Today during the lunch time, the mums in my office were talking about what gifts they gave to their children’s teachers for the Teachers’ Day.

Then I suddenly realised that today is Teachers’ Day in China (10th September). (Sorry that I haven’t been to schools for ages).

Then I asked why the parents have to give gifts to the teachers because I think cards or flowers are enough to do the job. I remember that I wrote a card to my teachers when I was in school.

Then all the mums stared at me for a few seconds and said: ‘you are out now! Everybody gives gifts to teachers on Teachers’ Day. And the gifts are not cards or flowers, must be some serious gifts. ‘

‘So like what?’

‘Perfumes, skincare gift set, MP3 player, gift vouchers etc’

Okay, from the conversations they had, I understand that all the parents seems to agree that the average value of the gifts given to the teachers is between 200 to 300RMB.

My colleagues told me that the teachers didn’t ask the parents to do so. But don’t know since when, parents started to give serious gifts to the teachers on Teachers’ Day. When most of parents joined the group, no one wants to be left behind and some parents even worried the teachers won’t treat their children the same if they don’t give gifts.

So the tradition has been changed. Teachers’ Day -> Gift Day?

Tags: Culture Matters

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