Why My Chinese New Year Performance Needs Improvement

Even Here In L.A., My Parents Have Kept the Tradition Alive. Now I’d Better Learn To Do the Same.

Never mind exactly how old I am. Let’s just say I’m too old to be receiving a red envelope from my parents on Chinese New Year. Yet every year they still go through the ritual, presenting me with a lucky red hongbao embossed in gold with the characters for prosperity. This coming Sunday, I’ll open my envelope to find freshly minted greenbacks still crisp to the touch. I’ll protest, as I do every year, just a little, just enough to be respectable. Then I’ll accept it as though I were …