30-second overview: In Taiwan, the homophone "four" = "death" has led an entire society to collectively avoid this number. Elevators jump from the 3rd floor straight to the 5th, and restaurant servers will say "3+1 people" instead of "four people." Meanwhile, auspicious homophones drive license plates like "8888" to sell for $89,000, and wedding gift amounts follow a complex system of numerical taboos.
If you're a foreigner visiting Taiwan for the first time, you might feel confused in an elevator: why do the buttons skip from the 3rd floor directly to the 5th? Walk into a restaurant and when the server asks "how many people," you say "four," but they respond with "okay, 3+1 people." Welcome to Taiwan's world of homophone taboos—a place where an entire society has rearranged numbers to avoid unlucky sounds.
The Universal Enemy: "Four"
In Taiwan, no number is more dreaded than "four" (四, sì). Because in Chinese, "four" and "death" (死, sǐ) differ only in tone, this subtle similarity is enough to make an entire society collectively avoid it.
The most obvious example is building floor numbering. Walk into any building in Taiwan and you'll find elevator buttons skip "4," jumping directly from the 3rd to 5th floor. Not just the 4th floor—the 14th, 24th, and 34th floors are also frequently skipped because they contain this inauspicious digit.
The case of Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital is even more fascinating. This renowned hospital is clearly located in Guishan District, Taoyuan City, yet insists on being called "Linkou Chang Gung." Why? Because the character "gui" (龜, turtle) sounds unlucky, especially in a medical setting. So this hospital would rather "borrow" the name from neighboring Linkou District in New Taipei City than be called "Guishan Hospital."
Linguistic Artistry in Restaurants
Taiwan's service industry has developed sophisticated linguistic techniques to avoid homophone taboos. When you dine at a restaurant with exactly four people, servers won't directly say "four people" (四位) but instead say "3+1 people." Some restaurants even skip "Set Meal #4" on their menus, jumping straight to "Set Meal #5."
This careful attention extends beyond numbers. In many situations, people avoid words that might carry negative associations. For instance, when giving gifts, clocks are avoided (homophone for "attending a funeral"), as are pears (homophone for "separation").
Sky-High License Plate Auctions
If avoiding "four" is about warding off bad luck, then competing for auspicious numbers is about attracting wealth and fortune. In Taiwan, numbers on license plates aren't just identifiers—they're symbols of status and luck.
The most popular is "8888," because "eight" (八, bā) sounds like "prosperity" (發, fā). In 2017, a car owner paid 889,000 TWD (about $29,000 USD) for the license plate "AMG-8888," setting a record at the time. "5888" (I prosper, prosper, prosper) and "9999" (long-lasting) are also highly sought after.
Interestingly, homophone culture also "changes dynasties." Recently, "8787" has become popular because it can be interpreted as "don't want" in Taiwanese Hokkien (毋要毋要, m̄-ài m̄-ài), which in certain contexts becomes a good omen for rejecting bad luck.
The Mathematics of Wedding Gift Money
Taiwanese attention to numbers reaches its pinnacle in wedding gift culture. Giving red envelope money (hóngbāo) isn't just about even numbers (good things come in pairs)—it must also avoid specific digits, creating a complex calculation system.
Common wedding gift amounts include: 1,200, 1,600, 2,000, 2,200, 2,600, 3,200, 3,600, 6,000, 6,600 TWD, etc. These numbers share two characteristics: they're all even, and they avoid both "4" and "8."
Why avoid "8" too? While "eight" has the positive meaning of "prosperity," in certain contexts, "8" might be associated with "bye" (掰, bāi) or "don't" (別, bié), implying separation. So wedding gifts jump from 3,600 TWD directly to 6,000 TWD, skipping the impossible 4,000 and 5,000 entirely.
There's another interesting detail: if the wedding banquet gives out wedding cakes to guests, some people add an extra 600 TWD to their gift as "cake money," demonstrating the subtle considerations in Taiwanese social relationships.
Regional Nuances and Balance
It's worth noting that homophone taboos also vary by region. Northern Taiwanese are less sensitive to "four" and "death" than southerners, and Cantonese speakers have stricter homophone taboos than Hakka speakers. This reflects the differences in language culture among Taiwan's diverse ethnic groups.
In commercial settings, to accommodate different ethnic sensitivities, the usual approach is to find the "greatest common denominator"—since some people mind these things, it's better to avoid them uniformly. Better safe than sorry.
Ancient Wisdom in Modern Society
In technologically advanced modern Taiwan, why maintain these seemingly "superstitious" habits? The answer perhaps lies in culture's inertial force.
Homophone taboos aren't just personal beliefs—they're social conventions. When an entire society follows these rules, violating them becomes conspicuous. A building that labels its "4th floor" might affect rental or sales; a license plate containing "444" would certainly be difficult to resell.
More importantly, these taboos often cost very little. Skipping a floor number, saying "3+1 people," choosing auspicious license plate numbers—none require significant additional resources, yet they provide participants with psychological security.
New Opportunities for Cultural Export
Interestingly, as Taiwanese companies expand overseas, homophone culture has begun influencing international markets. Some multinational corporations deliberately avoid numbers that might cause negative associations in Chinese markets when designing product model numbers.
This phenomenon has transformed Taiwan's homophone culture from "local characteristic" into part of its "cultural soft power," influencing global business strategy formulation.
The next time you're in Taiwan and see elevator buttons jump from 3 to 5, remember: you're witnessing an ancient culture's stubborn survival in modern society. This isn't just superstition—it's an entire people's deep faith in the power of language, believing that spoken words can become reality, so they choose to speak good words and avoid bad ones.
On this island full of homophone taboos, numbers aren't just numbers—they're vessels for hope and fear.
References
- Tetraphobia - Wikipedia
- License Plate Homophones Also Have "Dynasty Changes": 8888 Too Old-Fashioned, Some Love 8787
- 2026 Wedding Gift Guide: Latest Red Envelope Rates, Number Taboos, and Congratulations Writing
- Guishan Counted as Linkou? Taoyuan-New Taipei Fusion Has Its Reasons
- "Linkou Chang Gung Hospital" is Actually Located in Taoyuan's Guishan