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Q: What is the most odd or ridiculous gift you have recieved in China?
I was replying to a PM this morning and his Hui Tai Lang icon reminded me of a gift I got from work last month for exceeding my all KPIs for three months consecutively.
A 300ml pink thermos with a large Xi YangYang on a skateboard was proudly presented to me at the last company meeting. I was humbled by how much they appreciate my hard work. I gave it to my neighbour's primary school daughter. Although I know her and her mum pretty well she looked at me like i had a mental illness.
It was almost as good as my company funded birthday present.....a large Hello Kitty coffee mug.
A couple of years ago, at Spring Festival I got what appeared to be a funeral urn with a hongbao containing two hundred rmb inside as my end of year bonus/spring festival gift. (I took the hint, if it was meant to be one, and found a new job)
It got me thinking....I usually try to avoid that, it can make you stand out from the crowd here....what are the odd, ridiculous, perplexing or inappropriate gifts you have received in China?
I got a set of 8 matchboxes. Each box with the photo and info of Nazi generals. I only recognized Rommel on there. That's my strangest gift.
One of my mates received a small zippered purse from his boss with a picture of (Edit by correction from said person) Lei Feng on one side and "Money for Hookers" written in chinese on the other side. There was 20rmb inside.
Mateusz:
I shudder to think of what kind of hooker they expected to get for 20rmb.
I got a set of 8 matchboxes. Each box with the photo and info of Nazi generals. I only recognized Rommel on there. That's my strangest gift.
not a strange gift,I got given a box of apples,when I got home and opened the box the apples were rotten.
iWolf:
No Rob, I agree, a box of rotten apples is not a strange gift at all
Toilet papers --- seriously!! a friend of mine worked in a Chinese hotel chain, they received a big bag of toilet papers...
ScotsAlan:
The company I work for decided to save money by turning up the aircon temp to 26. They compensated us for our discomfort with a pack of free tissues.
I used mine as a pillow. 26 is too hot to work in.
A bag of bread for poof-reading a thesis paper. The bread sucked, but the guy passed and successfully defended his thesis.
Once I received a gift from a Chinese friend just prior to one of the festivals. When I openend the box, it was a female blouse, black with yellow dots all over. But it fitted me so I have used it twice before passing it on to a famale friend.
At the begining it upset me a little, but then I realized the guy had no idea it was a blosue, not a shirt.
A genuine 2000 RMB bottle of Moatai.
Why anyone buys that is beyond me. The little 8 RMB bottles of 33% baijui tastes much better.
Gift? Never received one in the time I have been here.
My company these days often just gives us a budget on how much they can spend on a gift for us. We tell them what we want and they buy it for us or the next best thing.
I was asked what I thought about golf. I think it's a boring, rich old man's walking pastime. Then I was awkwardly given a golfing statuette.
Shining_brow:
I had one like that - but not from work.
I was with someone in Thailand, and they had just borrowed some money off me (to buy me a present). We were in a shop, and she's looking at t-shirts with elephants on them, wondering which one I liked the most.
"Ummm - you're the elephant person here, not me".
(then, sheepishly, she pulls out the elephant thing she had already bought me).
during a 'welcome' meeting for the FT's a couple of years ago, the Departmental President, after berating us for about 5 minutes (his idea of a welcome), we were all presented with a gift.
Later, when i opened mine, i found a wooden - what could only be described as - pen holder cum 'music' box that played 'Fur Elise' very badly
I wish i could post a picture of it.
needless to say i kept it as a conversation starter, much to the amusement of family and friends.
My male colleagues all got pink picture frames.
I've been given a giant stuffed toy each of the past three years. The one earlier this year was a metre high llama.
plastic apple for Christmas. I know the proverb "an apple a day keeps a doctor away".....but it was made of plastic!!!
tiny snowman for summer birthday (from a kid)
box of pomegranates and apples (symbols of kids and health)
My ex-gf's grandmother gave me a portrait of Chairman Mao.
This year my employer gave us a hand-towel. It felt like a skit from Monty Python.
A few months ago I was given a stuffed pheasant. I was visiting a property developer in Zhumadian, in deepest darkest Henan province who was the very definition of the word tuhao. He was bragging about how he likes to go hunting then got on the phone and 10 minutes later the pheasant appears, he claimed to have shot it himself. To make it even grander its nailed to a log, so the whole thing is about as tall as me. I definitely got some strange looks taking it back on the train. It is rather splendid, but doesn't exactly fit well in my small flat on the 26th floor! It would be more at home in an English country estate.
andy74rc:
It's probably true he shoot it himself. Given that there's no wildlife here, shooting in a cage should be doable.
