Red Packet: A Traditional Object in the Modern World

Abstract

Chinese people, particularly those in the southern regions of China, like to give red packets (red envelopes filled with money) to children and young people, both married and unmarried, at Lunar New Year or other holidays (The English-Chinese Dictionary 1532).A red packet tells us not just that there is money inside, but also says something about traditions and the original meanings of festivals, cultural events and customs, as well as how changing culture and experience shape appearance, and vice versa.The origins of the giving of red packets (or, as the Cantonese call them, Zi-shi) can be traced back several hundreds of years to when parents and senior family members would place ya-mi-qian under their children's pillows after dinner on Lunar New Year's Eve (Xian Dai Han Yu Ci Dian 1437).'According to Zhang, "at the earliest beginning, the ya-sui-qian [qian in Chinese means money] only consisted of several bronze coins without a packet" (297).The idea behind ya-sui-qian came originally from people putting coins strung onto colourful strings under the legs of beds, pillows, cooking-pans (woks), and stoves.They believed that the money could "prevent and dispel evil from children, give a smooth transition for a new year and give thanks to all of the little ghosts inside a house at the end of a year" (298).In later years, people put coins inside a small, simple red packet, or just placed them inside a piece of red paper and either put it under their children's pillows or gave it directly to the children (Law and Ward).This was because the coins didn't have a hole in the middle at that time, and so they couldn't be put on a string.More importantly, people did not expect the recipients (the younger generation) to be concerned with the amount of money but with the original meaning of ya-sui-gian.The reason that the packets were red is because it is associated with luck and New Year activities (Chen and Lu; Fan and Shang; Ho; Zhang)?As time has gone on, people have begun to care less about the original meaning of ya-sui-qian, and the traditional times and ways of giving and receiving red packets.The belief that has lasted is that a red packet 103

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