As we prepare to celebrate Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival, on Wednesday, January 29, 2025, we welcome the Year of the Snake. The snake symbolises wisdom, transformation, and resilience, reminding us to reflect on how we can foster connection and inclusion during this festive season.

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The Symbolism of Red Envelopes in Chinese New Year

One of the most cherished traditions of Chinese New Year is the giving of red envelopes (lai see), a gesture symbolising blessings for prosperity, health, and good fortune. Elders give these envelopes to children and unmarried adults as tokens of love and protection, while married couples often share red envelopes with parents or grandparents to express gratitude and strengthen familial bonds.

This tradition is deeply rooted in Chinese history and mythology. The colour red represents luck and prosperity, while the envelopes themselves embody goodwill and the continuity of generational respect.

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The Impact of Mispronunciation

Names, while not traditionally central to red envelope exchanges, carry immense importance in Chinese culture and beyond. They reflect identity, heritage, and pride. Mispronouncing someone’s name, whether intentional or not, can feel dismissive of these values.

The #MyNameIs campaign by Race Equality Matters found that 73% of people with culturally diverse or unfamiliar names reported having their names mispronounced. This often leads to feelings of exclusion, disrespect, and a diminished sense of belonging.

Mispronunciation impacts individuals on multiple levels:

• Identity and Heritage: Repeated errors can feel like a dismissal of one’s cultural identity and family history.
• Emotional Toll: Many respondents in the Race Equality Matters survey described feeling “not valued” or “alienated” in workplaces and social settings.
• Workplace Inclusion: Anglicising names to make them easier for others to pronounce, as shared by Shahilla (a participant in the #MyNameIs campaign), can lead to a loss of personal identity.

Building Cultural Sensitivity During Chinese New Year

This festive season offers a unique opportunity to honour the diversity of names. While Chinese New Year traditions like red envelopes celebrate familial bonds, we can extend this sense of respect to our interactions by ensuring we pronounce names correctly.

Here’s how you can foster inclusivity this Chinese New Year:

✅ Ask and Practice: Take the initiative to learn the correct pronunciation of names you encounter, showing care and respect.

✅ Use Tools Like SayMyName: Platforms like SayMyName help you hear and practice name pronunciations, making it easier to connect authentically.

✅ Share Your Name Card: Empower others to pronounce your name correctly by sharing a phonetic guide or personalised name card.

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Start Today with SayMyName

Names are a bridge to understanding and respecting the cultures around us. This Chinese New Year, let’s build those bridges by making an effort to learn and pronounce names correctly.

🎉 Visit SayMyName to create your name card or search for a name today.

Together, we can make every interaction more meaningful—starting with a name.

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Sources

1. Race Equality Matters, “The Everyday Impact of Name Mispronunciation”
2. Chinese New Year: 2025—Year of the Snake (Lunar New Year), “Chinese New Year Traditions”
3. Discover Hong Kong, “Chinese New Year Traditions”