Early 20th C. Chinese Dinner Invitations

“You will receive a red envelope containing a red card, red being the colour associated with festivity, on which it is stated that by noon on a given day the floor will be swept, the wine-cups washed, and your host in waiting to meet your chariot.” –The bustle of the city: Hong Kong's Queen's Road on Chinese New Year's Day 1902
  – Library of Congress

A Chinese invitation to dinner differs somewhat from a similar compliment in the West. You will receive a red envelope containing a red card, red being the colour associated with festivity, on which it is stated that by noon on a given day the floor will be swept, the wine-cups washed, and your host in waiting to meet your chariot. Later on, a second invitation will arrive, couched in the same terms; and again another on the day of the banquet, asking you to be punctual to the minute. To this you pay no attention, but make preparations to arrive about 4 P.M., previous to which another and more urgent summons may very possibly have been sent. All this is conventional, and the guests assemble at the same hour, to separate about 9 P.M. — From China and the Chinese by LL.D. Herbert Allen Giles, 1902

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