Introduction: Chinese New Year In Taiwan

@John - what an incredibly ignorant comment. Taiwan, while not recognized by most countries, is for all intents and purposes, an independent country. Saying that it will "come to its senses" is insulting and shows that you clearly do not understand the issues. Taiwan does not and will never want to be a part of the PRC. If you don't understand the issues, then who are you to lecture others? China is now essentially a dictatorship and is showing signs of a new cultural revolution. Why would Taiwan ever want to give up democracy and freedom to be a part of that??

Helixcardinal: Take off yout tinfoil hat and swallow that chill pill... Please?

@XinNianKuaiLe I have no idea how that "downgrade" comes from. We are discussing about the English name here, not the Chinese name. I am originally from Taiwan and of course I know that we just say 新年快樂 during new year. (Happy New Year.) However it is its English name that we are talking about, between "Chinese New Year" or "Lunar New Year". which is different from "New Year". English is spoken in western world, and of course you need to include "Chinese" when talking about a Chinese New Year. From your opinion, we should not use Chinese food, Chinese movie, Chinese people..... because these are all used only by westerners to downgrade and to distinguish it from their own “food”, "movie", "people". We may not say "Italian Sausage", "Belgian Waffle ", "Korean BBQ"..... because we are downgrading them from "Sausage", "Waffle", "BBQ". One more example, in Taiwan we call the date 2/14 as "Western Valentine's Day (西洋情人節)". Similarly, will you call this a downgrade from "Valentine's Day", which is used in USA? LOL do you see how funny your logic sounds?

@Anqi @Eric I dont even know why you would want to <B>*downgrade*</B> your "New Year" to become "Chinese New Year". Do Westerners call Jan 1st "American New Year", "French New Year", "German New Year"? No! it is The New Year . The term "Chinese New Year" is used only by westerners to downgrade and to distinguish it from their own "New Year". Why would you, as a Chinese, add a modifier in front to downgrade it? The first day of the Chinese calendar is simply "New Year" - not "Chinese New Year", or "Vietnamese New Year", or "Korean New Year" - just "New Year'. January 1st is "Western New Year". Do you go about wishing your relatives "Happy New Year" or "Happy Chinese New Year"? (Or worse, follow the Communist Party's way of reserving "New Year" to January 1st, and downgrading your own new year to become "Spring Festival"? Outside of mainland China (e.g. Taiwan!), where Chinese traditional culture are even stronger than on the mainland, people don't even downgrade it to "Spring Festival". It is the "New Year". Period.)

@Travis You can most certainly increment your "countries visited" counter! Last year, I visited Hawaii, Alaska, South Carolina and the United States. I then promptly incremented my "countries visited" counter by 4. But alas, South Carolina took down the confederate flag shortly thereafter, so now my counter increment has to drop to 3. But no worries, just as South Carolina took 100+ years to face reality, Taiwan may take that much time, so you can safely keep your counter increment for your entire lifetime :) @Peter Actually, the politically incorrect thing isto honor that Honest Abe in Washington DC. The Lincoln Memorial should be tore down and Americans should spit on his statue, for he was the disgraceful president who conquered another country: the confederate. @TW "Republic of China" and "People's Republic of China" are political entities fighting over control of the same, one and only country: China. But it's ok - those Confederate States took more than 100+ years *after* being united, to come to their senses. So what better can be expected of from Taiwan, which has not even been united yet? That's not a problem at all, because the Chinese has a long history of 5000 years during which separation and union has occured repeatedly. 100+ years of separation is just a paragraph in the history book. It must be noted though that in the history book, separatists have always been regarded as traitors and shamed for generations to come. Anyway, who am I to lecture you. You know your own Chinese history better than me :)