Athletes Learn Cultural Awareness and the Value of Numerology

Posted May 15, 2008 at 08:20 AM by Michael J. Sedor

Section: Beijing 2008, Beijing News, Culture/History, Design/Art/Culture, Socio-Political, Featured Writers, Michael Sedor

Last Tuesday the United States Olympic Committee brought in Chinese cultural experts to speak to about 35 athletes. Their message: “Be good ambassadors. Don’t do anything that would offend.” Our first thought was what did they really learn? We love learning what’s right in one country and so wrong in another. Our second thought was did they learn anything about the number eight? More on that later.

The AP article summarizing the meeting mentions a website with 100 “awareness tips” that the Olympians were given but links out only to the Hilton Hotel Brand’s site: www.behospitabletraveler.com. The article’s quotes come mainly from Hilton’s expert travelers so we’re assuming that that’s the site. Try as we might we can’t find the 100 tips.

We found everyday use Mandarin word translations, sport-related translations, videos on awareness, character, and thoughtfulness, as well as a translate your name into Chinese tool. That tool is a lot of fun. In fact those characters you see in the upper corner...that’s my ersatz name. Or at least that’s what the website tells me however I won’t be getting it tattooed on my neck anytime soon. Cultural awareness, natch.

Nevertheless, if this was the web site athletes were referred to then we might have an international incident on our hands. Luckily (or not so luckily) we can refer them to this Wall Street Journal blog entry about numerology. Chinese culture associates different characteristics for each number from 1 through 9 because of various reasons which include similar sounding words. 4 is associated with death, 2 with love. This WSJ article explains the phenomenon.

8 is the luckiest of all numbers in China and the Olympics’ Opening Ceremony’s date, 8-8-2008, was meant to be the luckiest day ever. But to many superstitious Chinese numerologists it isn’t working out that way.

Last Sunday’s devastating earthquake happened with 88 days until the Olympics on a day, 5-12, whose three numbers add up to 8. This is the third time a crisis has occurred on an eight-total day. The Tibet riots began on 3-14 and a massive snowstorm fell on (gasp) 1-25. Is the world coming to an end?  The Journal doesn’t seem to think so. By their generous counting method they can associate 8 with at least 1/3 of all the days in May. Oh well, so much for that conspiracy. Nevertheless, our swimmers and track athletes might want to think about numerology when picking lanes. Why? For cultural consideration purposes, of course.