China's lucky 8 losing lustre
June 11 - In China the number 8 is supposed to bring good fortune and many people had high hopes for the year 2008.
Last month's devastating earthquake, a plunging stock market, and soaring inflation are just some of the events that have taken place so far this year.
Tara Joseph-Hui reports.
Vocabulary Check:
equate / prosperity / riches / devastating / consequence / wreak havoc / fortune teller / pale / element / unstable / financial market / roaring / stock market / tumble / surging / inflation / (cause a) stir / remedy
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Yes, I hardly think many Chinese would consider 2008 the year of good fortune so far...
I thought it was interesting that the Fortune Teller pointed out that 2008 is a western counting system, but the Chinese horoscope sees this year in a very different way. "Earth floating on water / Mountain on sea" - yes, that doesn't sound very stable to me!
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Summary: Chinese has a fancy to number eight which they think is related with prosperity and riches. Maybe that's why China decided to hold Bejing in 2008, on August 8th, at 8:08 clock. However, China had gone though a series of unfortunate events such as the earthquake in Sichuan province and the snow storm, both of which claimed millions of people's lives. According to a local fortune teller, the year 2008 is called a Rat year in China and brings anything but good fortune. He put it this way: earth is sitting on water, which means things are unstable. The financial market also took a downturn. China hopes things change for the better in the second half of the year.
Opinion: I think it's important that we believe in our reason, conscience, and proper conduct instead of good or bad fortune. In many cases, what we call 'bad fortune' comes from our bad conducts. For example, if China had treated Tibetans well, they wouldn't have taken to the street to protest against Chinese government which led China to suffer severe criticism around the world. At any rate, I really do hope no more devastating events happen in China.
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Excellent summary, Pilsu - very well done.
I agree when you say that people ought to concentrate on the results of their own good or bad conduct rather than blaming everything on good or bad fortune. Sure, an earthquake could be considered bad luck, but to some degree the effects on people can still be related to things like warning systems, building regulations, rescue operations - which of course are governed by people. Also, as you say, things like protests and stock markets are very much decided by the actions of human beings, not some strange mystical force of fortune.
I'm not a particularly superstitious person myself, but I do believe in the saying "what goes around comes around." That is, whatever actions we take eventually come back to affect us later, whether that be in positive or negative ways.
Great to read your summary and opinion, Pilsu. Thanks for contributing.
~ Jason
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As a Chinese, I think the government fails to fulfill their responsibility.
But the Chinese media never reporte what the government really do in the back
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If I am going to write it for my integrated essay preparation.
summary
Chinese belive that number eight is their lucky number. Therefore, they had good hopes for 2008 year.Unfortunately, this year is not as good for them as they were thinking. For example, there is an earth quake and a drastic decrease in stock exchange. But still they have good hopes.
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