beings) that tower ten feet or higher, lion dancers, ceramic animal floats blowing steam, music and all sorts of other fun stuff.

The firewalking is probably the most fascinating of the activities. The same palanquins are brought out along with slightly different "lion" heads while young men run around a spread of blazing hot coals. Then some people come forth with baskets of salt and pour it on the coals, creating billows of smoke. The men carrying the idols are said to become "possessed" by the gods and walk across the coals as such. Apparently, they are not injured.

At least one student of mine has said that the bearers are, in fact, injured - usually with 2nd degree burns on their feet (big surprise). "Are they really possessed?" I asked.

Apparently not. Some say they are, others just go with the flow, but aren't 'possessed' in any way.