和老外聊聊中国文化： The Secret of Numbers 数字的秘密
B: because, in Chinese, the number one represents “the fist” or “the mostoriginal”. It’s differentiator. The 001 in the licence plate, is an expression
of the car owner’s aspirations.
A: at an auction in shanghai last year, one particular licence plate, with
a combination of four 8’s, was sold for, well over, 100,000 yuan. That made me
think, whether there is any special meaning behind the numbers and, how people
are influnenced by them.
B: in Cantonese, the number”8” has a similar pronunciation to, the word
“prosper”. Guangdong is one of the first provinces to benefit from china’s open
policy. There is a lot of temptation to become wealthy so, “8” is a luck number
for people in Guangdong. Similarly, “6”is often associated with smoothness. Many
people like to choose a date for their weddings which include the number “6”.
Lots of people got married on june 6, 2006. in contrast, “4”is the least
favorable number because, it sounds very similar to the word, “death”. Many
buildings do not, even, use the number for their elevator programming. Now, as a
result of western influence, more and more Chinese people started to dislike the
number “13”.
A: does the number, “3” have a special meaning too?
B: number “3” is, always, associated with abundance or, the ultimate limit.
There are a lot of proverbs with the number “3” “shi bu guo san” is one which,
literally, means, “you are only allowed three chances”. Another proverb is “ san
si er xing”. Meaning, “think three times before you act”.
A: does this have any effect on people’s lives?
B: it depends. Sometime ago, a man received a blackmail message on his cell
phone. It told him to deposit 3,000 yuan in a designated bank account by a
certain time or, his family would face danger. Similar blackmail threats have
happened to a number of other people. The police found that there was, at last,
an “8”in the cell phone numbers of the victims. The robbers thought that only
wealthy people could afford to choose the number“8”. So , instead of bringing
the cictims prosperity and wealth, the number nearly got them in trouble.
A: that reminds me of a saying: "things will have an adverse effect if
pushed to the limit.”
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