Thursday 6 March 2008

AUSPICIOUS NUMBERS


Today I will be blogging about what is considered to be an auspicious number since I feel cheated of the number 1010. What is it about certain combinations of numbers that make people willing to pay a lot of money for them?

The China Post (dated November 30, 2007) reported that in Taipei, Taiwan, ten auspicious mobile phone numbers fetched a total of US$325,000 at a charity auction in Taipei.
Each of the ten numbers put up for auction contained several 8s. As many would know, this number is a traditionally lucky number because its pronunciation in Chinese sounds like "fa," meaning "to become rich," "make money," or "make a fortune."

In Chengdu, China, the telephone number 8888-8888 was sold for USD$270,723 and another bidder in Guangzhou bought the license plate number AW6666 for US$34,000 in an auction.

Many Chinese believe lucky-sounding numbers can bring good fortune. Therefore, cellular phone numbers and car plates with 8s usually command high prices and those with 4s are shunned because "4" sounds like "death" in Mandarin, Hokkien and Cantonese.

Let me give some examples of lucky numbers below:
  • 32168 translates close to "sang yee yat low fatt', meaning 'a very profitable business all the way'....,

  • 118 which is pronounced “Yat yat fatt” in Cantonese and sounds like “Everyday prosper”,

  • 1128 means “Everyday easily prospers”,

  • 889 can mean "Prosper, prosper permanently",

  • 888 is “prosper, prosper, prosper!”,

  • 328 sound the same as “business will easily prosper”,

  • 5189 sounds like "I will prosper for a long time" (the five here is taken to mean I or我) in Mandarin) ,

  • 518 in Mandarin means "I will prosper",

  • 666 - In Chinese culture, 666 sounds a lot like the words 'Things going smoothly' but in Western culture it represents the demon,

  • 1314 - Forever and for eternity (一生一世),as the pronunciation of "1314" is close to "一生一世" (in Mandarin).

  • 5201314 - I Love You Forever and for eternity (in Mandarin).

You may ask why I want the number 1010, right? Well, it means Perfect or Fullness. Why shouldn't I want a number that represents something that I want to strive for?

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