BizGifts and Chinese New Year Part 1

As the Spring Festival festive season sets upon us living here in the Far East, I decided to devote the next 2 post to Chinese New Year and the business gifts. Part 1 will talk about the most commonly used business gift of them all, at least here in Hong Kong - the Lai See.

The Lai See (this how it pronounces in Cantonese) is usually a red (luck) envelope with money inside. In Chinese society these are usually presented at social or family events like for example wedding and during the holidays like Chinese New Year or a Spring Festival. Usually the unmarried people are receiving, married are giving.

So what does the Lai See have to do with business gifts ? Well 3 things:

• It serves as a mass giveaway item. Many companies print the Lai See with their company logos and then give piles of them away to their customers. On the photos within this post you can see examples of Lai See printed by HSBC, Singapore Airlines, Bank of East Asia or HSBC Life.

In our office we receive every year quite a bit of them from different companies. Then we simply let all the people in the office to take what they need or what they like (plenty of supply available). At home they fill it up with some banknotes and give away to the relatives, friends and whomever who asks and can’t be refused :-). And the brands printed on the red envelopes spread around the city like a virus…

• Once the Lai See is filled up with money, it serves as a business gift of a sort. Right after we return back to work after the holidays many of our suppliers business partners or just friends start visiting our office and distribute the lucky money to all the staff. People give away the money primarily as a lucky money and the amount should not really matter. But humans are human beings only and everybody will like a person that gives away 100 HKD more than someone who only parts with 10 HKD .

• And then the bosses (of whatever tier of a company) give Lai Sees to their staff. Again, it is supposed to be lucky money but staff will like more the boss who gives more than a boss who is stingy. This is the time of the year when it is good to have several bosses :-). And this is the time of the year when it costs you to be a boss

So how much money these envelopes usually contain ? Well it depends on how good the year was and how close you are to the people or company. To very close people or to staff of close business partner or good customer people usually give Lai See with 100 HKD note. If the year was good it can be more. To those not that close the red envelopes with 10 HKD are given. And the others get something in between, 20 or 50 HKD note. (100 HKD is approximately 13 USD if you wondered). The banknotes are supposed to be crisp clean new fresh from the print.

When I first arrived in Hong Kong all those years ago I was quite surprised by this habit. Nothing like that back in Europe. I found it very nice that time as I was neither a boss nor was I married. Things have changed a bit since then, but to give during the festive season feels good too .

Stay tuned to BizGiftGuru for part 2 to see how the Chinese New Year holiday season affects the global BizGift business.

Kung Hei Fat Choi !

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