Are there any Chinese traditions regarding the giving of shoes as gifts?
Specifically, this would be likely to be a Cantonese (Hong Kong) belief/old wives tale/superstition. The theory being (apparently), that in giving the shoe you are saying that you (or someone else?) will walk all over the recipient.
Unfortunately, I simply cannot believe the person who told me this. I’m not saying that this particular point is not true, but she’s a habitual liar (and that fact is relevant in this case).
Never heard of such a superstition. I’m only aware of one example of giving a pair of shoes as a gift per some Chinese traditon. It is customary for the bride’s family to give as a gift a pair of shoes, wallet, and belt to the bridegroom before the wedding. I’
Thanks guys. That link to Mahaloth’s post sounds promising. I suspect that that is the basis of this lady’s particular belief, although I doubt that she’s aware of it.
Bromley, it is indeed the similarlty of the word for shoes to the act of sighing that leads superstitious people in Hong Kong (and other Cantonese speakers wordlwide, I guess) not to buy shoes in the first month of the lunar year.
A quick office survey reveals that most young people don’t follow the superstition, but that, predictably perhaps, old people (especially women, who do most of the shoe buying) do.
Shoe shops in Hong Kong get round the problem by putting shoes on promotion in the period leading up to the lunar new year.