Ahead of the Spring Festival, Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven sent his best wishes to China by saying "Xin nian kuan le" (Happy Spring Festival in Chinese), and pledged to build up the relationship between the two countries.

Britain's Prince William published a video message to send his good wishes for the Lunar New Year, as a warm-up before his first visit to China. Xinhua News Agency reported that after a brief greeting in Mandarin Chinese, Prince William said the Lunar New Year is a special time for people around the world.

As the words of Hollande and Prince William show, the festival is gaining an increasingly higher profile in other countries.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, when I met one of my neighbors at the foot of the residential building, they happily greeted me by saying "Happy Chinese New Year".

And during a recent interview with a Chinese businessman in Germany, he said every year during the Spring Festival, his neighbors will come up, ring the door and present champagne and flowers to celebrate. He said he feels privileged to receive such touching greetings.

All these are very encouraging as they demonstrate people in other countries are keen to show their respect for Chinese culture.

The author is deputy chief of China Daily European Union Bureau. fujing@chinadaily.com.cn