Of QR codes and digital hongbaos: Going green while keeping tradition

ALONGSIDE inescapable festive songs and soaring bak kwa prices, long queues of customers waiting for fresh new notes at banks - for the purposes of stuffing the traditional red packets or hongbao - are an unmistakable feature of the lead-up to Chinese New Year.

As digital payments grow, one might wonder if such queues could eventually become a thing of the past - not least given various reports about the rise of digital hongbao in China. Yet this potential threat to tradition might be overstated. "Red packets" in…