So they decided to host a reunion dinner for their employees (plus some friends) and a few key suppliers to celebrate the season and bring everybody together. We needed a vehicle for the invitation.

At this time the Chinese tradition is for employers to give their employees red packets filled with money as a symbol of good fortune for the coming year. It's called Ang Bao. But the tradition has become transactional and has spawned something known as "expected receiving".

So we decided to use the Ang Bao as our invitation to the event and also to try to change the usual behaviour of receiving in to a culture of sharing.

The Ang Bao design is the main vehicle introducing the initiative. From the outside, the Ang Bao fulfills traditional design expectations: predominantly red, decorated with an auspicious word (Joy in mandarin and Enjoy in English). However the Ang Bao unfolds and reveal a twist to these expected elements: enjoy becomes "or share joy", and the Chinese word joy '"Le" becomes "Le Shan Hao Shi" - a phrase that means philanthropy or generosity.

All the illustrations are hand-cut in the style of Chinese paper cutting, also a Common fixture during CNY and depicting food arranged in a big circle, reminiscent of the round dining table typically used during reunion dinners. These paper cuttings are also used to decorate walls at the dinner venue.

A total of $5881 was raised from the initiative. Hesed & Emet, 150 migrant workers community and partner businesses gathered for the dinner as one big, growing family.

The response was overwhelmingly positive. “Of course I miss home, but being at the company, with so many people, it makes me very happy.”

This initiative attracted the attention of the media. The event was captured on four key local news sources and five social sites, with a total circulation of 942,479.