Unlucky fours

A couple weeks after moving into my new building I was standing in the elevator and I noticed that some floors in our building were missing, namely all floors with the number “4” eg, 4, 14, 24, 34, etc. After that I noticed that the absence of the number 4 was much more widespread than only missing floors on buildings. It seemed like the locals did everything they can to avoid this seemingly unlucky number.

Absence of number "4" in our elevator



It turns out that in Chinese culture there is a strong belief that certain numbers are unlucky while others are considered lucky based on the Chinese word that the number name sounds similar to. The number 4 (肆 sì) is the most unlucky number as it is pronounced almost similar to the word ‘death’ (死 sǐ). The number 8 (八 bā) on the other hand is considered to be one of the luckiest numbers as the word sounds similar to the word “prosper” or “wealth” (发财 fā).

As a result of this supposed luckiness or unluckiness of certain numbers, Chinese people will often choose lucky numbers (and avoid the unlucky ones) for their phone numbers, street addresses, bank account numbers etc. Some people go as far as to pay large sums of money for these numbers, for example a telephone number with all digits being eights was sold for USD$270,723 in China (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_in_Chinese_culture#Eight). And another interesting fact: the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Beijing began on 8/8/08 at 8 seconds and 8 minutes past 8pm.



Chinese symbol for "4"


As for the number four, not only do most high-rise buildings in Hong Kong miss floor numbers with “4”,  but apparently also some product lines skip the “4” series. For example it is said that Nokia doesn’t have any product series with the number 4 in respect for their Asian clients. Special care is also taken to avoid occurrences or reminders of the number 4 during festive holidays or when a family member is sick in fear that the person will die. And I’ve heard you can even get a discount at the phone shop if you request a phone number with one or more “4”s. This fear and aversion of the number four is such a common thing in Asia that there is a special word for it: “tetraphobia”.

But there is good news for the Chinese, in 2003, researchers from Chinese University of Hong Kong reported that people are no more likely to die from a heart attack on dates containing the number four than any other dates (http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/default.htm).  At least that’s one less thing to worry about.

See you next time.

Annelotte