Lucky Sixes: The Chinese-Western Superstition Divide
Or: A collection of numbers that Americans pretend don’t frighten them
When talking about differences between cultures, sometimes one encounters something so blunt and obvious that it seems like it would be insulting to discuss it, yet it must be brought up so that it doesn’t catch anyone off guard.
Question for the audience: Let’s say that a client scheduled a meeting in the room pictured in the above image. How many of you would think twice before opening that door? Be honest, no one’s going to judge you (openly, at least).
What you’re looking at is the door to a perfectly normal private room, a common sight in Chinese restaurants. Actually, it’s probably not normal — like as not, this is a very large, very nice and almost certainly very expensive room. If it weren’t so fancy and pricey, it wouldn’t have such a lucky number on it.
And that is a lucky number, by the way. You see it all over the place, especially around this time of year.
There are a lot of number-related superstitions in China and in East Asia more generally. Perhaps you’re familiar with some of them. You might know that the number four is unlucky, as in China (and many related languages), it is pronounced the same as the word for death. One avoids using the number four whenever possible.
But each number has its own meaning, and some of those are lucky numbers. You’ll generally hear about three lucky numbers: Six, eight and nine. Eight seems to be a pretty common one. Pay attention, and you’ll see that businesses tend to have a lot of eights in their phone numbers. Why, back in the day when you bought a SIM card separately from your phone, you would actually pay a premium for a number with a lot of eights in it. That’s because eight is associated with wealth.
The number six is more generally associated with good luck. If one is undertaking some endeavor, one wants to see the number six show up a lot. In that regard, it fills a role similar to that of the number seven in many Western countries. Sevens are always welcome, especially to gamblers. Of course, if one lucky number is good, then several lucky numbers in a row is even better. What does every slots player want to see? Three sevens — jackpot.
China is no different. It’s very common to see numbers come in triples as a sign of exceptional fortune. Indeed, the aforementioned restaurant has several big, expensive rooms with tripled numbers. There is a triple eight room, of course, and a triple nine room — nine being associated with longevity, a traditional Chinese blessing. There’s even a triple seven room, a sign of encroaching Western influence.
So of course there’s a triple six room — why wouldn’t there be?
Returning to that earlier question: How do you react upon encountering this door?
Do you hesitate? You can be honest here.
Most Americans don’t think of themselves as superstitious, a belief we maintain even as premodern beliefs start to creep back into the common culture. But some of those beliefs didn’t need to return because they were always with us. I’ve personally known people who cancel plans if they happen to fall on Friday 13th — just to make everyone comfortable, you understand. And I’ve heard tales from the retail sector of people hastily purchasing something small if the cash register rings up to $6.66.
Chinese people don’t tend to view Americans as superstitious, either. Maybe that’s why, when one posts some good news in WeChat, the locals don’t hesitate to fill the chat with “666.”
It takes some getting used to.
I hope today’s article didn’t make anyone too uncomfortable — after all, we’re all reasonable, rational human beings here. If you are interested in learning more about the small-yet-important distinctions between Western and Chinese culture, take a look at my full series here.
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