The curse of a perfect eight
By Zhou Yi


This year does not appear to be an auspicious one for China. So far, the country has been dogged by a spate of misfortunes: the unusual snowstorms in late January, bloody riots in Tibet in March, a deadly train collision in April, the Sichuan earthquake in May, and now devastating floods in the south.

While science remains ineffective in predicting or explaining the occurrence of natural disasters, some Chinese feng shui fortunetellers are trying to offer their own explanations for the unfortunate events. Superstitious or not, such "explanations" have been spreading fast among people anxious to understand the unknown.

According to Chinese numerology, eight is a lucky numbermeaning "fortune". In China and Hong Kong automobile license plates or mobile telephone numbers with eights - or 38 (flourishing and prosperous), 88 (double fortune), 138 (prosperous in life), 168 (prosperous forever) - command big prices.

But the year 2008 doesn't seem especially lucky for the country, and many are scrambling to figure out why.

According to the philosophy in Yi Jing (The book of Change) and that of ancient philosopher Laozi (Laocius), things will take a reverse course when developing to an extreme. A situation with all yin or all yang is very unstable and risky.

By this doctrine, the Beijing Summer Olympic Games may have exploited the luck of the number 8 to the extreme: the event is set to open at 8 pm, on August 8, in the year 2008 - or 08.08.08. It may be too perfect, and something too perfect needs to be complemented by some imperfections.

The climax of the snowstorms that devastated east and south China was on January 25, or 1.25. The sum of the three digits is eight. The bloody riots in Lhasa, Tibet's capital, happened on March 14, or 3.14. Again, the three figures add to eight. Then the 8-magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan on May 12, or 5.12, with the sum of the three digits also being 8. Moreover, the tremor struck 88 days before the opening of the Beijing Olympics.

The only exception in this numerological series was the train collision on the Jinan-Qingdao railway on April 28 (4.28) that killed at least 70 people. But, it could be argued that it was an accident caused by human error rather than Mother Nature.

Feng shui telling is normally based on the lunar calendar. Thus, August 8 this year is the eighth day of the seventh month in the Year of the Rat. No feng shui master so far has offered an explanation for why the ancient Chinese doctrine can also apply to the solar calendar which was imported from the West in modern times.

Looking back, Chinese masters and fortunetellers now say that the official mascots of the Beijing Olympics could have been identified as omens for the misfortunes.

The mascots, Fuwa (kids of fortune), were designed to symbolize the Olympics' sacred flame, and four of China's most popular animals - the fish, the panda, the Tibetan antelope, the swallow - were chosen to embody the vast landscape of the nation.

But, despite the good intentions behind the Fuwa, the mascots have been interpreted as harbingers of calamities. Some say the Olympic flame is related to the train collision. In Chinese, flame is called huo and train is hou che, or fire-powered vehicle.

The antelope has been equated with the bloody riots. The epicenter of the Sichuan earthquake was near home of the panda. Fish cannot live without water, hence the devastating floods in south China.

But views differ in what the swallow represents. Some say it signals bird flu, which has been reported in Hong Kong and Guangdong. On June 11, Hong Kong had to launch a city-wide poultry cull after the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus was found in four wet markets. But others argue that since the swallow is a bird more common in north China, it may signal that something will happen in the north.

According to feng shui masters, the structure of Beijing has been likened to a hidden dragon for centuries. It has allegedly remained the country's because it could accommodate so many living dragons (in history, an emperor was revered as a living dragon). Now, the construction of the Olympic venues and some massive demolitions have been altering Beijing's feng shui. The hidden dragon, believers say, has been exposed and badly hurt and it had to take young boys and girls to heal its wounds. The superstitious say this was manifested by the many innocent primary and secondary school pupils who died during the Sichuan earthquake.

With the spread of such superstitions, some families, particularly in parts of northern China, light firecrackers near their homes to scare off the roaming, wounded dragon.

So, does all this mean the Summer Games are a bad omen and won't have a happy ending? Not necessarily, feng shui masters and fortunetellers say. As Laozi himself said: "Good fortune lieth within bad, bad fortune lurketh within good."

The Olympic organizers might have been too ambitious in trying to capitalize on every symbol of good luck. But now, the situation of pure yang or pure yin has changed with the year's many misfortunes. Through their interaction, yin and yang will eventually reach a balance and result in harmony. Therefore, according to the feng shui experts, the Beijing Olympics are likely to be successful, and this may reverse China's bad luck in the last half of the year.

Zhou Yi is a Chinese freelance writer.