Some Quirky Chinese Beliefs & Taboos...!

It is very interesting and a good learning experience to know about the weird thinking of different communities and nations, how they conduct themselves. No particular community or nation is immune to this. The western and so-called developed nations have similar notions. 

No wonder we observed similar things in China!

We stay with our daughter Neelima here in Beijing in a multi-storey tower on the 12th floor.  As we took the lift very often to go up and down, we noticed that the floors 4 and 13 are missing. We learnt that people avoid taking any apartment with an address bearing number 4. Towers and the hotels avoid having floors and rooms with such numbers since the clients won’t take them.  The number “4” is an unlucky number in Chinese. It is a homonym for “death” or “to die”. For the same reason, numbers like “14” and “44” are also inauspicious and avoided. Some hotels in China now don’t have a 44th floor because many Chinese guests wouldn’t like to stay there.

The number “8”, on the other hand is a very lucky number. It sounds like the word “getting rich” in Chinese, especially Cantonese. Therefore, the business houses love to have “8” in part of their address or phone number. They believe that the usage of number “8” will bring them good luck and prosperity. In  fact, people spend a lot of money to get phone numbers or license plates that incorporate the number ”8”. Similarly, a real estate property with an “8” in its address will be in greater demand, and a vehicle bearing “8” in the license plate will signify that the owner has spent a fortune to procure it. A very similar thinking is noticeable in India where you may spend a huge  amount of money to get your desired number which you may think is going to be lucky for you.

The number “6” is also considered a favorable number. It sounds like the word “happiness” in Chinese. Beware of the number “38”; it is especially problematic when associated with women. In Chinese parlance, it can mean bitchy, bimbo-like, or shameless depending upon the context. Ironically, March 8, or 3/8, is the International Day of Women. It is a day when all Chinese women take a half day off from work. Stores and restaurants have special concessions for women on that day.

Big ears with thick and large ear lobes are considered auspicious signs and people who have those are thought to be very lucky in life. No wonder some of the great men like Gandhiji  and Obama do have big and prominent ear lobes and stand as a testimony to the belief  prevalent here in China. It is not to say that the greatness was thrust upon them. They did great things for the society to ameliorate their sufferings and earn a name for themselves.

One month long, post-birth rituals, or zuoyuezi, are the most well observed and well respected rituals in tradition. It literally means “sitting for the month” in Chinese. During this month, a new mother is not allowed outside of her house so that she won’t catch cold from the blowing wind. No shower or head bath to avoid headaches and arthritis in later life. However sponge baths are allowed. She has to follow a diet regime of lot of chicken or fish soup without any salt added to promote the production of breast milk. No television or reading of books or magazines allowed to protect her eyesight. Long-sleeved shirts, long pants and socks even on hot days to protect from cold in joints. Similarly the use of air conditioners or fans is prohibited. It is pertinent to mention here that such rituals are very much in vogue in India too, more so in the smaller towns and other rural places. Even the metros aren't immune to all this. 

Modern education, great advancements in medical science and improved civic amenities in life are bringing about a lot of change in the lives of people everywhere. While an upwardly-mobile lifestyle with a broader outlook is gradually replacing the old, rigid and dogmatic views, some quirks are bound to stay here in China, as we have seen in India. 

Raising A Family...

One has to experience how life changes with the arrival of the first baby. And it is much more taxing for the mother than for the father. Our son, Rajeev, brought these changes in our lives gradually. Now as we were three in the family, we had to cater much more to the needs of the young one. We had to be home in time and relieve the nanny looking after him and take over the duties. Doing all this used to be a pleasure and gave us immense satisfaction. There were times when the nanny wouldn’t show up in the morning as we were about to leave for work and we had to take a quick decision to take him along with us. It was his godmother, Meera Rao, who stayed in the Makerere University campus, who would  take care of him as  Meenakshi was busy taking her classes in the University. Sometimes her daughter Shambhavi would be there to play with him.

As it went on, we noticed that Rajeev was picking up a bit of English to converse with the nanny or with us for his small needs. It dawned on us that he will not be able to pick his native tongue, Hindi, if we didn’t converse with him in our mother tongue. We had already seen some children of our friends who felt shy to talk in their own mother tongue and that was a great handicap. That’s how we avoided this pitfall.

Our home leave was due and we planned to travel to India in October, 1977. It was nice to be back home and meet everyone gradually during that period. Coming from the salubrious climes of Kampala, Uganda, we wanted to avoid the sultry summer months. 

Before returning to Kampala, we decided to visit Kashmir at the peak of winter season. Everyone advised against our visit because of extreme cold, and that too because we had a small child. Despite all that, we did go there for four days. It was a very good holiday for us seeing scenic places like Gulmarg and Pahalgam.

It was a strange coincidence that I met after 10 years one of my old friends and classmate in Medical College, Amritsar, Surinder Julka who was also on holiday from the UK. He was too had a like kid much like us. This encounter at the Tourist Reception Centre, Srinagar,  was unfortunately a very short one as his bus was leaving at that very moment for his destination.

Kashmir was relatively a peaceful place those days and we had enjoyed a lot in the hotel, houseboat as well as in the shikara. One must admit that we were the so called older people in the bus as most people were young couples on their honeymoon. However, the long cherished visit to Kashmir, the ‘Heaven on Earth’ was a memorable one.

Our return journey on 31 December, 1977 was rescheduled by Kenya Airways and they were kind enough to offer a free drink on New Year’s eve to usher in 1978. As we touched Nairobi in the morning, we heard a sad news that an Air India plane taking off from Bombay on New Year day for Dubai, carrying most of the labourers going to Middle East to eke out a good living, plunged into the Arabian Sea killing all the passengers. It was such a great tragedy for Air India, a great airline of that time, as well as the families of those who perished there.

We were back to our routine after our return. There was a possibility of getting an apartment on the Makerere University campus and we were very keen for that. It would save us the hassle of travelling daily for 4-5 km to our places of work. It was only during early June of 1978 that we succeeded in getting allocation of the house.

It was on June 6, 1978 that we received a telegram informing us that Meenakshi had lost her father on June 4, 1978. Such a tragic news brought gloom to all of us there. It was a great and irreparable loss.  He was in active service of All India Radio as an Editor of the Hindi news service. In fact, the news of his demise was flashed on All India Radio, external service meant for East Africa. Somehow, we missed the news, and got to know later via the telegram. A visit to India was contemplated, but was abandoned for it wouldn’t be of much use at that stage. It was also a time for us to relocate ourselves in Makerere University campus in the building, Quarry House.

It is worth mentioning here that our daughter, Neelima, a journalist, happened to be in US on a Fellowship in the University of California, Berkeley in 2010. She visited Uganda for a project. She made it a point to visit the same apartment, B-8 in Quarry House, after 30 years, and took snaps of the same furniture we used there. It had a great sentimental value for us. She saw most of the university buildings housing various departments, including that of Biochemistry where Meenakshi, had worked. 

Neelima also met Dr. Albert James Lutalo-Bosa, who was the head of Biochemistry at that time and later retired as the Vice Chancellor of Kyambogo University. In fact, the whole family was there to receive her and hosted a sumptuous dinner for her. She spent two lovely days with the family.  

Later she visited some of the hospitals where I had worked, viz., Masaka, Kapchorwa and Mulago. She met some of our old friends still there. She also went to the Gurudwara and the temple in Kampala. All those photographs are a great treasure for us.