That’s Numberwang! 神奇数字

So we were recently informed that China experienced a wedding boom on the 4th of January, with up to 10,000 couples pledging their troth in Beijing alone. All because of that particular date’s homophony to the phrase ‘I will love you all my life’. Personally I think 二零一三一四 (er ling yi san yi si 2013/1/4) similarity to  爱你一生一世 (ai ni yi sheng yi shi I will love you all my life) is pretty tenuous, but I guess it must be a native speaker thing.

The Chinese, while being highly rational, strongly value the significance of certain numbers over others. Trying to grasp them all might seem a little bit like Numberwang at first, but with a little understanding of the background, all will become clear. The idea behind getting married on 04/01/2013, and 12/12/12, is the hope that the auspicious symbolism of the date will bless their marriage. Many of the older generation will encourage their children to visit fortune-tellers, who, upon analyzing the exact time and date of a couples’ birth, can forecast their compatibility and future together. Such is the power of numbers.   

Of course, the nature of the Chinese language has lead to many numbers picking up double meanings from words sharing the same pronunciation. The most common example is ‘8’(bā), whose propitious homophone means ‘wealth’ in Cantonese. On the other end of the scale sits poor number ‘4’ (sì) associated with death (死 sĭ). 

Other lucky numbers include ‘6’ (六), because of the phrase 六六大顺 (liu liu da shun), which is an expression used to wish the smooth process of something, to be without hindrance. Therefore it’s not unusual to see car number plates bearing double, or even triple sixes, much to my original dismay at seeing the Number of the Beast. By the same token, if double 6 is a lucky number, simple maths entails that 12 must be as well! Consequently 12/12/12 saw a record number of Chinese weddings, before 04/01/13. In addition (terrible maths pun, please forgive me), there is the fortuitous number 9 (九 jiu). As well as being the largest single digit number, 9 also sounds like 久 (jiu), meaning a long time. With Chinese culture known for venerating the elderly, wishes for a long and healthy life are always welcome. I was told by a teacher that the steps leading up to important buildings are normally grouped in nines. Maybe if we had more lucky numbers more people would be interested in mathematics.   

Numbers have also entered Chinese online slang; 520 (五二零 wu er ling) is shorthand for ‘I love you’ (我爱你 wo ai ni), and 94 (九四 jiu si) has come to be a simple phrase signaling agreement, due to its likeness to ‘that’s right’ (就是 jiu shi). Accompanying the growth of English education, numbers such as 88 and 3Q have picked up meaning. 88 (bā bā) sounds like ‘byebye’, and 3Q (san q), I’m sure you can guess by now, stands for ‘thank you’. 

Also, the Chinese are able to count to 10 using gestures on just one hand, and everyone uses it, which comes in useful when I can't understand particularly strong accents. 

That’s enough number crunching from me, 'til next time!