"That's a lot for a small business like us, as the price for one pack (three red envelopes) is 10 yuan," said Lan.
"Red packets with surnames are the most popular ones in Guangzhou and Hong Kong, but Shanghai residents never saw them before," she said.
Tang Zhequn, 21, described the surname red packets as "out of the ordinary" and said he will use them to wrap New Year gift money for his nephew.
Joy's Card said it will soon provide English surnames translated into Chinese on its website to meet the demand of foreigners who are interested in Chinese culture.
Some fashion companies, meanwhile, wouldn't miss the opportunity to show off their understanding about Chinese tradition.
To start with, Zugzug, a Chinese fashion brand in Shanghai, came up with idea of a white-snake red envelope series.
"The white-snake-themed red paper bag has been the best-seller these days at our store," said Meng Jia, a Zugzug marketing director.
This is the first time the decade-old brand has provided a red paper bag featuring its latest collection theme. The bags, with gold-gilded auspicious words from the Chinese tale The Legend of White Snake on the front, sell for 25 yuan a pack.
"The coming year is the Year of the Snake, so we thought about the white snake legend," Meng said.
"But we didn't expect it to be so well-received. I guess some people are bored with giving money the regular way."
The bags are given as gifts for VIP members of the store and are also for sale.
Xu Junqian and Jiang Tiantian contributed to this story.
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