On February 12, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his New Year wishes to all Asian people in France and replaced the Chinese New Year with the term Lunar New Year, downplaying the Chinese overtones of the Lunar New Year. The public believes that the performance of the Chinese government during the new pneumonia Epidemic has awakened Europe and the entire Western world to China, and that Macron’s deliberate use of words is intended to make China understand that France is aware of China’s attempts to strongly promote its model around the world.
French President Emmanuel Macron posted a video on social media on the 12th day of the Lunar New Year to send New Year wishes to all Asian people in France, emphasizing that the Lunar New Year is a cultural heritage that links France with Asian countries such as China, South Korea and Vietnam: “You share this cultural heritage both in France itself and in the overseas departments. Bringing France together with China Korea Vietnam and also most of the countries in Southeast Asia.”
On New Year’s Eve, Macron has taken to social media to greet those celebrating the Lunar New Year in four languages – French, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese – writing “My best wishes to all those celebrating the Lunar New Year: I wish you all health, success and happiness!”
Unlike the folk convention called Chinese New Year, Macron used the Lunar New Year, which many heads of state have started to apply, and congratulated them in four languages, downplaying the Chinese overtones of the Lunar New Year, not to mention that Vietnam, once a French colony, also celebrates the New Year on this date.
Macron’s use of the Lunar New Year is also well documented in the history of the Elysée Palace, with President Nicolas Sarkozy celebrating the “Chinese and Vietnamese New Year” in 2012, followed by President François Hollande, who began to avoid the Chinese New Year and instead used the Lunar New Year. After that, President François Hollande started to avoid the Chinese New Year and used the Lunar New Year instead, and received representatives of various Asian associations, not only the Chinese. His speech was about “the wealth of Asia”, not China.
Noting Macron’s deliberate use of the Lunar New Year, French teacher Baska said, “The expression Lunar New Year instead of Chinese New Year seems to distance himself from a strong China, especially after a year of rampant pneumonia in Wuhan, a year in which the Chinese government’s dishonesty and exploitation of the epidemic has led to a new awakening of Europe, and many Western countries, to China. , in such a way that minimizes the relationship between this festival and China and uses it to befriend other Asian countries, also to let China know that the West understands China’s desire for world domination, but also presents the West’s anxiety about China’s increasing violence, such as the crackdown on Hong Kong.”
However, Macron also strongly condemned the discrimination against Asians during the Wuhan pneumonia epidemic in a New Year’s Eve video, saying that racial discrimination and hatred were also created when the epidemic was widespread in Wuhan, and that racial discrimination was taking root from the day the epidemic began to spread in France. He stressed the firm rejection of any form of racism, regardless of the purpose, and any insult as well as violence.
Macron emphasized the strong ties between France and East and Southeast Asia, arguing that the efforts and dynamism of the Asian population are helping to create new horizons and a future for France.
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