The happy nature of this picture undermines the seriousness of this post
Ah..it’s that time of year again. The despicable “Hong Bao”. Why despicable, you ask? Because every single year, I receive a measly ten dollars from my parents and relatives combined. EVERY YEAR! Now, you may think, “Hey, I’d take ten dollars over zero dollars” and you are right. I am happy with getting ten dollars. What frustrates me is that every year my friends always shove in my face how “little” money they received. Yes, this small amount of money can range from a hundred to five hundred dollars. Now, I’m not sure if it’s because I have some ridiculously rich friends (Damn these Doctor Asian Parents) or whether this astounding amount of money received applies to everyone. Therefore, I ask: How much money did YOU get for Chinese New Years?
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43 Comments
Too little.
I got 200 dollars. Not much but not too shabby considering I did little visitation this year.
Seeing as how I’m not Chinese, zero. But I feel your pain, my father was the cheapest man I ever met and if we were Chinese I would have received a dollar if that.
More than $500 AUD, 80% of which are from my parents.
If you’re going to say “OMG LUPUS IS RICH LULZ” I’m going to abuse my power and delete your comment.
Edit: DELETED!
lol, you guys posted before the entry even came out in public. Such Hax
(shoves in Igunis’ face) Too little – RM650+ so far, which is about US$200…., I usually give half back to my mom to cover her costs of dishing them red packets out to the army of obnoxious kids we know.
Still a week to go though, and many relatives I haven’t seen yet. Not expecting a lot out of them anyway, the usual excuse given is “You’ve already got a job, why do you need any angpau anyway?” Sadly, I know no rich, married doctors.
OVER 9000!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I stopped getting anything since our family moved into a different country about 9 years ago. I’m 21 now and if I were to go back to where all my relatives live now, I wonder if I’m going to be one paying little kids, or still be kneeling down and receiving whatever they throw at you. This tradition has slowly faded over time for me.
ED – woo, this new edit command is almost as kinky as fang-chan. Well, not really but close.
I got $150 USD in total =/ YES I AM COMPLAINING because I hear others get more D:
RM200 only but plus another RM50 from gambling with my relatives and friends..
I got $200. Half was confiscated by my parents. Happy, happy.
for this year i think i gots about 250 us dollars from family and their friends. but right now im okay with the money i have gotten.
P.S. my family is pretty big and somehow close
u guys r all soooo lucky. I only got 100 bucks
US $50..but then I still have a whole bunch of relatives to visit this coming weekend..damn it..no holidays..although my relatives usually only amount to about 40 more..so I am guesstimating US 90
I hate you all. I already used up my ten dollars too. For some damn Valentine’s gifts haha.
EDIT: My bad. All but Calawain
I got $60, 100% from my parents.
n I feel guilty for taking it too.
Apparently I’m almost “too old” to receive money now… I don’t remember how much I got… It wasn’t as much as it used to be but it wasn’t too little either so I’m not that upset. It’s free money after all.
When and if you start giving out money instead of receiving, you may end up being a cheap skate as well (depending on your attitude and how many different recipients you have to distribute to). As for me, I’ll probably be one of those people who forget and be all like “Oh crap! That was last week? …here’s two bucks, take it or leave it. Ahahaha Happy New Years!” @_@
$30USD and it seems to get less and less every year. Back in the day, I used to get at least $50-100 but now.. yea
And I know your pain Igunis, my other friends get way more than I ever do lucky sons of a…
I’m too old now to get money.
Or since I’m kinda making my own money now, I don’t get any free money from family. x.x
100$only! i got $200 last year! then again..i have access to their credit cards lol it’s the thought that counts, not the amount.
I don’t get allowances. I swindle them by getting a wad of ‘lunch money’ then saving half. heh
Zero, and that’s with having a billion Chinese relatives. Why? Because I REFUSE to take hong bao from anyone. Screw your red envelopes and materialism. I don’t like getting money on Christmas or my birthday, nor on Chinese New Years or any OTHER time of the year. I think it’s an awful tradition and speaks very poorly of our culture considering how many OTHER damned things we go on about being money-obsessed with.
Whew!
I got none and I’m half Chinese. It’s a load of shit
uhmmm I didn’t get any money…I was just gonna say…you should have put Yuki Sohma on the picture instead as the Year of the Rat
Forty Dollars.
I got the equivalent of 4 US Dollars. Times are hard.
Heh, I got $60 for performing wushu at a rich person’s house. I mean they were ‘my-pool-is-indoors’ kind of rich – and friends of my wushu instructor.So yeah, got $60 out of the deal. Not bad, all things considered.
10 dollars is too little. poor you *nodnod*
Too lazy to count them. Every year is the same old stuff and I don’t think $$$ is affecting me anyway. I still got my savings and yes, the inflation hit my parents very hard.
Hey, I’m fairly certain you should only open your red packets until after the Chinese New Year period, which is the 15th day of the new year.
But seriously, I have already shelled out $360 to my elders, so I very much doubt I will recap my loss. So… Igunis… at least you aren’t getting negative numbers!
I received about RM600+(about $200) although I don’t have doctor parents, my parents were retirees. And I won’t brag about it being little because I appreciate it no matter how much they gave me, even it’s $1. Chinese New Year is a business afterall…. I’ll probably do the same after I got married.
£20 (39.08 US$) from parents… rest of family? No idea >
I got 40$ CAN from my parents…
and from what I heard from my uncle…the rest of my family (who live in China), they rounded up about 3000 Yuan for me >.>
Man, I think I’m a minority here being a white guy writing for this blog. I feel like I’m an undergrad at UCSD again…
haha! The benefits of having many aunts and uncles! I got a total of 250 USD worth of hong baos. And since I got them two months ago (last Christmas), it now earned a little interest from the bank :p
I got about RM500 only this year. I missed the days when I used to get RM4,000-RM5,000 every year. Yeah, I’m just rubbing it in
Well i do think that 10$ is not bad. I got about 45$, and 40$ are from my parents. I didn’t come to visit anyone of my relatives, and they NEVER gave me more than 4$, except my older sis who is in Ukraina. And since I was born, I have never ever got more than 70$. It often goes around 50$.
AT any rate, i do understand ur feeling. My friends often get 3-6 times my hong baos. And my juniors got even 8-10 times… Though I dont have any complaints since my parents work very hard..
over 500 CAD =P
Zero, and that’s with having a billion Chinese relatives. Why? Because I REFUSE to take hong bao from anyone. Screw your red envelopes and materialism. I don’t like getting money on Christmas or my birthday, nor on Chinese New Years or any OTHER time of the year. I think it’s an awful tradition and speaks very poorly of our culture considering how many OTHER damned things we go on about being money-obsessed with.
Whew!
On a funny note: LOL
On a serious note: We do not give money simply due to the fact that we are money-obsessed. The red packet of money is a symbolization of prosperity, values and happiness to give to a younger relative. In other words, it is a form of sharing that tries to bring a smile to everyone’s face. I do not see that as a money obsessed issue, but more of how it is to bring joy to the young faces of children and teenagers.
I got around 2500 usd. 1000 is from my uncle who is rich and 500 from parents and 1000 from family. We have a huge family 5 aunts and 7 uncles on my mom’s side and 5 aunts on my dad’s (we are the only niece on my dad’s side and he is the only boy) We stop getting money when we get married lolz. (^_~) I am never ever getting married! lolz I ended up using all of it for college (-_-) books, art crap, software (cs3) it all adds up and empties your pockets……
Since I’m replying to this so late, no one will probably read it, but Igunis I feel your pain. Growing up, I got as little as $1 or $2 from my parents (though, in retrospect they were both poor and cheap) but I did get a few dollars sometimes from family friends because I was cute. *grin* Fast forward, I became an adult and though I don’t work, my husband (I’m a young wife) does and we had to give $1000 to his grandmother whom I’d never seen before when he got his first job out of college (I was still in school)- that hurt (we share finances). This year, I got $20 from my mom (who has relaxed since all the kids left the nest), which was a surprising plus because I thought I was too old to receive hong bao anymore.
Screw you bastards who received in excess of $50 (and complain about it). You don’t know what it’s like.
Chinese New Year is awesome!!! I got more than 980 dollars (american)!!!! (^^) and Impz, I totally agree with you!!
Tsuruya person who forces me to edit is SCARY!!!!!!!!
……yeah…
Bleh! I didn’t get any money, but that’s because I am neither Chinese nor Vietnamese. Ha ha ha!
*sighs* If only I managed to get those New Year Days off as well.
Oh. On a side note, I like the edit feature. Kya ha ha!