Certain customs regarding good and bad luck are important to many Chinese people. Although these might be regarded as superstitions by people from other cultures, these customs are often tied to and are an important part of many people's , even among well-educated people and affluent sectors of society.
Clocks
*It is undesirable to give someone a clock or other timepiece as a gift. Traditional superstitions regard this as counting the seconds to the recipient's death. Another common interpretation of this is that the phrase "to give a clock" in Chinese is pronounced "sòng zhōng" in , which is a homophone of a phrase for "terminating" or "attending a funeral" . Cantonese people consider such a gift as a curse.
However, should such a gift be given, the "unluckiness" of the gift can be countered by exacting a small monetary payment so the recipient is buying the clock and thereby counteracting the '送' expression of the phrase.
Fans & Umbrellas
*It is undesirable to give someone a or an umbrella as a gift. The words fan "shàn" and umbrella "sǎn" sound like the word "sàn" , meaning scatter or to lose. "sàn kāi" means to split up.
Books
*As a book is a Mandarin homophone of "loss" , carrying or looking at a book where people are taking a risk, such as gambling or investing in stocks, may be considered to invite bad luck and loss . This bad luck does not apply to carrying or reading newspapers as newspapers are not books. For Cantonese speakers, this connotation extends to hats in general.
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