Auspicious and inauspicious

George is already warning me about mistakes we might make in China, for Chinese people are apparently sensitive to symbolism and attach great importance to luck, good and bad.

Inauspicious:

We must not give people gifts featuring the number four (such as a book with forty-four pages) because their word for 4 ressembles their word for death. Every number suggests some meaning or other. Likewise we should never share a pear; the word for pear is the same as the word for separation.

We're not to wear dark blue or white clothes at the wedding because these are funereal colours. Nor a green hat, because that stands for infidelity.

Auspicious:

On the other hand, other colours are encouraging, red and yellow in particular. Black doesn't have the same gloomy connotations as it does on the other side of the world, and the numbers 6 and 8 are lucky numbers.

George thinks it likely that his dad, "Hobbs Chris," will be referred to as "Old Hobbs" or "Uncle"—shu-shu—in Beijing, and I'll be called "Aunty"—ayi.