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On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, I sent 66 yuan ($10), a lucky Chinese amount, to my family WeChat group as my last hongbao, the traditional red envelope with cash given during Spring Festival.
My wife posted a grinning emoji with 0.61 yuan. My son got 4.1 yuan with the use of my mother-in-law's cellphone. The evening's luckiest draw of 16.8 yuan went to our domestic helper, who said nothing but we could tell she was happy with the windfall.
In less than half an hour, my hongbao was collected by a dozen family members living in different parts of the country. I can't recall any prior WeChat post that has got everybody's attention so quickly. At Chinese New Year's Eve, even the world's most watched Spring Festival TV show lost shine as viewers were engrossed in gift-giving on smartphones.
But giving hongbao isn't always fun. Offline, the tokens of good luck and blessing could become sources of anxiety with a rising going rate and a desire for showing off personal success.
While app users may be amused to get less than 1 yuan from a digital hongbao, the going rate for a red packet stuffed with cash has continued to rise, from 500 yuan a few years ago to 1,000 yuan among close family members and friends in big cities, according to some informal surveys.
People often cite better family financial situations for giving more. One of my colleagues told me that she ensures that she pays back more every time her child receives a hongbao.
As red packets get bigger, less well-off parents find it necessary to go along, because the exchanges of cash should end up roughly even, or they risk being considered to be stingy.
Other reasons include inflation and higher costs of living and education. The old rates of 100-200 yuan are barely enough for one piano lesson or two tickets for a movie in a nice theater.
I've heard about efforts by some parents to tame the costs of hongbao by agreeing to exempt each other from the burden when they meet during the holiday.
But such parental collaborations seem to be the exception rather than the rule, because giving hongbao remains an important Chinese family rite, symbolic of filial piety and elderly generosity.
When paying Spring Festival visits to their grandparents, probably no urban children would kneel and kowtow three times, like in the old days. But this hasn't discouraged pensioners from bestowing fatter red packets on them. In Beijing, schoolchildren can get up to 10,000 yuan from grandparents, according to local media reports.
My ailing parents gave 5,000 yuan to each of my two children, or they would feel bad, my mom said. They declined my hongbao, insisting they just wanted their grandchildren to see them more.
I could see that they had already planned their next reunion.
Contact the writer at yuanzhou@chinadaily.com.cn
