Luo, Bo Bin writes:
I'm a Chinese reader of this article, as a Chinese I think maybe the writer of this article have some misunderstanding about Chinese New Year, or maybe all the author tells us is just the customs of the place which he/she visited.
1. As far as I know on the second day of Chinese most of the people in China don't treat dogs as well as the author said and as a Chinese I have never heard about the Dog's Birthday.
2. On the fifth day of Chinese New Year so far as I know people can do anything they like – before this I never knew if you visit friends and families it will bring bad luck.
3. At Chinese New Year it's a Chinese tradition to have a family reunion dinner but this dinner is not on the eighth day of Chinese New Year, it is held on the last night of the previous year.
4. Not only parents give their children money in lucky red envelopes, you must give the red bags to your family members children or even your friend's children. The red bags are not given on the Lantern Festival, they are given on the first day of the new year, and not only given to the children, but to the old people also.
Maybe some places have special customers - you know China is such a big country - but in my personal thinking the author doesn't know Chinese New Year very well. I'm Chinese and in the last 20 years I have visited lots of places in China, and I think that what I have told you is the real Chinese New Year.
This is what the author replies:
I am not Chinese and (to write this article) I did research on the subject through a number of different books and websites, so it could be that some of the information I found is true in certain parts of China, but not practised everywhere. As the writer says, China is a very big country and it is also a country which is changing very fast, so maybe some of the traditions I mention are not followed as closely as they may once have been.