Here’s a funny story in the Chinese newspaper, which I rarely get to read ’cause I’m so busy. These sorts of stories are typical of some of the odd culture that you experience in China if you have close contact with the locals. It shows how superstitious how some Chinese can be, especially when it comes to words. Some words are bad luck because there are other words that sound similar. I remember someone telling me something like, “Oh, that’s a very bad luck word, if you say that in that context to someone, because that word resembles ‘coffin’. So, maybe you are telling them that may die soon.” Yeah, weird stuff like that. Then there are the weird obsession stories, also like this one demonstrates. There is another story I recall that folks in my office (all normal folks) about a young lady who was obsessed with some Hong Kong star. She was so fixated on this one guy that she somehow persuaded her parents to sell their home to raise the money so she’d get the opportunity to meet the guy. I can’t recall how the story ended, but I was just shocked that the story indicated that the family went along with it. Maybe there were some good luck words that lined up one day that said this girl needed to meet this star. I have no idea. But, here’s the humorous story I read the other day:

Man’s obsession with stocks leads to divorce

An investor in Nanjing, Jingsu, was so obsessed with the market that his behavior became strange and unreasonable.

The man surnamed Wang invested about 200,000 yan ($25,641) in the market and since then all he could talk about at home was stocks. He has gradually developed an obsession with the numbers 6 and 8, which mean “smoothness” and “making a fortune” in Chinese. He only took taxis with plate numbers that included 6 and 8.

Wang was overjoyed when his son scored a 48 on a test because he believed the score was a sign.

Unable to endure Wang’s behavior, his wife applied for divorce several days ago.

To add insult to injury, the Shanghai market just had a big 8% correction last week! Poor ole Mr. Wang!