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A popular University has issued an apology for sending Asian students death threats.
The University of Toronto publicly apologized for a "mix up" that led to it inadvertently sending its Asian students cultural death threats.
The University had been intending to celebrate the Lunar New Year by distributing free red packets, or "hongbao," to its students and residents.
Hongbao are typically envelopes filled with money that are given out for celebrations such as birthdays and weddings.
Inside the packets given to the students, however, were pieces of paper called "hell money."
Hell money is fake currency meant for the dead.
Why is everyone obsessed with hell notes this year\u2026according to Chinese social media posts, the University of Toronto gave its students red packets with \u7eb8\u94b1/hell notes in it?? Photos from: https://m.douban.com/group/topic/259181573/?_i=439855996da4b87&dt_dapp=1&dt_platform=com.douban.activity.wechat_friends\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/nc1Nz9uOmf— Zeyi Yang \u6768\u6cfd\u6bc5 (@Zeyi Yang \u6768\u6cfd\u6bc5) 1643987076
The currency is comprised of incense notes that are intended to be burned to honor dead relatives or ancestors.
Giving "hell money" to living people, however, is considered extremely disrespectful and even threatening.
In some Asian cultures, giving living people these notes is considered to be putting a curse on them or sending them a death threat.
In fact, the South China Morning Post reported a Hong Kong man and Triad gang member was once arrested on suspicion of sending multiple of these hell money notes to a prison officer.
The University has since apologized for the mix-up, claiming what they had intended to distribute were the hongbao envelopes rather than envelopes filled with hell money.
The school released an apology statement on February 4 that said:
"Members of the University of Toronto Graduate House Team prepared a display to celebrate the Lunar New Year."
"Unfortunately, incorrect banknotes were unintentionally placed into the red envelopes."
The University claimed they didn't realize their error until after all of the envelopes had been taken.
The Twitter community was outraged over the incident.
The layers of offense are immense. \n\nTo invoke death in red envelopes, meant to send luck, for Lunar New Year would cause *genuine* distress in my culture. \n\nJoss paper is used culturally, not only religiously, to honour our ancestors & show filial piety.https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2022/02/04/u-of-t-apologizes-after-giving-hell-money-to-students-for-lunar-new-year.html?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=SocialMedia&utm_campaign=GTA&utm_content=uoftapologizes\u00a0\u2026— Dr. Amy Tan \u8b5a\u7389\u82f1 \ud83e\udd5f\ud83c\udf5c Racism=Public Health Crisis (@Dr. Amy Tan \u8b5a\u7389\u82f1 \ud83e\udd5f\ud83c\udf5c Racism=Public Health Crisis) 1644039538
No amount of EDI can wash this curse offhttps://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2022/02/04/u-of-t-apologizes-after-giving-hell-money-to-students-for-lunar-new-year.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter\u00a0\u2026— kvn (@kvn) 1644035839
Hell money is a funerary offering. Receiving it in a lucky red envelope is about as lucky as finding a horse's head in your bed— Ian Young (@Ian Young) 1644003777
The chinese practice of burning joss paper is to send money to the dead so *this*... is beyond insultinghttps://twitter.com/ZeyiYang/status/1489615881541984258\u00a0\u2026— Jessie Lam _(:3 \u300d\u2220 ) (@Jessie Lam _(:3 \u300d\u2220 )) 1644349904
Oh come on that was completely intentional there is no way they didn\u2019t see that on the bills before they put them inside the envelopes and they never should of been distributed to begin with. I hope they find those responsible for putting them together and handing them out.— Krown3ssanceDGG (@Krown3ssanceDGG) 1644327094
#UofT #racism #StopAsianHate\u00a0 #HateCrime #stopasianhatecrimes\u00a0 @UofT Giving Asian students red envelope with Hell Money is totally unacceptable. This is cultural imperialism and undoubtedly white supremacy. Your team showed ZERO respect on Asian culture. Shame on you.pic.twitter.com/PKDR6Idt2D— Sylvis (@Sylvis) 1643914087
PSA FOR @UofT\n\nYou know how "go to hell" is a bad thing?\n\nThat's literally what you told your Chinese students by giving them literal hell money\n\nDO BETTER WHITE PEOPLEhttps://twitter.com/ZeyiYang/status/1489615881541984258\u00a0\u2026— Ji\ufffdh\ufffdo Che\ufffd \ufffd\ufffd\ufffd \ud83e\udde7\ud83c\udfee\ud83e\udde8\ud83c\udf0a\ud83d\udc05 (@Ji\ufffdh\ufffdo Che\ufffd \ufffd\ufffd\ufffd \ud83e\udde7\ud83c\udfee\ud83e\udde8\ud83c\udf0a\ud83d\udc05) 1643987781
This is seriously offensive, especially during a time when many in our Asian community are celebrating the most important festival of our religion/tradition. Shame on @UofT.https://twitter.com/ZeyiYang/status/1489615881541984258\u00a0\u2026— Yuzhou Bai (@Yuzhou Bai) 1643989918
how can you feign ignorance when it literally says hell on ithttps://twitter.com/zeyiyang/status/1489615881541984258\u00a0\u2026— milf (@milf) 1644084941
this is incredibly embarrassing, and not just because I'm an alumhttps://twitter.com/ZeyiYang/status/1489615881541984258\u00a0\u2026— Karen K. Ho (@Karen K. Ho) 1643987213
If I receive this I will simply take it as an invitation to meet outside the lockershttps://twitter.com/ZeyiYang/status/1489615881541984258\u00a0\u2026— Rui Zhong \u949f\u745e (@Rui Zhong \u949f\u745e) 1643989519
Apparently "deeply committed to the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion" means no Chinese representation in @UofT's organization.\n\nU of T apologizes after giving \u2018hell money\u2019 to students for Lunar New Year https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2022/02/04/u-of-t-apologizes-after-giving-hell-money-to-students-for-lunar-new-year.html\u00a0\u2026 cc @dianawangmartin— \ud83d\udc89\ud83d\udc89\ud83d\udc89Albert Fong \ud83e\udd1c\ud83e\udd1b\ud83c\udfff (@\ud83d\udc89\ud83d\udc89\ud83d\udc89Albert Fong \ud83e\udd1c\ud83e\udd1b\ud83c\udfff) 1644075377
Serious? This occurred in the flagship university at the world's 3rd largest Chinese colony (after Singapore and Vancouver)\n\nNo one bother to cross check it with the Asian population?https://twitter.com/ianjamesyoung70/status/1489685103538176002\u00a0\u2026— yiktin (@yiktin) 1644061924
Students are understandably outraged over the error, and have drafted a letter that demands the school take responsibility for their actions.
The letter, which has already been signed by 32 students, states:
"The act of giving (hell money) to living people draws disdainful sentiments and sends them the message of 'you are dead to me' or even worse, 'I wish you were dead.' It is not only insulting, but heavily unacceptable."
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