Taboos on Gifting in China
 2016-12-20 17:30:24   Zhangjiajie Tourism Information Website  

You should be aware of cultural differences when you send a gift to Chinese. There are many taboos in sending gifts in China.

In China,the color white and black are unwelcomed in sending gifts. White suggests sadness and poverty while black suggests unlucky, disaster and death. You should know that green hat should never used as a gift, especially to a man.Cause, to say a man in green hat means that his wife is unfaithful to him.

If you want to send a gift to the elderly, you should never take a clock into consideration.“送钟”and “送终” share same pronunciation. The former means “Sending someone a clock” but the latter means “To attend someone’s funeral”. Actually， Not only the elderly but also other Chinese are unhappy to receive a clock as a gift.

In China,taboos are usually due to pronunciation. You don’t send couple or lovers pear is out of this reason. The pronounced of pear “li” is same as the word “离”which means separation. So, sending couple or lovers pear would be impolite. Also, couple and lovers are not sending each other pear which suggests that one of they want to end their relationship. It’s also for this reason that you don’t send umbrella to your lovers.

Translated by Sophia