When a belief is shared by enough people, it can shape prices, schedules and public events, whether or not the belief is accurate. The preference for eight in Chinese-speaking communities is a clear case. Its origin is a sound-alike pun between the words for eight and for prospering, and this article is about what happened next: how a language-based preference turned into a visible feature of modern commerce and public life. It is a social and economic story. It does not suggest that an eight in a phone number or address changes anyone’s luck.
Phone numbers
Telephone numbers are the easiest place to see the market at work. A number is an identifier with no practical difference between its digits, so any premium is the price of a preference. In several Chinese-speaking markets, numbers rich in eights, and in other favoured sequences, have been sold separately from ordinary numbers, sometimes through auctions or special sale lists run by telecom operators.
One example reported in Chinese media is that of an airline in Sichuan, which bought a number ending in a long run of eights in 2003 for a price reported to be over two million yuan. Figures like this are usually quoted from news reports, and the exact amount varies between accounts, so it is safer to say that prices in the millions of yuan were reported for the most extreme cases. Ordinary eight-heavy numbers sell at far more modest premiums.
Buyers are often businesses. A memorable and favoured number can serve as advertising, which is a commercial reason as well as a cultural one, and it would work even for a buyer who personally cared little about the belief.
Car registration marks
Another widely known market is for vehicle registration marks. Hong Kong’s Transport Department holds regular auctions of both traditional and personalised plates, and the proceeds are directed to charity. Plates with low numbers and with lucky sequences attract the most competition. In mainland China, regional arrangements for issuing plates differ from city to city, and some cities allocate plates by lottery or quota. In those systems the pressure shows up in the demand for particular sequences when they are available, instead of in open auctions.
The pattern also appears elsewhere. Singapore, Hong Kong and other places with large Chinese-speaking communities have all seen strong demand for numbers containing eights, while buyers tend to avoid numbers with fours, a pattern known as tetraphobia in East Asia. A plate or phone number with an eight and no four is therefore a doubly attractive item, and the same logic is applied by estate agents to flat numbers and floors.
Addresses and property
Property is a larger, more expensive version of the same story. In some markets, units on the eighth floor, or in buildings with eights in their address, are marketed on that basis, and developers sometimes choose street numbers or names with this in mind. Some developers also leave out a fourth floor and label the one after the third as the fifth, a practice reported in several regions. Researchers who study housing markets have looked at whether such numbers influence sale prices. Findings vary by place and period, so it is better not to claim a fixed premium. What is well documented is that the practice is common enough for sellers and agents to take it seriously.
This is also where Feng Shui can play a part. Practitioners of Feng Shui number traditions sometimes comment on house numbers and floors, which adds a second layer of belief on top of the sound-based one.
Dates and public events
The best-known public example is the opening of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The ceremony began on 8 August 2008 at 8:08 pm local time. The date, written 08/08/08, and the minute were widely understood as a deliberate nod to the lucky eight. The chosen time did not change the way the Games were played, but it shows how thoroughly the preference had entered public planning.
On a smaller scale, couples and businesses are often reported to favour dates with eights for weddings and openings. In 2008 a particularly large number of wedding registrations were reported for the same date, and registry offices in several places were said to be busy. As with the prices, the information comes largely from news reports and should be treated as indicative rather than exact.
What the market tells us
Several general points come out of these examples.
- The value of a lucky number lies in agreement. A number is valuable to a buyer because other buyers and sellers also value it.
- The premium can exist without individual belief. A person who does not care about the belief may still pay more because others care, such as a business that wants a number customers will remember.
- The effect is local. It is strongest where the sound link is strongest, and it is weaker in markets that do not share the language.
- Similar markets exist for other ideas of luck, such as the interest in “lucky seven” in Western contexts and the fear of thirteen that leads some buildings to skip a floor, which show that Chinese-speaking communities are not unusual in having them.
A note on interpretation
It is tempting to read the high prices as proof that people believe the numbers work. A more careful reading is that numbers have become status goods and shared cultural symbols. A rare or elegant number can signal wealth or taste, and the willingness to pay is part of that signal. Whether the buyers also hope for good fortune varies from person to person, and the evidence for any actual benefit is absent. The documented parts of the story are the prices, the auctions, the scheduling choices and the language behind them.