8- That's the magic number
 

CX has just announced a net loss of 8.558 billion HK dollars in the last year, just to let you all know. Looks like this year's not going to be much prettier either...

8.558 is more the figure....

This has nothing to do with numerology but the Chinese use it because the number 8 sounds like the word wealth when spoken.

In Mandarin, 8 is "Pah". Wealth is "Fah".
In Cantonese, 8 is "Pat", and wealth is "Faaht".

So when one goes to any Chinatown in any western countries you will know why most car licence plates have 8's in them.

But the above spells trouble as the number 5 in mandarin is "Ooo", and in Cantonese is "Mmm". Which basically sounds like the word "Not" which in mandarin is "Pooo", and in Cantonese is almost the same except its "mmmM" in a downturn.

So "58" literally means "Not wealthy, no wealth, no money".

Oh dear... :(

5 is Ooo in mandarin? isnt it 'Woo'?
and with two '5' after and before '8', this makes it sound even worse

5 is "mmm" in Cantonese, which means 'not'
(i think, not really fluent in Cantonese)

yes 'mmm' is 5 for cantonese, but I was referring to Mandarin

just a suggestion to mod, since this thread is so similar to the other thread about cx's losses, it'd be a gd idea to merge and close one?

Better still. I'm closing this one since the numerology part has run its course in this thread.


Regards

Guy Betsy
Cathay Pacific Asiamiles forum moderator