AROUND the Chinese New Year holiday, keen observers may notice that in the English-speaking Western media, Lunar New Year has been frequently used to replace Chinese New Year. You are more likely to see Lunar New Year on a government, an organization, or a business website.

Decoupling schemes advocated by U.S. politicians have gradually been gaining momentum in recent years. Economic decoupling propaganda then spills into other areas including social and cultural fronts. Replacing Chinese New Year with Lunar New Year is just another example of the decoupling phenomenon manifested in the English vocabulary.

Technically speaking, Lunar New Year is not a correct term to replace Chinese New Year. A Lunar New Year is a more general term in a lunar calendar. A lunar calendar is one based on the observation of the Moon around the Earth, while a solar calendar, like the prevailing Gregorian calendar, is based on monitoring the movement of the Earth around the Sun.

The Chinese New Year follows its lunar calendar, which is shared by many countries in East and Southeast Asia. But there are also other countries and cultures that have their own lunar calendars. Mongolian lunar calendars, as well as Islamic and Jewish ones, for example, all have different months and cycles, and therefore celebrate Lunar New Year on different dates.

Therefore, designating Chinese New Year as Lunar New Year is an assuming imposition upon other cultures using different lunar calendars. But in reality, scientific and liberal sensitivity always yields to the pressure of political correctness dictated by the prevailing social recognition of the time.

David Liu via email