Commentary: Printing money for Chinese New Year hongbao is just too costly
SINGAPORE: With the Chinese New Yr but around the corner, we recently overheard people engaged in a spirited word at a neighbourhood coffee store about needing to make online reservations for new notes earlier queuing up to collect them at the bank.
They were agonising over the hassle just to dole out hongbao (red packets) over the festive season.
This ritual of packet gifting is not unique to the Chinese. During Hari Raya Puasa (Eid al-Fitr) observed by Muslims, greenish packets containing gifts of cash are handed out. Deepavali too sees purple packets exchanging Hindu hands.
One characteristic common to all is a distinctive cultural preference for well-baked new notes, fresh from the banking concern, including the fragrance that comes with it.
Information technology is captivating that this tradition of giving physical new notes has somehow withstood the test of fourth dimension and modern technology.
Convincing the coffeeshop folks to reuse notes or even gift "due east-hongbao" is probably an incommunicable task. What's fifty-fifty more surprising that these were not older Singaporeans but young-looking people in their 30s who are probably tech-savvy. Why this hesitation?
WHY So Difficult TO CONVINCE PEOPLE TO GIVE E-HONGBAO?
E-payments have gained traction in Singapore with the proliferation of services such as PayNow, PayLah, and GrabPay.
The pandemic has only accelerated the growth of this trend as businesses and banks encouraged consumers to switch to e-payment for contactless transactions.
With smartphone use ubiquitous, almost of us should be no stranger to e-payment services. Many of the states in Singapore might even be avid everyday users of such services.
This might be the case in the years ahead, given plans to turbocharge e-payments, on the back of a national drive which saw more half of hawkers offering e-payments terminal year.
A scheme providing S$130 meg (US$96 million) in Customs Evolution Quango vouchers for utilize at participating heartland shops and bell-ringer centres may too speed up consumer adoption.
With the coming Chinese New Year, the Budgetary Potency of Singapore has encouraged the use of used notes or switching to e-hongbao for two reasons: First, to support sustainability and second, to understandably foreclose overcrowding in banks during the pandemic.
Merely switching to eastward-hongbao in the proper name of sustainability may be hard for some, who might feel as if they're jettisoning their cultural traditions for the sake of convenience and modernity.
Where did this tradition of giving out hongbao come from? Legend has information technology that there was a demon named Sui who went around terrorising children.
To ward off Sui, parents decided to constrict their children in bed with coins wrapped in an envelope. When Sui came for the children, the coins would fall out of the envelope, emanating a ray of light that scared Sui.
Since and so, the practice of giving hongbao has evolved in form over various dynastic eras in Prc. However, coins were used, not the concrete notes seen today, let lonely brand-new notes.
It is probably only over the contempo century that notes were used instead of coins because the newer coins did not have holes in the eye for the giver to string together. Due east-hongbao might be a natural next evolution of such traditions.
THE SUSTAINABILITY IMPERATIVE TO DITCH PHYSICAL HONGBAO
We should also non fail the sustainability imperative. Most red packets probable end up in the incinerator. Many tend not be easily recyclable due to their designs and materials used.
Information technology is not just the red packets. The new notes that we painstakingly queue for will only exist used momentarily, and become used notes deposited dorsum into depository financial institution accounts at the finish of the festive season.
If the public continues to demand only new notes each festive season, the used notes have few opportunities to be recirculated.
In Singapore, as many as 100 million pieces of new notes are issued to meet this almanac demand. Due south$two notes, which form the bulk of new notes issued, that are deposited are reissued equally adept-as-new notes the post-obit Chinese New year's day.
This recycling of used notes has helped to meet about twenty per cent of annual festive demand, reduced wastage and supported the surround.
Just the remaining used Southward$2 notes, which exceed apportionment needs, are subsequently destroyed. The carbon footprint from producing and destroying only the backlog S$ii notes is meaning – equivalent to the annual emissions from powering 430 four-room public housing flats.
CNA'southward Heart of the Affair looks into what'due south behind people's resistance in giving out due east-hongbao and what can change their minds:
COSTS OF Press MONEY
Sustainability is non the only reason why we should be persuaded to requite e-hongbao a take chances. The practical cost of printing paper currency is a key consideration too.
The US Department of the Treasury's Agency of Engraving and Printing's 2022 currency operating upkeep was US$1.1 billion. The cost of press a United states$1 note was 6.2 cents per note - but over 6 per cent of the note'south budgetary value.
Traditions can motility with the times, peculiarly if we look at Mainland china where hongbaooriginated. In 2014, the Internet behemoth Tencent introduced the e-hongbao part in its ubiquitous WeChat platform.
Many other players take joined the fray, some adding innovative bells and whistles such as embedded videos and hongbao snatches. The remainder is history – the vast majority of the people in the country are now gifting electronically.
Thankfully the use of e-hongbao is on the rise in Singapore. In 2021, DBS Bank reported more than 32,000 QR Gift transactions through the PayLah app totaling South$2 one thousand thousand (US$1.48 million) past the second day of the Chinese New Year, compared to eighteen,000 totaling S$660,000 (US$490,000) over the same menses in 2020.
Other banks also saw an upward trend in the transaction. UOB saw three times an increase in e-hongbao transactions through the UOB app. Similarly, OCBC Bank observed a 140 per cent increase in e-hongbao transactions through the OCBC app compared to 2020.
Understandably, some might feel that e-hongbao will erode the essence of a festive occasion similar the New Year.
Withal, as some businesslike folks have put it, if we view the gifting of hongbaoas a token of well wishes, it should not matter if it comes in the form of physical carmine packets or via electronic means.
Using e-hongbao is besides user-friendly as 1 does not need to visit the banking company to queue up for new notes, or to eolith the coin received after the festive season. A few clicks are all that is needed to give and receive. One likewise does not need to worry well-nigh misplacing eastward-hongbao.
Let'due south get beyond the reason of tradition to stick to physical hongbao. From a sustainability and practical viewpoint, the rationale for gifting eastward-hongbao is compelling. The historical switch from coins to concrete notes did not upshot in a loss of tradition.
Even if we believe the original myth that the emitted light from the coins tin can ward off the evil spirit of Sui, nosotros can argue that the e-hongbao, being electronic in nature and glimmering from our smartphones at night, volition probably practise a improve job than the concrete notes.
Lawrence Loh and Yvonne Yock are director and research acquaintance respectively at the Centre for Governance and Sustainability, NUS Business organisation School.
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/chinese-new-year-digital-red-packets-digitalisation-sustainability-299371
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