ABSTRACT
Our last unit, twenty-eight, falls appropriately enough on a lucky number: two (yih) sounds like ‘easy’ and eight (baat) rhymes with faat meaning ‘make money, prosper’ as in the Chinese New Year greeting GiinghCi faat chhih, literally ‘congratulations (and may you) prosper’. By contrast, four (sei) is an unlucky number as it rhymes with &i ‘die’ and is consequently subject to taboo: the Alfa Romeo 164 (ytit luhk sei) was perceived to be uncomfortably close to yPt louh s6i (‘one - road - die’) so that it was renumbered for the Hong Kong market as the 168 (yit luhk baat/yiit louh faat ‘one - road - prosper’).
