chicken blood, chinese culture, chinese names, chinese taboo, king of hell, red ink, yan wang ye

Red Ink Taboo: Never Write Chinese Peoples’ Names Using Red Ink

In China, there is a big red ink taboo when it comes to writing other people’s names using red ink (pen). Let’s explore the reasons behind this. In ancient times, a death row criminal’s name was written in chicken blood, and later this evolved to being written in red ink. Thus, in all official records, the names of death sentence ...

Max Lu

In China, it is a big taboo to write other people’s names using red ink (pen).