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!
Seven - Qi
ReplyDeleteThis 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!