We’re well into the Year of the Dog, and everyone seems to be getting in on the action in a different way. For its part, internet giant Tencent — a major player in the Hongbao Wars — is evidently stepping its game up in the offline world.
If you’re not familiar with the practice: it’s a New Year’s tradition to give out red envelopes filled with cash (hongbao). In recent years, as China has gone increasingly cashless, this tradition has shifted online, and inspired some pretty advanced techniques.
TechNode reporter Frank Hersey reveals that Tencent, which has spearheaded the red envelope’s online drift, is this year also getting into the original, offline hongbao wave but, uh, they’re doing it wrong:
Tencent clearly better at virtual hongbao as these traditional paper ones all had a programming glitch – they arrived empty. #YearOfThePenguin #Yearofthedog pic.twitter.com/wWQh4sX6gk
— Frank Hersey (@frankhersey) February 16, 2018
Another major Spring Festival tradition: fireworks! State news agency Xinhua has a nice roundup of Chinese New Year pyrotechnics around the world, including displays in Manhattan, Auckland, and Moscow:
The Chinese Year of the Dog has arrived! Various global landmarks are celebrating it in their own way. Read more: https://t.co/U2GeYheHDb pic.twitter.com/RO7I0AD2uu
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) February 16, 2018
One major world city that did not have a fireworks display for the holiday? Beijing. AP Reporter Gerry Shih captures the blackness as municipal ordinances and on-the-street enforcement put a damper on the erstwhile very lit tradition:
The view on Chinese New Year from Beijing: Streets blanketed by surveilling police and cleaners to prevent fireworks, skies silent and pitch black. The capital government has managed to smother the most joyful, beloved day of the year for Chinese. Shame!! pic.twitter.com/FEpzHf0OCt
— Gerry Shih (@gerryshih) February 15, 2018
(Catch a glimpse of what Spring Festival fireworks in major Chinese cities looked like not too long ago here.)
Finally, let’s go back to Auckland, whose Museum has a really, really old dog to share with the world to mark the New Year’s beginning:
Happy Chinese New Year!
Today ushers in the Year of the Dog under the Chinese Zodiac Calendar.
This ceramic dog was made in China during the Wei Dynasty about 1800 years ago.
This artefact is currently on display in the Ancient Worlds gallery#AucklandMuseum #ChineseNewYear pic.twitter.com/6N0drklLZY— Auckland Museum (@aucklandmuseum) February 15, 2018
