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  • UN refuses to change 'Chinese Lunar Calendar' to more inclusive term on

    From ltlee1@21:1/5 to All on Mon Feb 10 02:49:25 2025
    "This decision comes after the special-event stamp sheet issued by the
    United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) in January faced scrutiny in
    Korea for using the term “Chinese New Year” instead of “Lunar New Year,”
    a more inclusive name that acknowledges the various Asian countries,
    including Korea, that observe the holiday.

    "After our discussion and preliminary research, we think we should keep
    the title ‘Chinese Lunar Calendar,'” an official at UNPA told The Korea Times earlier this week, in response to an email inquiry about whether
    there were plans to change the term in the future.

    “This is because there are many different types of lunar calendars used around the world and they are very different from those used in China,
    Korea, Vietnam and overseas Chinese communities like the Islamic Hijri calendar, Javanese calendar and Thai calendar. These lunar calendars do
    not recognize the zodiac animals like the ones used by the Chinese,
    Korean and Vietnam,” the official explained.

    The official also noted, "Even the Korean and Vietnamese calendars,
    which are derived or influenced by the calendars, do not recognize or
    use the same zodiac animals as the Chinese."

    https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2025/02/113_391362.html

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  • From A. Filip@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Mon Feb 10 09:37:11 2025
    [email protected] (ltlee1) wrote:
    "This decision comes after the special-event stamp sheet issued by the
    United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) in January faced scrutiny in Korea for using the term “Chinese New Year” instead of “Lunar New Year,”
    a more inclusive name that acknowledges the various Asian countries, including Korea, that observe the holiday.
    […]
    https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2025/02/113_391362.html

    Is UN-PA position binning even for other sub-UN organizations?
    I doubt+ so. Do they plan to *repeat* such wording on next year stamps?

    Have you inspected "wording" at UNPA web site?
    "Chinese Lunar Calendar" appears ONLY on the stamp itself. https://www.un.org/en/delegate/un-stamps-celebrate-year-snake

    IMHO on long run it may pay "not oppose too much" some middle ground
    name - Chinese but not quite Chinese. The position may "drift" easily
    without _officially_ expressed position.

    What is *YOUR* position?

    --
    | It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a
    | resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to
    | physics and chemistry. (H. L. Mencken)

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  • From ltlee1@21:1/5 to All on Tue Feb 11 00:16:37 2025
    Have no idea on why the UN wanted to issue Chinese New Year stamp.
    Concerning "Lunar Calendars", they are kind of different. Just like
    different Asian countries are different.

    If one is interested in Chinese calendar, the following is from
    Wikipedia:

    "The traditional Chinese calendar, dating back to the Han dynasty, is a lunisolar calendar that blends solar, lunar, and other cycles for social
    and agricultural purposes. While modern China primarily uses the
    Gregorian calendar for official purposes, the traditional calendar
    remains culturally significant. It determines the timing of Chinese New
    Year with traditions like the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac still
    widely observed. "

    More important, as a cultural feature, the Chinese calendar is closely
    related to the development of astronomy in China. It changed with
    improvement in astronomy. The Qing version, developed by Ming officials,
    had assimilated Western astronomical knowledge obtained from the Jesuits
    as a refinement.

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