The Custom of Chines Red Packet Exchanges
cultural changes, we seldom see children waking up early on New Year’s Day.
They also seldom take the family relation hierarchy seriously, but they agree that
the seniors should be the red packet givers. So, we still see children stretching their
hands out to ask for red packets on New Year. And, we commonly hear the children
say: ""Kiing Hei Fat Choi, li-shi clou laC (“Wish you wealthy! Red packets given to
me”) at each New Year.
Today, just as young people count the number of gifts on Christmas Boxing
Day, Chinese children compare the amount of red packet money received with
their friends. They are proud of how much their parents or senior relatives have
given and view a greater amount as reflecting the family’s wealth. They also use it
as a criterion to value/compare their family seniors’ love, concern and closeness.
In Hong Kong, it is common to hear young people’s complaints to their friends
about the meanness of their senior relatives in presenting red packets. In short,
they do not see the red packet tradition as an additional grant, but take it as
compulsory.
Since the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), paper has been the most popular
material used for red packets. In the mid-1980’s, some manufacturers began
producing plastic red packets. Compared with paper red packets, plastic red packets
are always thin and transparent. This physical property allows the recipient to
easily see the amount of money inside, or at least to make a guess at the amount of
money (i.e., a note or a coin; or the value of a coin). Although our early childhood
education teaches children that good manners dictate that recipients not open the
packets until they are out of sight of the giver (Welch, 1997: 38), children’s detection
and their immediate facial expression often embarrass family members. In order
not to cause this immediate embarrassment during the presentation of red packets,
many families prefer to use a paper packet which can cover or hide the contents
inside.
Another advantage to using a paper red packet pertains to the fact that no
one really establishes how much money should be put inside. However, when
times change, people in different wage brackets set different “market prices” for
their levels of giving, though this is not compulsory. For example, the present
market price for the average working family in Hong Kong may be 10 to 20 dollars
(7.8 HK dollars approx, equal to 1 US dollars) each. These market prices illustrate
that the content inside the red packet is more important than everything else. Thus,
a red packet with a one-hundred-dollar note presented by a stranger is more
important — with a higher value — than one with a ten-dollar note, even it is
presented by the recipient’s parents. And if a child should receive such a gift, his or
her parents can be spared embarrassment if the packets are paper, and thus, unable
to be publically examined.