With Chinese New Year around the corner, my English friend, Ben asked about the Chinese custom in Singapore. My colleague and I him told him details on how Chinese celebrate Chinese New Year with the reunion dinners, family visiting, traditional businesses resting for several days and the giving of red packets.

There was a twist with the story about giving of red packets. In our version, we told ben the meaning of ??ngmo” (red hair) and that angpaos (red packs) were given by the angmo to us Asians. With each angpao containing at least $10 SGD to symbolize a prosperous new year.

Refusing to believe us, Ben insisted that he gets ang paos from us (entire office) instead, as Chinese New Year is a Chinese tradition. The only way that he would believe that ang paos were given by ang mo was that the entire office emailed him telling that’s the fact.

So in a bid to trick Ben, we sent out this email -

“Me and Chad has been explaining to Ben (Hurley) that the tradition in Singapore is for the Ang Mohs to give us Ang Paos, and not the other way round.. He refuses to believe us. He wants all of us to give him Ang Paos instead as he said that this is a Chinese tradition.

Can anyone please justify that what me and Chad said is TRUE?????”

I wonder would Ben fall for it. Hey Ben if you are reading Ang Pao Please.

Meaning of “ang mo” - Red Hair or a Caucasian due to the hair color