Taboos originated from similar pronounciation

Knowing taboos is one of most important thing for cultural awareness, I guess that's because most of us just don't want to unintentionally offend someone, right?

In Chinese culture, there are also lot's of traditional taboos. Some of them may seems don't making any senses at first sight, but they are still very interesting when you get to understand them. So, let's see some examples first:

"Stay away from  number  4 "

"Don't share a pear "

"Give the right gifts. " (Ex: Don't give clock)

Why? 

Why those things matters? We will figure it out later. But first, let's make sure you don't get me wrong, I don't mean every people from China care those "taboos." Actually, more and more people don't care anymore. But understand and respect them will never be a bad idea, right?


In Chinese culture, some taboos simply come from a similar pronunciation, people probably can't understand them simply just because they can't speak Chinese. Let's focus on the first example that I make:

   1. Why do we need to stay away from the number "4"?

Some of you may already know it, but let's repeat it again. In Chinese, the word "4" pronounced like "Death." Therefore, people always try to avoid that number. For example, people who lived on the 4th floor may think that "I live on the death floor." Similarly, we don't want our phone number, or license plate includes the number "4", especially something like "4444."

   2. Why don't we share the pear?

The "Don't share a pear" thing is the same theory as the previous one: two words sounds the same, make people to think the same, therefore to avoid it as the same. Because the Chinese word for "share" also means "split apart," and "pear" pronounced the same as "leave." That means, if you share the pear with someone, it really sounds like you guys would leaving each other.


   3. Why don't give the clock as a gift?

It is because "giving the clock" sounds like "attending one's funeral" in Chinese, so if you give someone a clock as a gift, it sounds like you are going to give them a "proper burial". It is definitely a really bad curse in China, the same as the curse "Go to hell".





There are a lot of taboos even a Chinese people will never heard about. I learn some new traditional taboos whenever I meet new friend comes from different part of China with different traditional background. Traditional things is just endless, the more we learn, the better we realize our ignorance.

If you want to know more, just google some things like "Top 10 taboos of Chinese"