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Week Around the Ists
Newlyweds generally don't need an excuse to jump into the sack, but if they do, Shanghaiist has got a great one … excuse, that is. From our favorite hometown paper, Shanghai Daily:
Maternity hospitals around the city have been busier than usual over the past few months as many young women try to have babies next year, an especially auspicious time according to the Chinese lunar calender.The lunar calender gives each year one of 12 zodiac signs and years rotate through the five elements - gold, wood, water, fire and earth.
Children born when the Year of the Pig coincides with the element of gold, something that happens every 60 years, are said to be blessed.
“Honey, let’s make a golden pig!” Sultry utterance of seduction indeed!
So, how do newly weds feel about this myth? One woman, who identified herself as “Yueyue” had this to say,
"I cannot tell whether it is true or not. But I chose to believe it rather than miss a good opportunity."
Apparently, 136,999 other couples felt the same way, as Shanghai’s Family Planning Commission is projecting 137,000 newborns in our city next year, up from 131,000 this year and 123,000 the year before. And no doubt 137,000 kids will grow up to be awesome.
Shanghaiist, being the capitalist pigs that we are, smell a great business opportunity. Excuse us while we run to the nearest Carrefour and start stocking up on diapers and strollers. We gonna be rich, biatch!!
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The Chinese worship of money and their rituals and superstitions related to money are perverse.
the actual means doesnt have direct relations with money
it's like you guys believe number 13 is unlucky.
just like we dont like number 4, or never to bring a clock as a gift for an elderly.
Rubbish, usagi. Westerners do not plan their entire lives around such superstitions, as do many Chinese. The fact is that every culture has its superstitions, but the truth is that Chinese are, on average, FAR more superstitious than most western people, and a large body of Chinese superstitious beliefs are concerned with "getting rich."
Take a moment to consider (objectively) how many rituals, adages, symbols, etc. in China are dedicated to money, wealth, prosperity, and greed. The reality is that, in China, avarice is practiced with a religious seriousness and cultural acceptance. And the very fact that, rather than taking a hard look at Chinese practices, you feel compelled to turn this into an east-west contest reveals your own insecurity.
Go ahead and post your next offense. I am not having this discussion.
What exactly is wrong with worshipping money, especially if you're doomed to destitution? China supposedly has a saying; 3 generations rich, 3 generations poor. And poor in China is quite poor. So within the cultural memory of every Chinese, is poverty barely outside of living memory. An explanation, so I'm told, is that Chinese culture generally favors both the division of the estate between siblings and having many children.
By the way, if I recall, within the Five Elements system, there is no gold, only metal.
The five elements are irrelevant to this, as are any sayings about generational poverty, as is the fact that most Chinese are poor.
What I am referring to as the Chinese cultural worship of money is 'Gongxi fa cai,' 8888, having children in the pig year, various feng shui wealth symbols, and many, many other rituals, sayings, symbols, stories, etc. Most specifically, what's "wrong" with it is that it governs people's behavior and leads them to sociopathological extremes for their own enrichment. But no, I can't prove that, and yes, there are stupid, unrealistic, fantastical belief systems in every culture that mislead their adherents to behave strangely.
However, Chinese money-worship is particularly pervasive and is evident in many of the baser attributes of Chinese culture -- particularly the extraordinary willingness to exploit whatever can be exploited (men, women, children, animals, the environment, kindness, friendship, sincerity, honesty, charity, etc.), consequences be damned.
Perhaps this "money-worship" is just an element of poverty or poverty with Chinese characteristics, but to say the very least, it is still distasteful.