What year do the Chinese celebrate January 1st?

Traditionally, Chinese New Year is celebrated according to the lunar calendar. Till this day, most Chinese people feel that the new year really begins only after the lunar New Year. Chinese people only started integrating the western calendar year a little over a century ago, recognizing January 1 as the start of the New Year. This is because when the Republic of China was founded, China began to use the Gregorian calendar, and “New Year’s Day” literally means “the day of the beginning” in Chinese.

传统意义上的中国新年是按农历过的，现在人们也依然认为过了农历新年才是真正的一年的开始。中国人把1月1号作为新年来庆祝的历史刚刚过百年。这是因为当中华民国成立后，中国才开始用公历， “元旦”在中文里的字面意思就是“初始之日”的意思。