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A lot of Chinese superstitions are based around puns. Like how it’s a bad idea to give a clock as a gift, because “sending a clock” sounds like “sending someone
by yen223 7y ago
A lot of Chinese superstitions are based around puns. Like how it’s a bad idea to give a clock as a gift, because “sending a clock” sounds like “sending someone off to their funeral” in mandarin.
- mikeash 7y ago4 is a bad number because it sounds like “death.” Tall buildings tend to omit floors 4, 14, etc., the way tall buildings in the US often omit floor 13. Amusingly, Chinese building often omit 13 as well. So you might be on floor 15 and only really be on floor 12 because 4, 13, and 14 are all left out. Less dire numeric associations are 55 for crying (pronounced “wuwu”) and 88 for bye-bye (“baba”).