Presents and the way they are wrapped are very important in China. Here are a few helpful suggestions to make sure that you save ‘face’ all round:

DON’T:

• Give clocks. Clocks are regarded as counting the seconds to the recipient’s death. Also, the phrase ‘to give a clock’, sòng zhōng in Mandarin, sounds like a phrase for ‘terminating’ a relationship. However, giving someone a watch is fine!

• Give umbrellas and pears. Sǎ, the word for ‘umbrella’, also means ‘to scatter or lose’. Fēnlí, ‘to share a pear’, also means ‘to separate’. This is also why Chinese people never slice up a pear and offer half to a friend.
• Give knives, scissors and suchlike, as they are said to ‘slice into one’s fortune’.
• When giving flowers, never give carnations, chrysanthemums or gladiolis, which are all flowers Chinese traditionally used to pay respect to the deceased. Also, never offer white flowers – again, they are used for funerals.
• The number 4, sì, is the unlucky number in China. Sì le means ‘to have died’. As a result, giving anything in a group of 4 is a bad idea. The number 14, shì sì, can also be said as yāo sì, which means to want to die. Chinese people will avoid the number 4 in everything from product lines to mobile phone numbers. In Hong Kong, some high-rise buildings miss all floor numbers with a 4 in them. The number 8, on the other hand, is very lucky and it is said that the Chinese mobile phone number 138-8888-8888 was sold for 50,000 yuan (= more than 5000 Euros).

DO:

• Give gifts in pairs or groups of even numbers. Odd numbers are considered unlucky, whereas it is an old saying that ‘blessings come in pairs’.
• Wrap gifts in bright colours like red, pink and yellow. Avoid black and white, as these are associated with funerals.
• The gift of a belt means you love them and want to ‘hold them’ forever (but maybe not appropriate for a business colleague…)
• When someone has just settled into a new house, give them a vase, huāpíng, which sounds like ‘peace’.
• On opening a shop or business, friends offer the bamboo flower. The rings on the bamboo stem represent your wish of continual growth and income.
• The most popular presents are baskets of fruit (especially apples, píng guǒ, which sounds like a phrase for ‘peace’; but no pears!), boxes of sweets and cookies, pastries, good tea, high-end European chocolate, cartons of cigarettes, and bottles of good (foreign) wine or baijou, the national alcoholic drink distilled from sorghum.