What do Chinese tech companies do on the first workday after Lunar New Year? Definitely not work

AllTechAsia Staff

8 years ago

After waging a hectic marketing war for virtual red envelopes over the Lunar New Year, Chinese tech companies switched to more old-fashioned methods to celebrate the first workday after Lunar New Year.

‘First Day Red Envelopes’ is a tradition that originated in South China’s Cantonese speaking areas with a concentration of tech companies like Tencent and NetEase. On the first workday after the Chinese New Year holiday, company leaders are supposed to distribute red envelopes containing ‘lucky money’ to any staff that greets him or her for the New Year.

Now it’s a widely celebrated tradition for many companies across China, with red envelopes becoming a primary motivator for getting employees back to work after a long holiday.

Xiaomi’s president Lin Bin holds a bunch of red envelopes to show he’s ready for the crowd. Photo from Xiaomi’s Weibo account.

As one of the tech companies starting their work week on Feb 14th, Xiaomi posted photos of company president Lin Bin giving out red envelopes on Weibo.

Xiaomi employees line up for red envelopes. Photo from Xiaomi’s Weibo.

Tencent, with its headquarters in Guangdong, is one of the most devoted advocates of the tradition.

Tencent staff make a line stretching to the 39th floor, where Pony Ma’s office is located.

Exhausted Tencent staff take a break during the long wait from ground floor to Pony Ma’s office. Photo from WeChat public account QQ_QMP.

The employee who claimed to have received the first red envelope started to line up at 3 A.M.!

WeChat screenshot showing timestamp. Photo from WeChat public account Quanmeipai.

For new members, one of the incentives that helped them bear hours in the blowing wind was to meet the big boss in the flesh for the first time.

Pony Ma gave out red envelopes in a red Chinese-style jacket in 2015.

The tradition also serves as a chance for employees to show appreciation for their managers!

Team leaders at Tencent get a good sense of their popularity at least once a year.

Rumor has it that WeChat’s signature virtual red envelope was first designed to give out lucky money to team members internally. Some team leaders were too scared to be chased all around the company so they chose to do an online version instead of showing up at the office — the inspiration for what would become WeChat’s hugely popular red envelopes.