[lbo-talk] already thinking about post-Xmas sales

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Yoshie:
> One Asian custom (maybe just a Japanese and Chinese custom?) that
> always made sense to me and that I thought more modern and thoughtful
> than the Western way is that people give you money (cash, no checks)
> to buy things, instead of things they bought (which you may or may
> not like but must pretend to love anyway), to celebrate New Year's
> Day (the presents of money that parents, relatives, and family
> friends give children for this occasion are called otoshidama in
> Japan), graduation, wedding, and other big occasions.  Money is
> better than gift cards and certificates, because you can spend it
> anywhere (or even choose to save it for later).

It depends how you look at gifts.  If you emphasize their exchange value,
then yes, giving money makes more sense than giving often useless stuff.
But if you emphasize the emotional/sentimental value of gifts, they at not
as much as exchange of values, but hierophanic statements (i.e. expressions
of meaning embodied in a physically manifest form).  From that point of
view, a perfect gift should say something meaningful about the giver and
his/her relationship to the recipient, and as such requires some pro-active
thinking and understanding the person that receives the gift.  

That is the idea behind "Western," as you call, it gift giving - or least it
was before it was hijacked by marketers and turned into its anti-thesis:
mindless commercial consumption frenzy.

Wojtek