Some pessimistic thoughts on the Chinese New Year

This year’s Chinese New Year had a bad start that the New Year spending growth is the slowest since 2005, but it is not too bad since the spending was still growing. However, I have some pessimistic thoughts on the Chinese New Year from a general angle.

In China, people are still celebrating the Chinese New Year, and have got a “golden week” to spend with their family together. However, more and more people are now complaining about they do not enjoy the Chinese New Year as much as they used to. I think the reason for this is that the Chinese society has been changing rapidly in recent years, in terms of the population structure and the social collabration structure. I am really pessimistic about the future of the Lunar calendar.

The most widely used calendar is the Gregorian calender that most people around the world are working and living based on this calender. In the past, the Chinese people used the Lunar calender; however, in the moder era, the Chinese people has adopted to the Gregorian calender. Other Asian countries which used to use the Lunar calender, such as Korea and Japan, have all adopted to the Gregorian calender. When China participates in more and more global businesses and politics, the importance of adapting to the Gregorian calender becomes more crucial. The most simple example is that if the Chinese companies want to serve their global clients directly, they cannot have a vacation while their clients are not. When a Chinese based financial institution wants to involve a project in the US financial market which is still open during the Lunar New Year, the institution cannot close during the Lunar New Year, otherwise it will lose competitiveness to its foreign competitors.

Though I do not think the Chinese New Year will disappear in the near future, I think that the magic of the Chinese New Year will perish shortly and it will become a pure cultural symbol eventually.