{"id":509864,"date":"2026-02-28T14:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T14:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/509864\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T14:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T14:43:11","slug":"cultural-clash-k-pop-superstar-g-dragon-divides-china-fans-with-lunar-new-year-greetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/509864\/","title":{"rendered":"Cultural clash: K-pop superstar G-Dragon divides China fans with \u2018Lunar New Year\u2019 greetings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">K-pop superstar G-Dragon ignited the ire of Chinese netizens with his choice of \u201cLunar New Year\u201d greetings during a recent performance in Dubai. His reported act of liking a post that supported his terminology afterwards was interpreted as a provocative stance.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The controversy emerged on February 17, coinciding with the first day of Chinese New Year. The KRAZY Super Concert, headlined by G-Dragon, featured an array of K-pop artists and pop singers from across Asia, including Indonesian singer Agnez Mo and Chinese pop idol Cai Xukun.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">On stage, G-Dragon greeted the audience by saying \u201cLunar New Year\u201d instead of \u201cChinese New Year,\u201d triggering immediate backlash from many Chinese fans.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Online footage shows him stating that the day was \u201cLunar New Year,\u201d repeating \u201clunar\u201d three times and prompting the audience to echo \u201cnew year\u201d after him.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Online footage shows G-Dragon declaring the day as \u201cLunar New Year,\u201d emphasising the word \u201clunar\u201d three times and encouraging the audience to repeat \u201cnew year\u201d after him. Photo: Weibo\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2fc46225-bf26-4d3a-86ff-a81459e8f15f_f9a0b703.jpg\" title=\"Online footage shows G-Dragon declaring the day as \u201cLunar New Year,\u201d emphasising the word \u201clunar\u201d three times and encouraging the audience to repeat \u201cnew year\u201d after him. Photo: Weibo\"\/>Online footage shows G-Dragon declaring the day as \u201cLunar New Year,\u201d emphasising the word \u201clunar\u201d three times and encouraging the audience to repeat \u201cnew year\u201d after him. Photo: Weibo<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In contrast, when Cai joined the stage as a special guest, he addressed the audience by calling it \u201cChinese New Year\u201d and invited them to say \u201cHappy New Year\u201d in Chinese.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"K-pop superstar G-Dragon ignited the ire of Chinese netizens with his choice of \u201cLunar New Year\u201d greetings during&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[29255,76356,1337,64,63,17652,191206,255666,24866,512,4690,55173,166906,4946,7882,90546,255664,5951,134,51762,163919,10340,7029,255663,9975,943,12440,255665,204670,177548,12241,136,32244,110563,5813,171338],"class_list":["post-509864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-angry","tag-apology","tag-apple","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ban","tag-brand-ambassador","tag-cai-xukun","tag-chanel","tag-china","tag-chinese","tag-chinese-new-year","tag-chow-yun-fat","tag-concert","tag-controversy","tag-critics","tag-disrespect","tag-dubai","tag-entertainment","tag-g-dragon","tag-greeting","tag-hong-kong","tag-huawei-technologies","tag-insult-china","tag-k-pop","tag-korea","tag-korean","tag-krazy-super-concert","tag-lunar-new-year","tag-mama-awards","tag-middle-east","tag-music","tag-netizens","tag-shame","tag-south-korea","tag-superstar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}