February 24, 2015

A Cantonese taboo



If you are Cantonese and your parents are superstitious, they might tell you not to buy shoes during the Chinese New Year period.

Shoe is 'hai' in Cantonese. Rough (not smooth) is also hai in Cantonese. So, do you want to have a rough life for the whole year? Furthermore, hai is also a sighing sound. For example, if you ask someone something and he sighed 'hai' before answering, it means something unfortunate or sad has happened.


On the other hand, you can buy a lot of trousers in the CNY period because trousers is 'fu' in Cantonese which also means wealth.

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