Culture and beliefs
- Number 4 sì (四, sì) is the unluckiest Chinese number because it sounds like the word for ‘death’ (死, sǐ).
- Many buildings in China don’t have the 4th floor; some skip any floors with the number, such as 14, 24, 34 and all 40th floors.
- Number 8 bā (八, bā) is the luckiest Chinese number because it sounds like the word for ‘wealth’ (发, fā). 88 is considered particularly lucky because it symbolized the ‘double happiness’ characters. Anyone else excited to live to be 88?
- The phoenix is the most important bird in Chinese legend and represents the feminine power of the empress. The graceful crane is the second most important bird in Chinese legend, which is a symbol of long life. Ducks are also important symbols and represent happiness and marital faithfulness. One of these things is not like the others!
- Every culture has superstitions around gift-giving, and China is no exception. One such superstition is tied an umbrella (伞 sǎn). Don’t give someone an umbrella, as the Mandarin and Cantonese words for these objects sound like the word 散 (sàn) which means to part ways.
- Another taboo is to give someone a clock or watch (送钟, sōng zhōng), since the phrase has the same pronunciation in both Mandarin and Cantonese as 送终 (sōng zhōng)–to care for a dying elderly person or attend a funeral! Giving someone a clock implies that you are waiting for them to die, which is probably not the message you want to send.
- Feng Shui, literally translated as ‘wind 风 fēng and water 水 shuǐ’, is a Chinese tradition going back thousands of years. It is closely associated with the Daoist tradition as it is concerned with living in harmony with nature. The principle is: position everything for maximum harmony.
- According to Feng Shui a house should be oriented to catch the sun and avoid cold winds. An ideal house is placed in the landscape and will be facing south, in front of a bend in a river with a hill behind it. The Forbidden City is the supreme example of this. The location chosen lacked a ‘hill’ to the north, so this was built artificially and stands as Jingshan ‘Coal’ hill to this day. The ‘Golden River Stream’ was channeled to run in a loop south of the main complex of buildings.
- Feng Shui consultants are still used in China and around the world to advise on correct positioning and alignment of new buildings as well as layout of houses and gardens. Traditionally it has its highest importance for determining the most auspicious site for burials; this was because the spirits of the dead are considered particularly sensitive to placement.