Category Gifts Customs Etiquette

You’ve chosen the perfect gift. The color is right. The number is lucky. No homophone issues. But if you give it the wrong way, you can still cause offense. In Chinese culture, the act of giving and receiving is a ritual – a performance of respect, humility, and relationship awareness. The wrong gesture (or the right gesture omitted) can undo all your careful planning.

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You’ve mastered color taboos and homophones. Now it’s time to talk about numbers – because in Chinese culture, numbers carry their own luck or bad luck.

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You’ve avoided clocks, umbrellas, and pears. But there’s another layer of Chinese gift-giving etiquette that’s easy to overlook: color. Colors carry deep symbolic meanings in Chinese culture – often very different from Western associations. A color that seems elegant or neutral to you might signal mourning, bad luck, or even anger to a Chinese recipient.

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In the previous guide, you learned why giving a clock is the #1 Chinese gift taboo – because “clock” (钟, zhōng) sounds like “funeral” (终, zhōng). But clocks are just the beginning.

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You’ve probably heard that giving a clock is bad luck in Chinese culture. But do you know why? It’s not about superstition. It’s about homophones – words that sound the same but have different meanings. In Chinese, “giving a clock” (送钟, sòng zhōng) sounds almost identical to “attending a funeral” (送终, sòng zhōng).

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