Figures in the culture of China

Anyone who is closer acquainted with the culture of China or begins to communicate with the Chinese, notes how much all spheres of Chinese life are imbued with digital symbolism. Whether it is the principles of philosophy, medicine, music or architecture, the dreams of a simple Chinese to get a phone number with eight, a taboo against the number 4 or an unhealthy desire to choose a good combination of numbers in the contract.

"Numerical Superstitions"

If we have such superstitions, it is rather a reason for jokes, then in China, people are taken seriously and thoughtfully about numerology.

The “luckiness” of the number in the Chinese people's consciousness is determined by its consonance with any word. For example, the number 4 sounds similar to the word “die” (without taking into account the tone), which gave rise in the Far East countries superstition similar to our fear of the number 13. Thus, in many hotels and hospitals you will not find numbers with the number 4, and sometimes even 4 floor
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The figure of 8, the symbol of wealth and prosperity, holds the palm among the “lucky” numbers in China. The fact is that the pronunciation of the number 8 is similar to the pronunciation of a word. which together with the word "wealth" means to get rich. This superstition is so popular that it is not even neglected at the official level. Suffice it to recall that the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was scheduled for 08.08.08, 8 pm 8 minutes and 8 seconds .

Another "favorable" number is 6. In Cantonese dialect, 6 sounds like what it means "salary, good wishes for career growth." 9 is the homonym of the word “Long, eternal”, and therefore is considered a good symbol, which can be successfully beaten at a wedding and in business negotiations. True, with the numbers 7 and 9, you need to be especially careful, otherwise an unpleasant story may come out. The fact is that in Hong Kong they sound like a rude curse :)

By the way, in different Chinese dialects the numbers are pronounced differently. Therefore, digital symbolism, like superstition, may differ from one region of China to another.

How the Chinese are "encrypted"

The logo of a bar in the city of Wuhan, built on a game of words and numbers. Word "Bar" and the word 98 ( ) are pronounced the same way - like jiǔbā

Truly, the imagination of the Chinese in dealing with numbers knows no bounds! The game of homophones has become how popular among young people that spawned an incredible number of digital cuts, built by analogy with the English B2B and 4U. But the Chinese have gone further: they manage to encode whole sentences with numbers!

How? But how. The sound of some Chinese words really coincides with the pronunciation of numbers. But for a language game, partial homonymy is sufficient - only a few initial sounds of the encrypted word match the sound of the number replacing it. At first glance it seems that these rules are too blurred and as a result no one will guess what is being said. But in reality, the meaning of the whole expression can be understood by context.

Some particularly popular abbreviations are already entrenched in the language, or at least in youth and Internet slang. Here are the most popular matches between number and word:

0 ( líng) - common abbreviation for nín (respectful "you"). Although it can only sound so with nasal or runny nose :)

1 (- yī) - is used in the direct sense as “one” or “everything, entirely” But in addition, when reading numbers, the unit reads as yāo, which sounds like a word “Must, must, want” (yào).

2 ( èr) - in the Cantonese dialect it sounds like a word - "easy".

3 ( sān) - sound like a word in Cantonese - “to be born, to appear,” is also used as an abbreviation for any word in s.

four ( sì) - homophone of the word "die."

five ( wǔ) - homophone of the word "I" (wú), "not to have" (wú) and the words "no" in the prohibitions (wù)

6 ( liù) - sounds like a word - “flow”, as well as in certain dialects, is the homophone of the word "fall", "Road" or "Salary". Abbreviation of any word beginning with the sound l.

7 ( qī) - replaces words starting with q. For example, "rise" (qǐ) or “anger” (qì).

eight ( bā) - the homophone of the word “get rich”, as well as abbreviations of any word beginning with the sound b, for example, negation .

9 ( jiǔ) - is similar in sound to the word "long" . Can be used as an abbreviation of any word by j.

Now, armed with this knowledge, you can try to decipher the following popular numeric acronyms yourself:

a) goodwill 168
b) curse 5104
c) a skirmish of two lovers by SMS: 07456 and the answer is 8137

Ekaterina Manicheva
Technology Development Department

Based on the blog of the team ABBYY Lingvo