Journal Entry 10: Taboo

Only several taboos are there in my culture I can come up with. Do not stick chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice, do not write people’s names with a red pen, and try to avoid using the number four.

Do not stick your chopsticks in the rice! I’ve been scolded because of this for years, although I still do not care that much. It’s a taboo because it looks like placing incense sticks for certain cultural or religious reasons which usually related to the holiness or the death. By doing such a thing, it would be like “worshiping” the person who cooked as if he/she’s dead. This is still continuously being emphasized here, and although I respect the diversity of culture, I still think they think too much.

The second one is not to use red pens to write people’s names because the color red resembles the color of blood, which is connected to fear, death, pain, despair, and all the awful stuff. Writing people’s names in red would somewhat suggest that they’ll get into bad accidents. Honestly, I REALLY DON’T CARE WHAT COLOR PEOPLE USE TO WRITE MY NAME. It’s just a color, and interestingly, in some case, red is a sign of goodness and hope and happiness in Chinese culture. In addition, less people care about this compared to before.

Last but not least, try to avoid using number 4. The pronunciation of 4 in Chinese is similar to the pronunciation of death. People here insanely try to avoid talking about things related to death. In fact, in a lot of hotels or buildings, there wouldn’t be a 4^th floor. Instead, 5 comes after 3 and 4 is omitted. To me, this is a trivial, and ridiculous  insistence. It is respectful of the hotels to do such an action, and it does no harm. However, it’s just ridiculous, and a question comes up. Why would people created a number that they are phobic to? Even a 4 on your license plate would be considered ominous. Such “hexaphobia” problem seems quite serious and widely believed, yet it seems really interesting to me.

In addition, I don’t think any of these taboos is necessary and beneficial.