QUESTION:
The Chinese, being among the earliest
mathematicians in the world, have
held a long fascination with things
numerical. Add to this the tonal
nature of the Chinese languages,
and you end up with numbers that
take on their own meanings and stories.
What
number is considered "lucky" to
the most Chinese?
ANSWERS:
Seven - Qi
This sounds like the words
for 'wife' or 'angry' and is therefore
probably not all that lucky for
most Chinese - especially the male
population!
Four - Si
This is a homonym for 'dead'.
Most Chinese will go to great lengths
to avoid the number four in their
phone number or car number plate.
Many tall buildings don't even have
a 4th or 14th floor!
Three
- San
'Class dismissed' or 'umbrella'.
Neither of these homonyms is really
terrible but not exactly lucky either.
Eight
- Ba
That's it! It's really from the
southern Chinese dialects (Cantonese
and Fujianese) and it's because
in Chinese the word for 8 "ba" is
a homonym for "prosperity". A Chinese
man in New York recently paid a
record amount for a phone number
with six 'eights'. And the Beijing
Olympics will be in 2008!
