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Yujing Liu

People living in the southeastern province of Fujian are the most generous in China when it comes to giving cash gifts to their loved ones, according to a study by a personal finance app developer.
It is traditional during the Lunar New Year holiday for families and friends in China to exchange red envelopes containing money. How much they put inside, of course, is entirely up to them.
Based on seemingly anecdotal evidence taken from the app users’ personal entries, people in Fujian this year stuffed a whopping 3,500 yuan (US$550) on average into each envelope they handed over, ensuring the province top spot on the regional rankings.
While it would not be unreasonable for Fujian residents to feel a degree of pride in their collective generosity, their average offering appears almost piffling, however, when compared to the largesse shown by people at the city level.

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According to the poll, published on social media by developer Wacai, the prize for China’s most munificent metropolis went to Putian – coincidentally also in Fujian – whose residents somehow managed to cram 12,000 yuan into each overstuffed envelope they handed over.
In comparison, the residents of Beijing (average packet value 2,900 yuan), Shanghai (1,600 yuan) and Hong Kong (810 yuan) appeared decidedly parsimonious.

Back at the provincial level, the nation’s most frugal folk were found in Guangdong, which neighbours Fujian to the south, where the mean envelope value was just 50 yuan.
Wacai said it collected figures from people living in 34 provincial level jurisdictions and their cities, but did not provide any details of its methodology.
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Ira Lin, a 21-year-old woman living in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian, told the South China Morning Post that the red envelopes she received from her family at the Lunar New Year usually contained between 200 and 2,000 yuan.
“People don’t compare gifts exactly, but they do try to keep track of them so that they give about the same amount as they receive, so as to avoid any embarrassment,” she said.

“The most embarrassing thing is when two families that are not that close come together and exchange red envelopes for their children, and you don’t know how much is inside the packet given by the other family,” Lin said.
If a family did not have an envelope to give, they might make up for it another way, such as paying for a shared meal, she said.
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He Li, a 22-year-old who grew up in the city of Dongguan in Guangdong, said the amount of money people gave and received depended on the closeness of their relationship.
“My maternal aunt and paternal uncle, who I’m really close to, usually give me 2,000 to 3,000 yuan, but most other people just give 100 or 200 yuan,” she said.
“If the person is really close, there is no upper limit.”


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Lunar New Year

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Exchanging red envelopes filled with cash is traditional over the Lunar New Year holiday in China. Photo: SCMP File

Average red packet money by province

This photo taken on February 11, 2018 shows customers selecting lantern decorations at a market in Shenyang in China's northeastern Liaoning province, ahead of the coming Lunar New Year, marking the Year of the Dog. The Lunar New Year falls on February 16 this year, with celebrations in China scheduled to last for a week. / AFP PHOTO / - / China OUT

epa05761104 A photo illustration of a WeChat user scanning a QR code to retrieve a digital red envelope on the WeChat app on a mobile phone during the Chinese New Year period in Beijing, China, 30 January 2017. Digital red envelope, a service provided by the mobile phone app WeChat to represent 'hongbao' envelopes filled with money that Chinese traditionally gift each other for good luck during the Chinese Lunar New Year, have gained popularity. According to reports, 32 billion packets have been sent and received by 516 million people over the six-day celebration of the Lunar New Year in 2016 through the app, ten times more than in 2015. Around 100 billion envelopes are expected to be sent during the celebration period of the year 2017, according to forecasts. EPA/STR

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Residents of Putian in Fujian named as nation’s most benevolent, while province also tops the regional generosity chart, finance app developer says


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