Timepieces may be a good idea for a gift in most parts, but not in Chinese custom. 
 
 Netizens are outraged that Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen received a clock on Sunday during her stopover in Houston. She was presented with a clock emblazoned with the Texas state seal, by Texas governor Greg Abbott. 
 
 To the Chinese, giving a clock to someone is considered a huge no-no, as the words for "give a clock" (送鐘) sound like the ones for "attending someone's funeral." (送终) 
 
 Timepieces are also considered symbols of time running out for the other party, and a suggestion of an end of a relationship. 
 
 Some Taiwanese and Asian-Americans are reacting in annoyance: 
 
 Fuji Chang says: "Giving her a clock? This is so humiliating — I don't like Tsai Ing-wen, but I don't like other countries screwing her like this! Terrible Americans." 
 
 Pema Hsu says: "Heavens, it's so inauspicious that the Texas governor gave Tsai a clock." 
 
 But plenty more people have shrugged it off, saying it's a dated superstition: 
 
 Soo Juhong says: "We're living in modern times — being superstitious over a clock is lame." 
 
 Sun Chyi-an said sarcastically: "Tsai goes to America, meets the Texas governor who gives her a clock — this is really sending her administration to its end! Even the Americans want to sound a death knell to the Tsai administration. Hopefully they don't drag the whole of Taiwan down with it." 
 
 The cultural gaffe echoes the one committed by Susan Kramer in Taipei, who was then the British Minister of State for Transport. Last year, Kramer gave Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je a timepiece, which he responded to by calling it a "piece of junk." Ko later apologised for his reaction, saying it was a joke in bad taste. ||||| Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen received a clock from her host during her overnight stay in Houston – a gift she might not want. 
 
 In concluding their meeting by exchanging gifts on Sunday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott handed Tsai a clock bearing the Texas state seal in return for a vase given to him by the island's president, according to Abbott’s office. 
 
 Giving a clock as a gift is an absolute no-no in places where the Chinese language is spoken, especially in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland. That’s because in both Mandarin and Cantonese, the phrase for “giving a clock” sounds the same as the phrase used for bidding farewell to the deceased. 
 
 Taiwan says Beijing pressure not delaying Tsai Ing-wen’s Latin America trip plans 
 
 Clocks also symbolise that time is running out so when a timepiece is given as a gift, the suggestion to the recipient is the end of a relationship and life is soon. 
 
 Two years ago, a similar gift caused embarrassment when visiting British transport minister Susan Kramer gave a pocket timepiece to her host, Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je. 
 
 Ko later told reporters he would sell it as scrap, a remark for which the politician – who has been called a “loose cannon” in Taiwan – later apologised. 
 
 Taipei mayor gets a ticking off after calling watch gift from British MP ‘a piece of junk’ 
 
 Tsai’s US stopovers – including Houston where she stayed overnight from Saturday, and San Francisco where she will stop on Friday at the end of her Central American visits to four allies – have irked Beijing, which sees Taiwan as a breakaway province and has warned Washington against admitting her. 
 
 Tsai later left Houston for Honduras – the first leg of the visits that will take her to Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador. 
 
 This time she received an auspicious sign – pouring rain upon her arrival at the airport in Tegucigalpa. 
 
 Tsai said Honduran Vice-President Ricardo Alvarez Arias informed her that water meant wealth or good fortune. ||||| Taipei (Taiwan News) — Texas governor Greg Abbot met with Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen on Sunday in Houston, where they discussed trade ties and exchanged gifts, though the governor's choice of a clock was untimely. 
 
 Abbott says in a statement that they discussed energy, trade relations and commercial ties between Taiwan and Texas. In terms of trade relations, the governor said that the two focused on the exchange of natural gas and agricultural products, of which Taiwan is major consumer. 
 
 Tsai presented Abbot with a vase, while the governor inadvertently committed a cultural faux pas by gifting Taiwan's president a clock bearing the Texas State Seal. In Chinese culture the phrase "giving a clock" ( 送鐘) is a homophone with "attending a funeral," and therefore symbolizes an untimely demise for the recipient. 
 
 Fortunately, Tsai did not seem to be phased by the culturally inappropriate gift as it was surely well intentioned. The governor described the meeting in a cordial manner saying, "It was an honor to meet with President Tsai and discuss how our two economies can expand upon our already prosperous trade partnership." 
 
 Today I met with the President of Taiwan to discuss expanding trade and economic opportunities. #txlege pic.twitter.com/5KF04VlFRA — Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) 2017年1月8日 
 
 For Tsai's part, she elaborated on the longstanding trade relationship between Texas and Taiwan and the benefits the state has enjoyed as a result: "In 2015, Taiwan was Texas' 5th largest export market in Asia. Texas has attracted more than US$ billion in investment from Taiwan companies, such as Formosa Plastics, Foxconn, Inventec, and Eva Air. 
 
 She then listed the strengths Texas posses which mesh with her ambitions for Taiwan: "The edge which Texas holds in energy, biotechnology, smart machinery, and defense industries overlaps with the 5 major innovative industries which my administration has been promoting in Taiwan." 
 
 Tsai also had a meeting that day with Texas Senator Ted Cruz during which they had a "wide-ranging discussion that addressed arms sales, diplomatic exchanges, and economic relations," according to Cruz. 
 
 Upon her arrival to Houston, Tsai had been greeted at the airport by Texas Rep. Blake Farenthold, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman James Moriarty and Taiwan's Representative to the United States Stanley Kao. Farenthold later accompanied Tsai on tours of Taiwanese-invested Fomosa Plastics Group factories at Point Comfort and Wharton, Texas. ||||| Update, 7:25 p.m.: A representative for Gov. Greg Abbott’s office has heard from the divisional director for Taiwan’s economic and cultural office in Houston, who says that no offense was taken by the gift, according to the governor’s office. They also indicated that the gift could communicate well wishes. 
 
 Earlier: If you thought the season for awkward gift exchanges had passed, perhaps reconsider. 
 
 On Sunday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott met with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen in Houston. According to a news release from the governor’s office, the Taiwanese president gave Abbott a vase. Abbott presented Tsai with a clock bearing the Texas State Seal. That might not have been a masterstroke of diplomacy, a report from Taiwan News indicates: 
 
 “In Chinese culture the phrase ‘giving a clock’ ( 送鐘) is a homophone with ‘attending a funeral,’ and therefore symbolizes an untimely demise for the recipient.” 
 
 Tsai did not appear fazed by the gift, according to Taiwan News. 
 
 Abbott is not the first dignitary to commit this particular cultural faux pas. A British transport minister gave a watch to Taipei’s mayor in 2015, according to multiple reports. Clocks and watches are listed as “death auguries” to avoid in at least one travel manual about Taiwan. 
 
 U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz also met with the Taiwanese president Sunday. In the news release, Abbott’s office said the representatives talked about energy, trade relations and commercial ties between Taiwan and Texas. On Monday, Chinese officials signaled their opposition to contact between U.S. and Taiwanese officials, according to ABC News. 
 
 Correction: An earlier version of this story said that Cruz joined Abbott for his meeting.
– Texas Gov. Greg Abbott managed to not only slight China by meeting Taiwan's president on Sunday, he managed to step in it with Taiwan's president, too, reports Mashable. During the meeting, Tsai Ing-wen gave Abbott a vase, and Abbott in turn presented her with a clock decorated with the Texas state seal. The rub is that to the Chinese and Taiwanese, the gift of a clock is considered almost a curse, representing the end of a relationship or of life, reports the South China Morning Post. In both Mandarin and Cantonese, the phrase "giving a clock" sounds like the phrase "attending a funeral," and "therefore symbolizes an untimely demise for the recipient," reports Taiwan News. Some Facebook users in Taiwan claimed the gift was "humiliating" and that Americans were "terrible" for not knowing better. But a rep for Taiwan's economic and cultural office in Houston confirmed the president was not offended, reports the Austin American-Statesman. "It was an honor to meet with President Tsai and discuss how our two economies can expand upon our already prosperous trade partnership," Abbott said. He isn't the only one to have made such a mistake. Last year, Britain's minister of state for transport gave Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je a watch. Ko called the timepiece a "piece of junk" and said he would sell it for scrap, but he later claimed he was only joking.