I don't ride in lifts (elevators, if you prefer) very often, in China or anywhere else. But there's one office building I've been visiting regularly of late where the lift always bamboozles me a bit. As I'm looking up the columns of buttons to find my floor - just at the point where my floor is - the odd and even buttons suddenly swap sides. I've been heading up to the 26th floor in this place fairly regularly for a year or so now, but it still trips me up every time. And I suppose I must have had similar moments in other Chinese lifts over the years. The problem, you see, is Chinese numerology. 4 is held to be a very unlucky number, because 四 (si meaning 4) is a homonym for 死 (si meaning 'death'). Well, a near homonym, anyway; I believe the tones are different (but don't get me started on the tones in Chinese!!). And 24 is especially unlucky, because the 2 is supposed to represent 'quick' or 'easy' (and I really have no idea how that works, since the character for this, 易, is in fact yi, a [near] homonym for 1, not 2! Help, anyone?). Conversely 28 is one of the luckiest of numbers, since 八 (ba meaning 8) is associated with good fortune (although I don't know that there's any pun or homonym going on with that; why is 8 lucky? Help anyone?). So, Chinese buildings commonly omit a 24th floor, because the Chinese - still an extremely superstitious bunch - wouldn't want to rent any space on it. (Should we try pointing out to them that the floor labelled 25 is in fact the 24th floor??) I know this perfectly well, but it still befuddles me on occasion, whenever I'm travelling up to the 20-somethingth floor. Do buildings in America and/or Europe omit a 13th floor? I've never really looked out for this. I travel in lifts even more seldom in those countries. |
Friday, October 30, 2009
24 - a superstition
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5 comments:
八 is considered lucky because in some form of Chinese, at one point, it was either a homophone or a rough homophone for 发 (pronounced fā in Mandarin in the context 发财 fācái "get wealthy," 发展 fāzhǎn "develop, grow," etc.). This is still almost the case in Cantonese, where the number is pronounced "baat" and the verb is pronounced "faat," the initial consonant of the two words of course having the same place of articulation The same is true for 二 and 易, though in this case the homophony is preserved: both words are pronounced "yih" in Cantonese.
Of course, "14" in Western numerals should also be considered unlucky, since read aloud in Northern Mandarin it would be "yāo sì," which sounds almost like "yào sǐ” 要死, "will die."
I've seen some buildings in America that omitted the 13th floor in skipping from 12 to 14, but I never respected them much. Who do they think they're fooling?
Yes, 13th floor are often omitted in the West as are hotel rooms numbered 13 etc., etc. Alternatively the room, house, or whatever is often numbered 12A.
Thanks, Weebs. I knew I could rely on you.
I'd never noticed the superstitious avoidance of 13 in numbering in the West. I don't think it's ever omitted in street numbers, for example. But I will take your word for it, Mr Nag. I must keep a more watchful eye out for such cultural eccentricities the next time I'm in those parts.
By the way, I went to a book talk yesterday by an academic called Martin Jacques - When China Rules The World. The chap looked and sounded uncannily like John from The Colton. You don't think he's moonlighting as an international affairs guru, do you?
Wikipedia's got a whole bit on the 13th-floor taboo. As The Nag says, sometimes the solution is to number it 12a (or the 12th 12a, and the 13th 12b). Some places substitute the letter M.
And there's a photo there of a building with one floor labeled "-1" AND the 13th floor skipped altogether. Some very confused visitors there, I'd bet.
But what's really interesting about the "-1" elevator is that it's in Shanghai, and omits 4, 13, and 14 to boot. Whoa.
Well, the basement level is quite often labelled -1; but if they're calling the ground floor that, I wonder if it's a ploy to try to confuse the counting even more, to put people off working out which is really the unlucky 13th or 14th or whatever (regardless of what number they've assigned it to disguise the fact).
I wonder where in Shanghai that is. I'm overdue a visit to The Other Place. Maybe I'll go and check it out.
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