{"id":322074,"date":"2026-02-28T16:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T16:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/322074\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T16:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T16:21:09","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\/ie\/322074\/","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\/ie\/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":322075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[149695,20206,936,12516,40139,149697,14245,114,229,117521,82541,20880,2126,149692,149693,200,93,69723,149694,240,6160,61,149691,60,6521,19761,6440,149696,113048,91490,1196,278,9837,32362,541,64651],"class_list":{"0":"post-322074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-angry","9":"tag-apology","10":"tag-apple","11":"tag-ban","12":"tag-brand-ambassador","13":"tag-cai-xukun","14":"tag-chanel","15":"tag-china","16":"tag-chinese","17":"tag-chinese-new-year","18":"tag-chow-yun-fat","19":"tag-concert","20":"tag-controversy","21":"tag-critics","22":"tag-disrespect","23":"tag-dubai","24":"tag-entertainment","25":"tag-g-dragon","26":"tag-greeting","27":"tag-hong-kong","28":"tag-huawei-technologies","29":"tag-ie","30":"tag-insult-china","31":"tag-ireland","32":"tag-k-pop","33":"tag-korea","34":"tag-korean","35":"tag-krazy-super-concert","36":"tag-lunar-new-year","37":"tag-mama-awards","38":"tag-middle-east","39":"tag-music","40":"tag-netizens","41":"tag-shame","42":"tag-south-korea","43":"tag-superstar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}