"Ying-san notes"

"Ying-san notes": an auspicious way to greet the new year

Using good-as-new notes for lai see money helps protect the environment and is an auspicious way to welcome the new year.

Just before last Lunar New Year, I wrote in this column asking readers to use good-as-new notes instead of brand-new notes for lai see money. We understand that it is difficult to change the tradition overnight and therefore asked the note-issuing banks to offer both good-as-new notes and brand-new notes for their customers to choose. Our call was welcomed by the community and attracted broad press coverage. The public also responded positively: about 20% of the notes issued in the run-up to Lunar New Year – some 53 million notes – were good-as-new notes. The note-issuing banks will again offer both good-as-new and brand-new notes for the coming Lunar New Year.

Within the HKMA, we often call good-as-new notes "fit notes", by which we mean that they are fit for circulation and fit for use as lai see. But Chinese speakers would probably agree that it is not easy to think of a Chinese name for these notes. Some people have called them "old notes"（舊鈔）, when actually they are still very new.

To find a memorable and appropriate Chinese name for these good-as-new notes, we tapped into the creativity and talent of primary school students by holding a Chinese Naming and Slogan Competition last October. After all, children are the end-users of the great majority of lai see given out at Lunar New Year, and it makes sense to start environmental education with the young. A total of 182 students from 65 primary schools submitted their ideas. The 13 winners demonstrated a thorough understanding of what good-as-new notes are and the importance of protecting the environment.

The Chinese name – "ying-san note"（迎新鈔票）– provided by the champion is an ingenious pun: The Chinese characters for "ying-san note" literally mean "a note to welcome the new year" and, when spoken, they also sound like a phrase meaning "a note that is still new". This is best manifested in the winning slogan （迎新鈔票仍然新，喜氣盈盈迎新年）, which carries the message that using good-as-new notes for lai see money helps protect the environment and is an auspicious way to welcome the new year.

In appreciation of the students' good work, representatives of the note-issuing banks and I presented the winners with prizes in the presence of their parents and teachers in a ceremony yesterday. I would like to congratulate the students again publicly for their wonderful achievement and support for the campaign. And there is more – the note-issuing banks will be using the winning "ying-san note" and slogan in their posters to promote the use of good-as-new notes for lai see this Lunar New Year. I hope this publicity will help make people more aware of environmental protection, not just during traditional festivals, but for the whole of the new year.

If you used "ying-san notes" last year, please continue to do so and spread this auspicious and environmentally friendly message to your relatives and friends; if you didn't, I encourage you to begin using them this year. I especially hope that those of us who are parents or grandparents will recognise that, by taking part in this campaign, children - the recipients of lai see - have shown that they want us to follow suit. Future generations will thank us if we can help protect the environment.

Joseph Yam
11 January 2007

Attachments:

1. List of winners.
2. Press photograph of the prize presentation ceremony

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