As Chinese around the globe celebrate the Spring Festival, their most important traditional holiday in the Year of the Tiger, online greetings among people from all walks of life across the Taiwan Strait have made headlines on social media.
In a widely-circulated video which many netizens said moved them, Mainland-based renowned journalism studies scholar Fang Hanqi, 96, wished Li Zhan, Taiwan-based journalism heavyweight and an old friend two years his senior happy Chinese Lunar New Year.
"It's been years since we last met, and you have been in my thoughts all along," Fang said in a footage, before the latter replied with video greetings through his daughter days later.
Fang said they shared a memory about the country's extensive resistance movement against Japanese aggression in the early 20th century and recalled Li's active exchanges with mainland counterparts and support to journalism education on the mainland since the mainland's reform and opening up.
"I visited Taiwan many times, and Yangming Mountain of Taipei is the last resting-place of many of my relatives," Fang said. "The strong ties and affection between the people on both sides of the Strait are an objective reality."
Li responded warmly to his remarks, with both wishing to meet in person as they turn centenarians.
"It's something heart-warming," commented a user on microblogging site Weibo.
Taiwan poet Fang Ming also recorded a video message containing Spring Festival greetings for internet users on the mainland. He recited "Nostalgia," a household poem by Yu Guangzhong, a mainland-born poet who spent most of his life in Taiwan.
"The motherland's culture as well its mountains and waters are always in our thoughts," Fang said.
Many Taiwan businessmen and students opting to stay on the mainland for the holiday also posted online their video greetings for their relatives on the island.
The hashtag "Spring Festival greetings across the Strait" on Weibo had generated more than 68 million reads as of Monday afternoon.
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