In December 2023, the 78th United Nations General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution officially recognizing the Spring Festival (Lunar New Year) as a UN floating holiday. For most Chinese people, this didn’t really change much. Every year, China Central Television’s Spring Festival Gala already features New Year greetings from people all over the world. Before cross-strait relations became so tense, there was even a wildly popular Taiwanese girl group, S.H.E., singing in a hit song that “the whole world is learning Chinese.” Chinese cultural confidence did not suddenly begin with “Wolf Warrior diplomacy.” It existed long before that though after COVID, it became a convenient target in Western societies.