skylightcrystal said:
People seeing a red envelope tag aren't going to go searching to find its meaning. And yes of course you can get red envelopes that are used for the same purposes as envelopes of any other colour.
Main potential pitfall are Christmas/Santa letters. Tend to be red, and people tagging red_headwear/dress/jacket might see red_envelope in the autocomplete suggestion and add it on without checking too.
There are also WWII Japanese draft notices (red slips/letters). Plus the occasional (ab)use of red envelopes by Japanese government agencies for "Attention: immediate notice required" letters.
Another complication is that 红包 aren't necessarily red, despite the name. Second most common color is gold, but there are also ones in pink and purple, plus cartoon-themed ones in multiple colors. Only taboo are envelopes that are predominantly white or black (main difference between 红包 and otoshidama), because those are considered funeral colors in Chinese culture.
Fyol said:
How about a qualifier then like red_envelope_(chinese) or chinese_red_envelope?
Otherwise I think it should atleast be aliased to one of the other main dialects, I have a preference for the mandarin spelling (hong bao) due to it being the more spoken language. A quick google search shows hong bao at 238,000,000 results, lai see at 303,000,000 results, and ang pao at 17,900,000 results.
Hongbao and lai see aren't commonly seen in English text. Angpao (Ang pow, ang pau, ang pav, ampaw, etc.) is, because of significant use by multilingual Hokkien diasporas in Southeast Asia. They get written as-it-is in English language newspapers, bank promotion flyers, etc.
The spelling "angpao" is the current common one in Singaporean English, Malaysian English and Indonesian English. The same spelling is also codified by local language "authorities" for Singaporean Malay, Malaysian Malay and Indonesian Malay. Older spellings include "ang pow" and "ang pao".
Note that 红包 kinda started off as a Hokkien thing. Or Southern Chinese (but calling it "red packets" is Hokkien). Other parts of China used 压岁钱 for a long time. It's only in the past thirty years or so where 红包 became more popular (borrowing from Hokkien/Southern Min), and from there the "red envelope" translation (Mainland China Mandarin speakers prefer translating this term instead of using pinyin when they mention it in English).
Long story
There was an ancient practice dating back to the Han Dynasty, called yashengqian (压胜钱), where specially minted coined were carried around to ward off evils and misfortune. Later on during the Tang Dynasty this morphed into the yasuiqian (压岁钱) practice, where regular coins were given to children at the Beginning of Spring Day as a lucky charm to ward off misfortune and evil spirits.
This carried on into the Ming and Qing dynasties but with the practice morphing into red strings of coins. At this point the practice also kinda turned into an annual "let's give our kids allowances" ritual, like Christmas gifts (and the modern 压岁钱/红包). IIRC this is also when they started giving the money on the Chinese Lunar New Year.
There was also another "red envelope" practice dating back (again) to the Tang Dynasty, where people would put slips of calligraphy or other paper notes into decorated red envelopes/packets/bags and give them to other people as a form of well-wishing. This was still not related to the yasuiqian practice yet.
Then some time during the early 20th century people in Southern China merged the two practices and started putting money into red envelopes (or other packets). This was given to children as their yashuiqian, as well as to other people during events and other days of significance as a form of well-wishing (and "socially acceptable" form of bribe).
Then of course China got hit with multiple wars and revolutions, so most people were no longer prosperous to regularly give chunks of cash to their children on New Year's, whether in red packets or not. So they reverted to single coins or even candies, as a symbolic "warding-off evil"/lucky charm gesture like the old times.
But (Southern) Chinese emigres in Southeast Asia became prosperous and so they continued this practice. A lot of these emigres are from the Southern Min (Hokkien) region, which is why they also brought the same Hokkien terminology to the countries they emigrated to. Descendants of these emigrants also tend to be multilingual (including English), so they also likewise introduced the same words into those countries' languages and English.
Then China became prosperous in the eighties an they started reinstating the practice. IIRC initially they just called it yasuiqian, but as time went on they preferred using hongbao as a more descriptive term (as well as matching how it is called in the Southern Min regions). When writing in English, however, they prefer translating it as "red envelope" or "red packet" instead of transliterating pinyin hongbao.
And now Chinese media (including gacha games) have hit it big among Western audiences, likewise popularizing the term "red envelope" in the West.
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Anyway... I agree we need a utility alias. Angpao for one might be unfamiliar for Mainland Chinese speakers unfamiliar with Hokkien, and currently "red envelope" is better known among the West. I wouldn't be averse to aliasing red envelope to angpao, or aliasing angpao to red envelope (Chinese) (with the qualifier). Think that should be enough. No need for further utility aliases, probably. Though if we need to I wouldn't object to hongbao and maybe lai see for the Cantonese one (incidentally it uses a different word, 利是/利事, because the Cantonese love their puns).
Most of the people from SEA countries should be able to find the term by typing Ang*. No need for further aliases on multiple Hokkien spellings.
