# Chinese tradition: Shoes as gifts **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 17, 2004, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-tradition-shoes-as-gifts/275323 "2004-11-17T19:40:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bromley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Bromley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bromley)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-tradition-shoes-as-gifts/275323/1 "2004-11-17T19:40:53Z")
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). So, anyone heard anything similar? ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-tradition-shoes-as-gifts/275323/2 "2004-11-17T20:36:05Z")
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’ ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-tradition-shoes-as-gifts/275323/3 "2004-11-17T20:38:40Z")
> [@nivlac](#): > > 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’ Oops, pressed ‘submit’ accidentally. Was going to say that I’ve observed this tradition being followed many times. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-tradition-shoes-as-gifts/275323/4 "2004-11-17T23:58:46Z")
See post #32 in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=284786). ---
**Author:** ![Bromley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Bromley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bromley)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-tradition-shoes-as-gifts/275323/5 "2004-11-18T09:17:55Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Bromley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Bromley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bromley)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-tradition-shoes-as-gifts/275323/6 "2004-11-18T09:29:41Z")
Dammit. Another shoe related superstition. You’d have thought that they could settle for just one 🙂 : > [@](#): > > Don’t buy new shoes for the first months of the New Year, because the sound of shoe in Chinese is “hai”. “Hai” is similar to the sound of sighing, which Chinese believe is not a good way to start the year. [source](http://www.4english.cn/cultures/chinacult/Do's%20and%20Don'ts%20of%20Chinese%20New%20Year.htm) I haven’t been able to confirm that though. The only other mention I found was a straight copy word-for-word. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-tradition-shoes-as-gifts/275323/7 "2004-11-19T02:02:08Z")
**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. ---
**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-tradition-shoes-as-gifts/275323/8 "2004-11-19T06:02:23Z")
My Chinese girlfriend says that the OP is correct. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-tradition-shoes-as-gifts/275323/9 "2004-11-19T19:29:53Z")
yeah but don’t ever, **ever** buy clocks as gifts. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-tradition-shoes-as-gifts/275323/10 "2004-11-20T01:44:22Z")
> [@Qwertyasdfg](#): > > My Chinese girlfriend says that the OP is correct. Is she a Mandarin or Cantonese speaker? Or some other Chinese dialect? ---
**Author:** ![charizard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charizard/32/4166_2.png) [@charizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/charizard)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-tradition-shoes-as-gifts/275323/11 "2004-11-20T02:13:45Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > yeah but don’t ever, **ever** buy clocks as gifts. For those waiting for the other shoe to fall… This is because “send a clock” sounds very much like “attend a funeral” in Chinese. ---
**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-tradition-shoes-as-gifts/275323/12 "2004-11-22T15:18:06Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#): > > Is she a Mandarin or Cantonese speaker? Or some other Chinese dialect? Sorry I didn’t answer this earlier. She speaks Cantonese.