Its the Lunar new year on the twenty sixth and I’d like to maybe give some Chinese friends of mine some sort of present or what ever to celebrate it.
They are originally from Hong kong .
Any help would be welcome,I know enough not to give a timepiece and that white is the colour of death,also know how to say Kungheefatchoi(very badly).
I am in the U.K. so there will be limitations on what I can get hold of in the oriental line.
Thanks in advance for any forthcoming help.
All of this is from memory of living in HK, and I’m not Chinese, so may get something wrong. I welcome corrections.
Good colours are red and gold. Good wishes are to do with long life and prosperity.
It’s traditional to give “Lai see” - “lucky money”. This should be folding cash, in a specially designed red envelope that you should be able to get from your local Chinese supermarket (there are two here in Oxford and both stock this stuff).
However. This might be inappropriate because it’s traditionally given only by married people to non-married - and the non-married people have to ask for it too, by saying “lai see dao loi”. That said, your friends might appreciate the gesture anyway, and forgive you because you are a gwailo.
You might just want to bring some posh sweets with lots of gold and red in the wrapping.
A nice alternative might be a “maneki neko” battery-powered waving cat (also called “lucky cat” if you’re searching eBay and so on), which are pretty cute, come in for about a fiver, and are incredibly popular all over Asia, even though they’re originally Japanese. Depending on what colour the cat is, which character is on the ‘coin’ they’re holding, and which hand they wave, they are good for money, long life, prosperity, etc. This article tells you which.
For “kungheefatchoi”, which is a wish for good luck, try saying “goong hei FAT choi” (to rhyme with a Yorkshireman saying “come hey FAT boy”).
Literally, “happy new year” is “san ning fi lo” (roughly “SUNning FIE low”).
I don’t recommend this.
Perhaps a little content would help us all understand why.
I agree. When I was there, my younger colleagues, as well as little kids, would say this while clasping their hands together and waving them up and down. Everyone married walked around with a prepared pile of red pockets on their person, just in case someone asked them.
I would consider the phrase rude.
“Lai See Doh Loi” is a rhyme to “Gung Hay Faat Choi.” It’s a smart-alecky response to someone wishing you well. This isn’t like Halloween and “Trick or Treat.”
Maybe little kids could get away with it, but my Mom would not have liked to hear me say it.
But I grew up in the USA. I’ve never asked for lucky money. It was either given or not given. Maybe that’s a Chinese-American thing.
But thanks for the reminder. I need to send the nephews their red envelopes.
Giving some fresh fruit like tangerines (with the stem and leaves) would be a good gesture. With the fruit could be a red lai see envelope with some token cash.
Well, I’m an unmarried person and it’s ‘my year’ starting on the 26th. So anyone who wants to send me red envelopes with folding money in them, please do! 
I used to work near ‘Little Saigon’ in OC, CA. I saw Vietnamese coworkers receive the red envelopes, but I don’t recall seeing them receive other things.
Thanks all for your help.
When giving cash, lots of 8 in it would be welcome. Say $ 8,88 would be more appreciated than $10, because 8 is a lucky number.
And definitely in a red envelope.
Money is over the top to give friends of the same age, even if you’re married and they’re not. A bag of small oranges (Clementines) or Ferrero Rocher candies in the gold foil wrappers are common stand-ins for ancient gold ingots.