PSA’s Red Packets With ‘Salted Fish’ Design Aren’t Approved by Netizens

Last Updated on 2021-02-13 , 6:40 pm

Now lest you’re unaware, the Chinese New Year period is one that’s filled with festivities and auspicious meanings of every kind.

Fish, for instance, stands for abundance, and so we try to cram more fish meat down our throats every CNY. Peanuts, on the other hand, stand for health and longevity, and so we down as many peanut puffs as we can before the dreaded sore throat arrives.

So as you can surmise, we try to undertake as many positive notions during this festive period, in hopes that they will translate to a better year ahead for us.

PSA’s Red Packets With ‘Salted Fish’ Design Aren’t Approved by Netizens

But it seems that in this particular aspect, port operator PSA has, for lack of a better phrase, royally f**ked up with their latest red packet design.

According to the Facebook page for All Singapore Stuff, PSA’s latest red packet design has come under intense scrutiny for its seeming display of… salted fishes.

At this point, you may be wondering. Aren’t fishes all the same? Do they not signify abundance as well?

Well, rather unfortunately for PSA, that’s not the case.

While vibrant live fish often appears as a common motif during the CNY period, salted fish is avoided as it’s essentially a metaphor for a corpse in Cantonese – due to it resembling the drying of a dead body before the funeral.

And if you scrutinise the red packet, you may start to see how the design looks uncannily similar to the way salted fish are preserved by being hung out to dry in the sun.

“Maybe it’s just a coincidence?” you wonder.

Well, here’s how the other side of the red packet looks like:

Fairly certain that the last I checked, live fishes don’t usually go in a tinned can.

Inauspiciousness

As mentioned above, the inauspicious interpretation of the design has not gone unnoticed.

Netizens, in particular, were not exactly contented with the design.

Though granted, several did try to be humorous about it.

And some even tried to insert a positive turn on the situation.

This Chinese idiom translates to “the flipping over of a salted fish”, and is used to represent someone’s reversal of fortune – more often than not a positive one.

One, however, did offer a likely rationale behind the idea.

With another chipping in with a possible inspiration.

Whether they’re true, however, is another question altogether.

Here’s hoping that PSA will “recover” from this latest “setback”, though if they intended to create a talking point…

They have certainly achieved it.

Featured Image: Facebook (All Singapore Stuff & Debra Tan)