Why Taiwan Queues for Crisp Cash Before Lunar New Year (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Lunar New Year is almost here, and people are lining up at banks like this here in Taiwan to get crisp new bills in red envelopes. Red symbolizes luck, protection, and new beginnings, and the cash inside is meant to pass good fortune from the giver to the receiver, especially from elders to kids or bosses to employees. Now here in Taiwan, like much of East Asia, brand new money is seen as a fresh start, clean and lucky. Old, crumpled bills like this, bad vibes and bad luck. People line up even longer to get these rare $200 and $2,000 new Taiwan dollar bills. They can put all five colors of Taiwanese currency in red packets for extra good luck. Here in Taiwan, people favor even lucky-sounding red envelope amounts like $600, $800, or $1,600 for smoothness and prosperity, while avoiding any amount with the number 4, because it sounds like the Mandarin Chinese word for debt.