In Chinese, the word Fu2 means “Fortune”. That’s pronounced “Foo” with an ascending tone (tone 2). When you say Fu2 dao4 le, you’re saying that “fortune has arrived”. All around China, especially on the doors to peoples home, you can see a Fu character displayed upsided down. Huh? Why upside down? The reason is because the word for “upside down” is dao4, pronounced with a strong downward tone (tone 4). It just so happens that the Chinese word for “upside down” shares the same pronunciation as the Chinese word for “arrived”. So, literally turning the character Fu upside-down is a play on words that implies that fortune has arrived. Neat, eh?

This is Fu rightside up:

福

If you’re on a laptop, please turn it over right now. Maybe comments on my blog will start working. OK, now I feel strangely superstitious. Here’s a photo of my front door (yes, an upside down Fu):