June 8, 2005
In China, numbers count
In China, numbers count.
Yesterday Engadget reported on a torture rack-like stretching machine to grow a few inches in what appears to be a national height craze, because "taller people have more opportunity for promotion."
This morning Ananova writes that a Chinese taxi company has banned cabs with 'unlucky' number plates from taking students to take part in key exams. "The taxi company agreed not to use the unlucky taxis following complaints from students' parents, reports China Daily."
And related to this column, Lucky cell phone numbers are huge in China as well as bidding online for them. In April 2003, the Shanghai Daily wrote about a bidder who offered to pay 9 million yuan ($ 1.1 million) for a "lucky" mobile phone number. The number, 135 8585 8585, when prounounced in Chinese sounds like "let me be rich be rich be rich be rich".
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2005/06/008611.htm
| Tweet |
