impolite gifts to Chinese
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发布时间：2022-04-25 05:06
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热心网友
时间：2023-10-28 08:51
1, If you plan to bring a gift to a aged Chinese, try to avoid clock, because "Song Zhong --->Song=give or present, Zhong - clock" means burying a died relative. Zhong in Chinese sometimes reminds the eventual moment of people.
2, On lunar New Year's eve, the dinner will definitely include fish, even the whole family do not like fish at all; but on the contrary, even all the family members like fish very much, they should not eat it up. So, if you happen to attend such kind of dinner in a Chinese family, do not try to please the hostess and clean the fish plate :)
3, Married women are deemed to be ominous to appear in other peoples' house for the whole day on Lunar New Year's eve. I am quite confused about this one :)
4, We are not allowed by parents or grandparents to do haircut until the fifth of the first lunar month, and doing the haircut on the 2nd day of second month is greatly encouraged, because on that day, dragon raise his head.:)
5, The needlework for the whole first lunar month is prohibited.
6, Never say "die" in new year's month
Above are what I can think of now and some of them I experienced :) , they are interesting, aren't they?
I was once asked to bring along a cuckoos clock (for an aged Chinese) because they thought this is typical for my country.
Man, hard to explain that this is just used in some little region down the south....actually, I always thought this clock was an invention to rip off tourists from Asia;-)
Faux pas derived from Mandarin pronunciation
The following faux pas are derived from Mandarin pronunciations (with Hanyu Pinyin noted), so they may also apply in other Chinese-speaking areas:
Giving someone a timepiece, such as a clock or a watch, as a gift is a very unlucky faux pas. Traditional superstitions regard this as counting the seconds to the recipient's death. Another common interpretation of this is that the phrase "to gift a clock" (Traditional Chinese: 送钟, Simplified Chinese: 送钟) in Chinese is pronounced "sòng zhōng" in Mandarin, which is a homophone of a phrase for "terminating" or "attending a funeral" (both can be written as 送终 (traditional) or 送终 (simplified)). Cantonese people consider such gift as a curse.
Giving someone a fan or an umbrella as a gift is frequently unfriendly. The words fan "shàn" (扇) and umbrella "sǎn" (Traditional Chinese: 伞, Simplified Chinese: 伞) sounds like the word "sàn" (散), meaning scatter or to loose. "sàn kāi" (Traditional Chinese: 散开, Simplified Chinese: 散开) means to split up. Traditionally, the bride gives her parents a fan, symbolizing that she is leaving them for her husband. (Chinese society is traditionally paternal.)
Sharing a pear with your loved ones is unlucky. "Sharing a pear" (分梨) is a homephone of "separate" (Traditional Chinese: 分离, Simplified Chinese: 分离), both pronounced "fēnlí" in Mandarin. Sharing with distant friends is okay.
Other faux pas
Giving a married man a green colored head wear as a gift is unfriendly. The Chinese saying "wearing a green hat" (Traditional Chinese: 戴绿帽, Simplified Chinese: 戴绿帽, Pinyin: dài lǜmào) means that someone's wife is unfaithful. The gift would be an insult to the couple.
At a dinner table, always serve the oldest person at the table first. If you do not know their age, serve the guest first. It is very important to show respect to the elders.
Sticking your chopsticks into your rice and leave them standing there is a very unlucky faux pas. This looks like sticks of incense in a bowl used to honor dead ancestors, and such a symbol of death is extremely offensive at the dinner table. In Cantonese funeral tradition, a pair of chopsticks is used to stick a salt-preserved ck egg into a bowl of rice on the altar as an offering to the deceased.
Attending a Cantonese wedding while you are still in mourning for a death in the family is unlucky. It is believed to bring bad luck to the marrying couple.
Calling elderly relatives, including uncles and aunts, whether by blood or by marriage, by their given names is a impolite faux pas. (In ancient imperial China, it was even a serious crime to say or write an emperor's given name. This has customarily made calling elderly relatives by their given names inpolite. See also Naming taboo.) While in English it is okay to call someone like "uncle John" or "aunt Jane", in Chinese language you have to determine which type of uncle or aunt you are meeting and leave their given names out when calling them.
10 Ways to Stay Lucky
(Oringally posted on The Corner, 13th Sept 1996)
It's not unimaginable that superstitions exist in a place like Hong Kong: Cramming university students and stressed out professionals such as barristers, politicians and doctors often take superstitions more seriously than the grandmas who pray at the Wong Tai Sin Temple. Here are 10 major Chinese superstitions commonly believed in the territory to be luck-bringing.
ONE
It's a common taboo not to order seven dishes for a meal. It is commonly believed seven is the standard number of dishes served to ghosts. So when you have ordered seven dishes, the waiter will be very likely to recommend that you order one dish more or less-usually more.
TWO
It is not uncommon for Chinese characters to share similar tones and pronunciations, and words carrying strong symbolic bad luck connotations are normally avoided. An example is sharing a pear on your wedding day, as 'sharing a pear' sounds the same as 'separation' in Chinese. Some buildings here in the territory do not have the 4th, 14th or 24th floors, as the word 'four' sounds like 'death'.
THREE
Feng Shui - geography, geology, anthropology and semiology - is responsible for those small octagon mirrors that 'keep demons away'. They are typically hung on windows facing buildings such as police stations and clinics. This is because traditionally, Chinese people (most people, in fact) have avoided these places. It is also believed that the end of the bed in a bedroom should not point directly to the door - too much like a dead body being carried out of the room.
FOUR
All gamblers have their superstitions. For example, they should not bet the farm if they met a bald man or woman on a gambling day, as bald means 'losing all'.
FIVE
Another one for the gamblers: when there are three 'west' dominoes on the 'well' of a majong table, the one who has the fourth 'west' piece must NOT throw the domino into the well. Four west dominoes in there means that the four players will go to the West (not the western countries, but the Buddhist 'paradise' or the hereafter.
SIX
At least two kinds of procts should not be considered for a birthday present. First, clocks, as 'giving a clock' sounds like 'saying goodbye at a funeral'. Second, shoes, Because in Cantonese, the pronunciation of 'shoe(s)' sounds like a sigh. You'd never believe it, but to many people, cash is the most-welcomed gift.
SEVEN
A bad work man blames his tools, but watch out if a sportsman or woman breaks a shoelace before a competition, an inspired columnist's pen runs dry, or a Corner reporter's terminal goes down.
EIGHT
Unlike Halloween, Chinese people have no interest in meeting spirits on the Yu-lan festival ('the Chinese ghost festival'). It is commonly believed that ghosts move along walls, so people are recommended to walk away from walls on that night. And you shouldn't look back, even if someone calls you.
NINE
Chinese people believe the atmosphere is filled with wandering spirits, especially in the countryside. So it is dangerous to play with scissors (as we always do when we're bored), as the spirits will be hurt. And grannies will warned their children not to open an umbrella indoors, as it is an invitation to the spirits. Oh, and you should also say 'excuse me' if you have to pee in the countryside.
TEN
This is not one for the pet lovers. Chinese people love animals to come to their doors, and pigeons are the most welcome. Why? They symbolise wealthy, big-nosed people, and it's a sign of luck to have pigeons building nests on your roof. The 'lucky stuff' left by the wealthy, big-nosed birds on your roof, however, may not leave you feeling so lucky.
热心网友
时间：2023-10-28 08:51
small menmorial gift e.g. stone written with names,
and foreign candy, chocolate and so on.
热心网友
时间：2023-10-28 08:52
