Chinese New Year Etiquette for the uninitiated

Rob2020 · 13-01-2012, 01:02 PM

Chinese New Year Etiquette for the uninitiated. : HongKong

Nicely summed up I reckon!

Watercooler · 13-01-2012, 01:52 PM

Originally Posted by Rob2020:

Chinese New Year Etiquette for the uninitiated. : HongKong

Nicely summed up I reckon!

Interesting list, but i have a question or two. I'm not sure about hair washing part. Most younger locals these days don't really care for that tradition. As for black shoes, I think that's ok. And the list should also mention wearing bright red clothes and holding your hands in a Chinese greeting gesture and say "Gong Hei Fat Choi".

Most of all, the list did'nt mention how much $$$ you should put in the red envelopes!!!

dear giant · 13-01-2012, 05:48 PM

Instead of cash, my wife and I give kids Toys'RUs and PageOne coupons/cards with "Happy CNY, [child's name]" written on them in permanent marker.

We couldn't survey all of the kids later on but generally that seems to increase the likelihood of the child getting some value out of CNY. Most of those children we had a chance to speak with later on were actually taken to PageOne and Toys'RUs and allowed to use the gift certs/cards while the cash that they received in other folks' packets was immediately hoovered up by their parents to be spent on stuff like new TVs or phones.

MovingIn07 · 13-01-2012, 06:22 PM

Originally Posted by dear giant:

while the cash that they received in other folks' packets was immediately hoovered up by their parents to be spent on stuff like new TVs or phones.

NOOOO! Really? That's awful. I'd read it was put into the bank for the kids later. Who would spend their kids money? That just stuns me.

dear giant · 13-01-2012, 06:27 PM

Yup, surprised me too. The kids' parents are all successful, white-collar people with plenty of income. Nice enough people on the surface. I only discovered what was going on a few years back when it occurred to me to ask my nephews what they ended up doing with their lai see. My in-laws pull the same tricks with their kids and that was a bummer to learn.

After that, I began asking a few of the other kids we gave red packets to, sometimes with my wife translating. Mostly, the parents took it. In a few cases, it went into the bank but, even in those, the parents withdrew money to pay for the kids' school books and other stuff that should've been coming out of the parents' pockets.

MovingIn07 · 13-01-2012, 06:33 PM

That's the most depressing thing I've heard all day. It's like having one's Christmas Presents taken away. Well good job I don't know any kids - if i did I might be adopting your approach, or Bryants chocolate coins......