During the Spring Festival, Chinese adults will give children and elders “红包(hóngbāo),” known as Lucky Money or Red Envelopes in English, as a sign of luck and good fortune.
However, this year, this Chinese tradition of giving red envelopes stuffed with cash went virtual. WeChat, a popular Chinese social network, has allowed its users worldwide to send and receive virtual red envelopes via a new add-on service called WeChat Lucky Money. Even the traditionally significant Spring Festival Gala of 2016 was overshadowed because people were too busy sending and receiving WeChat Lucky Money. WeChat Lucky Money has really become an immediate hit this Spring Festival!
Lǐ Wén: Zhāng Fēi, guònián nǐ zài wēixìn shàng qiǎnghóngbāo le ma?
李 文： 张 菲， 过年 你 在 微信 上 抢 红包 了 吗？
Li Wen: Zhang Fei, did you get any lucky money on WeChat during the Spring Festival?
Zhāng Fēi: Wǒ yìzhí zài qiǎng, lián chūnwǎn dōu méi zěnme kàn.
张 菲：我 一直 在 抢， 连 春晚 都 没 怎么 看。
Zhang Fei: Yeah, I was so busy getting lucky money that I hardly watched the Spring Festival Gala.
There are two ways: one is sending a specified amount of money to a certain WeChat contact; the other is more creative. For the latter, the user first fills in the total amount of lucky money and the number of packets to be sent. Then WeChat randomly divvies up the money and it generates a message for the user to send out to a group. The recipients in the group would then rush to click open their packets, and the one who gets the one with the largest amount of money would win the title of “手气最佳(shǒuqìzuìjiā) the luckiest receiver.”
Wáng Hóng: Lín Huá, jīnnián chūnjié nǐ qiǎngdàole duōshǎo wēixìn hóngbāo?
王 红： 林 华，今年 春节 你 抢 到了 多少 微信 红包？
Wang Hong: Lin Hua, how much WeChat Lucky Money did you get this Spring Festival?
Lín Huá: Shǒuqì háibúcuò, qiǎngdào jǐbǎi kuàiqián.
林 华：手气 还 不错， 抢到 几百 块钱。
Lin Hua: I didn’t do too bad. I got several hundred yuan.
Zhāng Míng shǒuqì hěnhǎo, hǎojǐcì dōu qiǎngdàole zuìdàde hóngbāo!
张 明 手气 很好， 好几次 都 抢到了 最大的 红包！
Zhang Ming is so lucky that he has nabbed the largest red envelope several times!
Wǒ zài wēixìn shàng gěi dìdi fāle yígè liù diǎn liù liù yuánde hóngbāo, xīwàng tā xīnde yìniánlǐ nénggòu yìqiè
我 在 微信 上 给 弟弟 发了 一个 6.66 元的 红包， 希望 他 新的 一年里 能够 一切
shùnlì!
顺利！
I sent 6.66 yuan of Holiday Lucky Money to my little brother on WeChat to wish him a smooth year.