The numbers you should pay attention to use in China! --auspicious numbers!
Hey, do you remember our last article about unlucky Chinese numbers?
As we wrote on our last article numbers and their associations are very important in China. People avoid the unlucky numbers but what about the auspicious ones?
Auspicious numbers are those that have a similar sound to positive words or things we want to attain in life, like love, wealth, happiness, etc. By surrounding yourself in auspicious numbers (6, 8, and 9) you hope to create a positive energy to attract a better lifestyle.
The number 6 (Liù) sounds similar to ‘溜” (Liù), and means smooth. People tied to number 6 are thought to have an easier life as everything goes smoothly. There is a Chinese experssion "六六大顺" that means everything goes well.
Businesses can’t get enough of number 8 (bā) as it has a similar pronunciation to wealth and fortune, ‘发’ (fā) which when linked to
another character means to make a fortune. By surrounding yourself with number 8 you can bring in more money!
Number 9 (Jiǔ) is reserved especially for the emperor and for lovers. It’s association with eternity and everlasting ‘久’ (Jiǔ) means lovers pick marriage dates with the number 9 as a way to present eternal love (how cute!). Because of it’s association with the emperor, the forbidden city has 9,999 rooms, and the emperor would wear clothes with sets of nines, for example 9 dragons.
Besides, Chinese people prefer even numbers than odd numbers because even numbers indicate good things are in a pair while odd numbers mean loneliness.
Auspicious numbers are so important we have a top tip for when gifting Chinese friends.
Top tip: When giving gifts such as red envelopes during festivals they can be given in sets of lucky numbers and also even numbers, for example a red envelope with 200 RMB or 600 RMB. Never give a odd number.
What about our VIPKID teachers, which of the Chinese lucky numbers would you like in your life?