Gifts for people in Asia
Posted by Cottontimer on 10 Sep 2007 | Tagged as: Expat Life, Shopping
Ernie at little. yellow. different. recently went to Hong Kong and Tokyo for vacation and dropped in on some aunts and cousins:
My mom has given me bottles of multi-vitamins to give to them, which seems to be the universal gift of what someone from America gives to family members in Asia.
That is so true!! My family gets our vitamins from Costco. Other popular gifts seem to be:
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In the nutritional supplements arena - multi-vits, vitamin C, echinacea, gingko, calcium, basically anything in pill form
Snack food - dried fruit, nuts, CornNuts, Jelly Belly jelly beans, candy bars- See’s Candies
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Victoria’s Secret nightgowns
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DVD’s of American/UK kids’ shows
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English tea
What regional gifts do you bring to relatives when you visit?
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But Hsien, why? Why vitamins? Is it so the family members can be as full of vim and vigour as Americans? Is it a blessing, the tangible way of saying Gung Hey Fat Choi?
When we go to Eastern Europe, we bring a lot of German chocolate. Our relatives can go to any store and buy it, but it is slightly more expensive than it is here where people earn about 1/4 as much…so it’s basically a status thing.
Chinese people do tend to believe very strongly in herbs and other kinds of supplements. But the main reason they want vitamins from the US is because it’s at least half the price of what they go for in Asia.
From my experience, the Japanese love to get chocolate from overseas. Any form or kind of chocolate will do. They even like ordinary chocolate in the shape of a country’s mascot like the Singapore merlion!
When I go traveling I try to being stuff people can’t find as easily as you can here, but since none of my family is from here, it all ends up being gag gifts! Grits, canned boiled peanuts, clothing ‘dyed’ with red clay and kudzu! The only thing people WANT me to bring is tea bags. They can’t get the brands up there that make the super yummy iced tea that I make for all our family functions! When my parents had their 35th wedding anniversary, I shipped a box full of tea bags up to my brothers house and was on tea making duty all day!
Joan, What is this fabulous brand of tea? I really must know!
Hi! When I go to the States, I bring Bath & Body works lotions back to Vietnam. I find that Vietnamese like fragrances and lotions. And for kids, I bring children’s books.
Some people have also asked me to bring Vitamins since it is cheaper at Costco.
And from Vietnam, I bring coffee and embroidered bags.
I remember those days when we used to go shop for souvenirs…
Hi Gina!! My sister likes Bath & Bodyworks too. I always thought they only sold their own brand and didn’t know they have all sorts of other goodies.
Vietnam seems like forever ago!! We’ll have to go hunt for souvenirs together again somewhere someday.
Living in Switzerland makes presents easy - chocolate, and lots of it!
I hear wienerschnitzel is a popular gift. Surely they must have vegetarian versions.
Ummmmm I’m not sure what I’d usually bring.
The first thing that comes to mind is huckleberry - yummy yummy huckleberry. There are all kinds of things with huckleberry in them, from lip balm to chocolates to teas and coffees. My favorite is fresh huckleberries, which are seasonal. One really has to essentially go to the Northwestern part of Montana at the perfect peak of the huckleberry harvest season to indulge in fresh huckleberry eating.
It’s not a commercially grown crop- people go out in the mountains and pick off wild bushes.
Do huckleberries have seeds? There were lots and lots of blackberries here this summer but I don’t like seeds.
Gorgeous looking, though.
They are very very similar to blueberries. The flavor is better, in my not-so-humble opinion. So if you like blueberries, you will probably like huckleberries.
I don’t mind blueberries although I think they’re often pretty tasteless! Should eat more, though, b/c it’s supposed to be real good for the noggin.
See’s! My husband had never had this till meeting me—-now he’s hooked…….. My dad bought Charlie a huge jar of dino-vitamins; Charlie said “no” after 3 days. My dad has a lot of vitamins on his hands.