GIFT MATRIX

Well, the restrictions aren’t over yet, while deciding your gift, you need to use the proper formula for deciding the value of your gift.

The value of Chinese gifts 

A person receiving lesser gifts from a friend may think the friend stingy, while a poorer person unable to match the expensive gifts of a friend may feel a loss of Face. Understanding this additional concept is invaluable in maintaining healthy long-term relationships with your hosts, as well as allowing one to understand what gift values are appropriate at a certain time. If you were wealthy, make sure to consider the financial status of your host because they will need to reciprocate it one day, or the gift will just cause a loss of face and financial pressure rather than the happiness you wanted to bring through receiving a high-value product. 

Wrapping Gifts for Chinese Friends

After you have select the proper gift, here are few tips for wrapping Chinese

Wrapping gifts

Avoid Using white or black wrapping paper on your gifts. It’s associated with funeral wrapping.

• Consider Redor other festive colors. A plain red paper is one of the few “safe” choices, many other colors have negative attribution in Chinese culture. Gold, Silver and Pink colors may also be used for wrapping gifts. Gifts wrapped in Yellow paper and with black writing are gifts meant for the dead.  
• Also, do check the variations from region to region about colors. 
• Do not wrap a gift before arriving in China, as it may be unwrapped in Customs.

It’s about to be over, here are few general guidelines over giving and receiving gifts that you still need to know:

General Chinese Gift Giving Guidelines with Cultural Insights

• Use Both Hands to present and receive things while saying some good wishes based on the occasion
• When you are the giver, your host might decline several times, you will have to insist and push hard and I assure you they will receive it. After pushing very hard, if the offer gets accepted, always express gratitude to the recipient. As a foreigner, do not accept a gift on the first presentation. once I offered a gift which was rejected 12 times until my guest took it
• Unwrapping: do not unwrap gifts when receiving them. Open the gift after you leave, unless the giver insists more than one time. Generally, Chinese do not open gifts in the presence of giver, but this is flexible and may be done under some circumstances. Opening it in public places may put much more focus on the object than the thought
• Re-gifting: Gifting is almost a zero-sum game among friends, you are expected to reciprocate with similar values. However, don’t expect your customer or the elders to reciprocate equally
• When you offer a gift to someone with power, they are likely to reject your gift if they wish to avoid helping you later, accepting your gift means they are willing to befriend you and ‘maybe’ help you later, if you don’t know the host very well, better to invite an
• intermediary who knows the host well to give the gift on your behalf, the host then is less likely to decline.
• If your to-be-parents-in-law refused your gift, it’s a bad sign, if they accepted it, things are likely to proceed smoothly. Accepting your gift equals to allowing you into the family circle. Show gratitude.
• Timing: Among friends and family, gifts are presented at the beginning of the meeting or before dinner or lunch. Organizational giftsare given during a toast or at the end of a meal, just prior to departure.
• For companies that have had a long-standing relationship, a framed painting of your country’s scenery is considered a good, memorable gift. Additionally, small gifts for the senior or key delegation members you are meeting serve as the extra relation building gesture.
• Price tags: Unlike in the west, it’s perfectly OK to leave price tags and receipts in the bags if it’s an expensive gift.
• A Bereaved family shouldn’t be visited or gifted if they had the funeral less than a month, as this is said to be unlucky (bringing more funerals in the coming year).
• 8 & 6: Eight is seen as one of the lucky numbers according to Chinese culture. So next time you receive eight items or money within the ranges of 8, consider it a gesture of goodwill. Six is regarded as a blessing for smoothness and problem free advances.
• Keep records of how much money/gifts received. Some might give unmarked envelopes, so you need to write up the names of the givers because you will need to reciprocate later with similar value.
• Greeting cards are rarely used in China, so gifting without a card is perfectly fine.
• Lavish gift giving has been an integral part of the Chinese culture but today, official policy in Chinese business culture forbids giving gifts; this gesture is considered bribery, so be careful.
• Privacy: For business, if you wish to honor an individual, you should do so in secrecy, and always portray a friendly gesture, not a business one. Otherwise, this will cause embarrassment and possible problems for the recipient, given the strict rules against bribery. A,lso do not take any photograph of any gift giving unless it is a symbolic gift presented to the organization as a whole.

When Giving a gift to an organization or a business, but not to a specific individual, is acceptable in Chinese business culture under the terms below:

• All business negotiations should be concluded before gifts are exchanged.
• Also indicate that the gift is from the company you represent and explain the rationale behind it
• Always make sure the gifts are given to the negotiation team Leader
• Don’t present too expensive gifts, so that the company will not feel obliged to reciprocate.
• Always make sure that staff members of equal rank get gifts of same measure. If they later notice any difference, it will not be taken lightly

These lessons are also applicable while giving during the Chinese New Year or any other traditional festivals