40-year-old former TVB actress Fala Chen, married her French husband Emmanuel Straschnov back in 2019 and they gave birth to their daughter “Little Minnie” in February 2021.
Both Fala and her husband are residing in the United States, and they apparently place a lot of emphasis on Chinese culture in raising their young daughter.
The actress posted a photo of her daughter kneeling down on the ground in front of them on the first day of Chinese New Year (22 January), as she received the red packets from her parents.
She captioned her post in Mandarin (translated): “HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here’s wishing everyone a happy new year, and good health and may all your dreams come true! #yearoftherabbit”
She received some praise from netizens for passing down Chinese culture and tradition on to her young daughter.
However, there were a few uninformed netizens who saw red and questioned her making her daughter kneel down on the ground.
For context, the act of kneeling down on the floor to receive red packets from parents is a display of respect to one’s elders.
Some of the netizens said that “it’s like begging for money, don’t do this one kids,” while the other netizens chimed in to educate the commenter on Chinese traditions.
Netizens’ comments
- Stupid lah…kneel down can show fillial piety?! Taking care of parents is the best way to show it.
- Kneeling is respect, only we Asians especially Chinese and Indians are still practicing. Western cultured and educated do not understand the value!!!
- Even hari raya, we give packets to the younger ones. The younger one always kneels in front of their elderly.. The society is getting faded away with good values and mannerism. That’s why we have hooligans running the society.
- Kneeling before elderly is the Chinese tradition for centuries its a respected, just that nowadays it had westernised, well done to Fala to teach the next generation the actual tradition.
- I make my daughter kneels down every 1st day of Chinese New Year since she was a kid. Today she’s 23 and still do so. Its our Chinese traditions nobody can teach us