[08.08.10美国CNN] 中国人相信幸运数字“八”

dakelv

【标题】Chinese counting on lucky number 8 中国人相信幸运数字八
【来源】http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/as ... na.eight/index.html
【翻译】dakelv
【声明】本文翻译仅限Anti-CNN使用，谢绝转载。
【备注】同时发布于外媒看奥运版面

【原文】
Chinese counting on lucky number 8

BEIJING, China (CNN)  -- Eight is a lucky number in China. The word for it -- ba -- sounds so close to the word for wealth that many people believe eight is a number that is linked to prosperity.
A baby born on Friday -- considered a lucky date in China -- sleeps beside an Olympic mascot in a Beijing hospital.

A baby born on Friday -- considered a lucky date in China -- sleeps beside an Olympic mascot in a Beijing hospital.

So it is no surprise that the opening ceremonies for the Olympic Games begin at 8:08:08 p.m. on 8/8/08.

"It's not that the government believes this, but it had to choose a date, so why not respect the people's feelings?" Xia Xueluan, a sociologist at Peking University, told the Christian Science Monitor.

The date will be a special one, long remembered in this nation. For years, many Chinese couples have made plans to get a marriage license on Friday, while others hope to have "Olympic" babies.

The Chinese try to get the number eight in addresses, phone numbers, even car license plates. An airline reportedly paid $300,000 five years ago to buy 8888-8888 for its telephone number. With an explosion of cars in the country, bidding sometimes takes place for lucky plates.

Nine thousand weddings will take place in the capital on Friday. According to the state-run Xinhua News Agency, that number will be more than twice the previous single-day marriage record.

The wedding blitz is not confined to China. Many couples in the United States are getting married on that date. WeddingChannel.com has seen a 213 percent increase in registry entries for weddings on August 8, 2008, compared with the second Friday in August last year, which fell on August 10, Summer Krecke, the deputy editor, told The Associated Press.

Last year, parents in China began trying to conceive babies who would be born on August 8. Hospitals have had to add extra beds. Many doctors will perform planned Caesarean sections, a common practice in China.

One prospective father whose wife planned to give birth naturally told the China Daily: "If my wife is lucky enough to deliver an 'Olympic baby,' the luck means something more than family joy."

The faith in the number eight was shaken May 12 -- 88 days before the Games were to begin -- when an earthquake killed nearly 70,000. That caused some bloggers to worry about the number being bad luck this year. They also pointed to a massive snowstorm on January 25 (1+2+5=8) and widespread protests against Chinese rule in Tibet that happened on March 14 (3+1+4=8).

But many Chinese still believe the lucky number brings the promise of many gold medals in the country's coming-out party.

Chinese also believe six is lucky, while seven is bad -- and four is really bad.

【原文截图】

【译文】

中国人相信幸运数字八

北京， 中国（CNN) - 8 在中国是个幸运数字。8的大写 - 八 - 和代表财富的“发”很相似，所以人们相信八是个与幸运有关的数字。所以奥运开幕式选择在08年8月8日8时8分开始也就不奇怪了。


“并不是说政府也相信这种说法，但是它必须选择一个日期，所以为什么不尊重老百姓的感觉呢？”北京大学的社会学家夏雪栾（音译)对《基督教箴言报》说。


这个日子将是被这个国家铭记久远的一个特殊日子。多年来，很多中国夫妻就计划在星期五登记结婚，而另外一些夫妻则希望生一个“奥运”婴儿。


中国人希望自己的地址，电话号码，甚至车牌里都有8字。据报道，五年前有一个航空公司花了三十万美元买一个8888-8888的电话号码。随着这个国家汽车数量的日益增长，人们开始竞价买幸运数字的车牌。



周五，首都北京将举行九千场婚礼。据官方新华社报道，这个数字是以往单日婚礼数字记录的两倍。

这种闪电婚礼不仅仅限于中国。在美国很多情侣也计划在那天结婚。婚礼频道.com的副主编Summer Krecke告诉合众社，8月8日在此网站上登记婚礼的数目比去年八月第二个星期五，也就是八月十日，增长了2.13倍。

去年，中国的准父母们就开始计划怀孕，以期望他们的孩子能在8月8日诞生。医院不得不为此加床位。很多医生将做预先计划好的剖腹产【译注:即：父母为了让孩子出生在8月8日，预先计划好实施剖腹产。】，一种在中国非常普遍的手术。

一个计划让妻子顺产的准爸爸告诉《中国日报》：“如果我爱人幸运地产下一个“奥运婴儿”，那么这个将是比举家同乐更大的幸运。

这个对于数字8的信仰在5月12号，也就是距奥运开始还有88天时被打碎了。在那一天，一场地震造成近7万人丧生。这使得很多博客作者开始担忧8字是否对于今年来说是个不祥之兆。他们还由此想到了1月25日的大暴风雪（1+2+5=8），还有3月14日发生的反对中国对于西藏统治的广泛抗议活动。

但是很多中国人仍然相信这个幸运数字将给中国的复出派对【译注：很多人把奥运及开幕式看作是中国重归大国行列的一个标志】带来很多金牌。

中国人同时也相信6是个幸运数字，但是7不被看好，而4则是非常糟糕的。

メ冰火ヤ

我还相信6呢