Hi everyone! With the holiday season coming up and gift-giving on everybody’s radar, it seems appropriate to talk about Chinese gift-giving traditions and etiquette.
While physical gifts are traditionally replaced with cash in red envelopes, or 红包 (hóngbāo), on birthdays, weddings, and the Spring Festival, there are still plenty of opportunities to give gifts in China. It is customary to bring a gift with you when visiting friends and family, meeting someone for dinner, or participating in other social events. Gifts may also be given to congratulate recent graduates, thank friends, or foster good will during business deals. With that in mind, there are some do’s and don’ts when giving gifts in China:
Do’s:
Do give fresh fruit, especially oranges or tangerines. Fresh fruit is often brought to family and friend’s houses when one is invited to dinner or a party. Oranges or tangerines are good choices because they represent luck and prosperity.
Do hold the gift with both hands when giving it to the recipient. This is the culturally respectful way to give and accept gifts in China.
Do give specialty food items, such as dates, plums, pastries, etc. from foreign places. This is another popular gift due to the role of food in Chinese culture.
Don’ts:
Don’t open a gift in front of the person who gave it to you. To the Chinese, it means you are concerned about its content rather than the gift-giving gesture itself.
Don’t gift clocks, umbrellas, or chrysanthemums. These all have negative connotations in Chinese culture, such as being related to death or bad luck.
While this is not a comprehensive review of all the nuances of Chinese gift-giving etiquette, hopefully you are now aware of some good gift-giving practices as well as some things to avoid. Happy gift-giving!
Awesome article! Thanks for teaching our audience so much about the give-giving practices in the Chinese culture. Happy holidays! 🙂
I found it interesting how different the gift giving practices in Chinese are from America! I certainly learned something new and I will practice these rules during Christmas!
Great article explaining the Do’s and Don’ts of gift giving in Chinese culture! Although I knew a few of these facts, I was able to learn some new things and will certainly share them with my family. Great job and happy holidays!
Thank you for writing this article! I learned a lot more about Chinese culture. I found it very interesting that recipients should not open gifts in front of the person they received it from. I also find that in Korean culture(my background) it is also nice to bring fresh fruit when invited to a family or friend’s house. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
So fascinating! I had no idea there were all these different cultural nuances involved in giving gifts in China. I thought the most interesting one was the one about not opening the gift in front of the gift giver because it means you are concerned about its content rather than the gift-giving gesture itself. That makes so much sense to me. This is such an appropriate article given that the holidays are coming. I hope I’ll receive some yummy fresh fruit this holiday season. Great work!