Rebecca's space

Recently NetBeans Japanese Community created their mascot NekoBean:

http://ja.netbeans.org/nekobean/

There are many talented community members who also made some fantastic animations like the below one. Its author is Mutsuki san, who I think has very strong graphic design skills. I admire her very much and hopefully she could create more fun NekoBean animations. ^^

An interesting question was raised to me lately by a work peer in Prague:
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Hi Rebecca,

I read in some book yesterday, that it is not possible give a watch in China as a present. But there was not written why. Could you please tell why it is a problem?
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Here is my answer:
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Actually in China giving a watch as a gift is fine. But giving a "CLOCK" is not good. Here "clock" means those sitting on the table or hanging on the wall.

You want to know why? "Giving a clock as a gift" in Chinese, we can say it "送钟" in a short way; "送" means giving or sending; "钟" means a clock. And the pronunciation of "送钟" is "Song Zhong", which is exactly same with a common phrase in China "送终". But this "终"(zhong) here means the end of one's life; and this phrase " 送终" means that a person is passing away; his/her relatives and friends is standing around him/her and say goodbye, then deal with the funeral etc. things after he/she passed away ... So if you gives a "CLOCK" to someone in China, it is not a polite way and it is like a metaphor "I am going to watch you dying".
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Sometimes it is hard to explain the culture things to foreigners. But I am glad to see people are interested in Chinese culture, so I would like to answer such kind of questions, although it is really hard for me to give the English explanation. :)