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Q: What kind of gift do you give to your Chinese in-laws?
Chinese New Years is coming up and I need to start allocating money for my wife's parents and sister. I don't like the idea of giving relatives red envelopes with money, but I respect the tradition. How much money do people give to their in-laws, sister-in-law, etc.
In-laws get nothing. Cousins, uncles etc get a symbolic hong bao.
The only hong bao with any actual weight in it I've seen in our family is the one my wife gets from her grandmother.
It will depend on how traditional your wifes family is. If you feel your financial situation is better than theirs, maybe hong bao makes sense. The handing out of cash makes me cringe, but on the other hand it is very easy to get present shopping done.
Every city in every province is different man. It also depends on their financial situation as well as yours.
In many cities people that work give hong bao to people that dont.
In guangdong where my wife is from people that are married give it to people that arent.
Her family still gives me hongbao, and we just give to kids. Usually Ill load up on gifts anyways for when you go to peoples houses. Birds nest soup and nuts and shit like that for her parents and then I take her family out for seafood.
If you need to give hong bao to her parents I suggest just having a direct convo with your girl. Unless shes a bitch, shes going to tell you a number in the lower range than what shes probably really feels is right as shell know your uncomfortable. If she tells you something crazy high then.... well.... your in for a life of hell.
My wife decides when it comes to family.
I normally get three sizes of envelopes for myself. I put 20 in the smallest, 50 in the middle and 100 in the big uns. Then I slip them into my backpack.
Small ones go to random people I come across, middle ones to friends and barmaids, and the big ones to my most favorite barmaids 
.
ScotsAlan:
Erm.....I call them barmaids. Many people might call them something else 
.
Hey, they get me beer so they're barmaids......
While not my in-laws (gf's parents), they're generally appreciative of any booze or cigarettes I can bring back from the states. The mom downed a 750mL bottle of Jack Daniel's inside of a week
bryan.mcminn:
man... how did you get a bottle thru in your luggage from the states!.. my luggage was looked through when i went to china.. is there a trick?
cooter:
I usually just wrap it up in some towels/clothes....moreso to protect from breakage than anything, then stuff it in my checked luggage. When I fly to China, I almost always find a note from the TSA left in my checked luggage stating they went through my stuff, but they've never confiscated anything. I've never had any indication that my bags are checked once in China (I always fly into to Shanghai Pudong Int'l Airport....).
A trip to Singapore. They never traveled outside of the country, so I thought it would be fun for them.
Say you are adopting an African kid.
Scandinavian:
but Madonna did not have parents in law full of prejudice towards those of darker skin tones.
Nothing. Why, should I?
I suppose I'd be happy to pay for dinner, but giving money out stinks.
