Chinese tradition about giving red envelopes with "lucky money" now goes digital. (Photo : www.fanfanchinese.com)
Tradition in China is gradually being modified by the modern digital age as children no longer have to kneel down and kowtow to their elders to receive red envelops during the Spring Festival.
"Lucky money" is usually presented to Chinese children after they do the traditional kneeling down and kowtowing to their elders which has been customarily done for decades during the Spring Festival.
This custom, however, is now replaced and made simpler by a mobile app that can be downloaded in every smartphone.
Nowadays, a single tap on red envelope games from Alibaba, Tencent, Sina and Baidu is all it takes to send and receive gifts.
As proof of this instance, a report from Shanghai Daily revealed that many ushered in the Year of the Sheep through shaking their cellular phones to send and receive digital red envelopes that contain the "lucky money."
According to the report, the younger generation chose to exchange e-envelopes, while the elderly proceed with tradition.
With the need to meet in person gradually being removed, many took advantage of the advancement.
"Tradition is still tradition. But now it's been injected with a new vigor, but the original customs are still there," explained Guo Lifeng, a migrant worker in eastern China's Zhejiang Province.
Gou did not have to go home to the central province of Hubei to be able to enjoy the festivities because his family added him up at a WeChat group where they exchanged greetings, blessings and red envelopes.
According to reports, over a billion people in China sent and received red envelopes over WeChat, while Alibaba's Alipay recorded 4 billion yuan, or about $639 million, sent on Feb. 18 alone.
Experts believe that this poses a positive effect on the country's online economy as well as on traditions and customs.
"With only a smartphone, people can easily interact with each other," Wang Dengfeng from Peking University's psychology school stated.
"It is good that this old tradition has been modernized," said Beijing Normal University expert on folk customs and cultural anthropology Wan Jianzhong, adding that people should remember what the red envelopes are about and not obsess about the amount of money in them.
