[Brookside]

At a recent auction in Guangzhou, one plate featuring several lucky numbers fetched more than $10,000.


First Comes the Car, Then the $10,000 License Plate

Superstition and Car Culture Meld in China's Burgeoning Automobile Explosion

GUANGZHOU, China At a government auction inside a dingy gymnasium, a young businessman named Ding walked away a happy winner the other day. Like everyone else, he was bidding on license plates and did not seem to mind that his cost $6,750.

For the same money, Mr. Ding could almost have afforded two of the Chinese-made roadsters popular in the domestic car market. His bid was almost 20 times what a Chinese farmer earns in a year, and almost 7 times the country's per capita annual income.

And yet, in the auction in this manufacturing capital in southern China, Mr. Ding, who gave only his last name, could not even claim top price. The most expensive plate — AC6688 — fetched $10,000 on a day when officials sold hundreds of plates for a total of $366,500.

"I thought it was rather cheap," said Mr. Ding, 30, a gold chain glinting under his open black sport shirt, as he walked off with the paperwork for APY888. "Since I have a nice car, I thought I should get a nice plate."

No country is more bonkers over cars than China, where achieving the new middle-class dream means owning a shiny new vehicle. But the car is not always enough for those who aspire beyond the middle class. A license plate has become almost as much of a status symbol as the car.

The reason is the potent blend of new-money aspirations and Old World superstitions. For centuries, numbers have served as a second language in China. The unluckiest number, 4, or si, which can also mean death in Chinese, is so dreaded that some buildings have no fourth floor. The luckiest number is 8, or ba, which rhymes with fa, the Chinese character for wealth. It is no coincidence that the Summer Olympics in Beijing will open on 8/8/08 at 8 p.m.


More > http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/05/wo...a/05china.html