Ke Peng| Student’s Presentations for
Languages & Cultures of East Asia
Hyunwoo Jung
University of Arizona

The Number That People Like
The Number That People Dislike
Why?

八
8(八, bā)
九
9(九, ji )
六
6(六, liù | lù)

8(八, bā)’s pronunciation is similar to
發(fā).
發財(fā cái) has the meaning “to earn
money”.
9(九, ji )’s pronunciation is similar to
久(ji ).
九 has the meaning “perfect”.
久(ji ) has the meaning “lasts long”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNbpvdO
KuiM
This video shows how much significance
Chinese impose on lucky number 8

6(六, liù | lù)’s pronunciation is
similar to 流 (liú).
流 (liú) has the meaning “It’s going well
”.
Especially 66 has the meaning “It’s
going very well”.

It’s because the numbers (8, 9, 6)
have the similar pronunciation of
the letter which have a good
meaning.

四
4(四, sì)
三
3(三, sān)
七
7(七, qī)

4(四, sì)’s pronunciation is similar to
死(s ).
死(s ) has the meaning “death”.
3(三 , sān)’s pronunciation is similar
三
to 散(s n).
散(s n) has the meaning “to spread out
”

7(七, qī)’s pronunciation is similar to
氣(qì)
生氣(shēng qì) has the meaning “be upse
生氣
t”

It’s because the numbers (4, 3, 7)
have the similar pronunciation of
the letter which have a bad meaning.

3(삼, sam)
7(칠, chil)

In ancient Korea, ‘3’ symbolized
“person”
1 => sky
2 => earth
1+2 = 3 => “sky + earth” = “person”
7 has the meaning “lucky”
Lucky seven

Unlike China, it is not always related
to the pronunciation.
Because of the symbolization that
the numbers have

4(사, sa)

It is because of the same reason as
Chinese.
4(사, sa) has the similar
pronunciation as 死(사, sa)
( ,

Korean focuses less on the numbers
than Chinese.
How about Japanese?
Japanese rarely care about the
numbers.
How about US?

Chinese sell the vehicle plate number
and the phone number which include a
lot of 8, 6.
In Taobao.com 1391-880-8888 was sold at
$3300
In EachNet.com 135-8585-8585 was sold
at $1.2 million
The numbers that have 4 might be sold
for free.

Previously, in China, people get the car
number randomly.
Nowadays, the numbers that have 4 are
not issued because those who got the
number protested.

In China, some hotels use “G” instead of
“14” for displaying the floor.
14(一四) has the similar pronunciation
with 要死 that has the meaning “to want
to die”
In Korea, they also sometimes replace 4
to some shapes like star.

In Korea, they have preference for some
numbers but they do not sell number like
China.
Korean care less about numbers than Chinese.