The English language uses a play of words, the Chinese use a play of sounds. We take the sound of words very seriously as it could mean life or death, prosperity or bad luck.
We go to the extend of choosing our house, hand phone and car numbers based on sounds. Chinese love the number 8 the most, as "patt" (8 ) sounds like "fatt" which means prosperous. Three and nine are also favourites as "san" (3) sounds like "sang" which means birth; "gao" (9) sounds like "kho" which means high.
Car number plates with 3, 8, 9 or any of these combinations (88, 899, 388) are highly sort after and Chinese businessmen are willing to part with thousands or tens of thousands of dollars to book these unique number plates. Even big money will sometimes not buy these number plates as there is only one such combination. Take 168 which translates to "all the way (road) to prosperity," as "lok" (6) and "lo" (road) sound similar.
A much sort after number plate is 138 which means "born to prosperity"
Sad to say with limited money, my car number plate is "none of the above" but it DOES NOT have the number 4 which is a taboo. "Sei" (4) has exactly the same sound as "death." Cars with 4 in their number plates have lower resale value when sold as second hand cars. Chinese would not buy cars with this number.
Original article by http://jomcolourme.blogspot.com/
