The Lighter Side of China: The Things We Do For Luck

Last week, when I checked into the Westin Miyako in Kyoto, Japan, I was given a key for Room 7076. It was located at the end of a hallway on the seventh floor, a corner room with a beautiful view of Kyoto. Room 7076 also directly overlooked a cemetery. “Uggh, not very good luck,” I figured. I anticipated a tough week ahead, until a colleague told me that such proximity to gravesites was considered good luck in Japan. At any rate, I also had a number of good luck charms that I travel with, all given to me by mother-in-law – and all designed to improve my luck in life.

My mother-in-law is a wonderful lady. She pretty much singlehandedly raised five children, and took care of her surrogate mother and her aging husband. Though she still lives in the same apartment she’s always lived in, her life is better now; the struggles of the past are behind her. One could offer many explanations as to why her life has improved, but I imagine she would argue it is her commitment to Buddhism and the time she puts in praying.

I often half-joke that she has a direct line to the spirits above, so when she tells me to do something to improve my luck, I do it. Thus I wear a knotted string on my wrist, with each knot representing some prayer she has made. I even carry the worn-out ones with me – five of them in my wallet and briefcase – just in case there is a little luck left in them. These bands of string are placed next to Chinese papers with messages on them. There’s also a gold card with a Buddha image in my wallet, as well as a jade rock and a jade turtle in my briefcase. People often wonder why my briefcase is so heavy. I explain I have a lot of work to do in the evening, but the truth is that I am carrying loads of lucky charms to and from work.

I suppose this hidden stash of jade is better than the thick monkey-shaped jade pendant I wore around my neck for a full year. The monkey was supposed to protect me in the year of the Tiger. When my wife handed this to me, I did not think twice about wearing it. If there was a chance it might improve my luck, why not? I do remember being asked by Western clients – when the pendant dangled out of my shirt a few times – why I was wearing a 100-pound gorilla on my neck. But I did have a really good year that year … so who's laughing now?

Before moving to Asia I never really cared about such Chinese astrology, but after marriage I have followed it religiously. After all, I remember the great fortune bestowed upon me by being a Tiger who proposed to a Horse. Shortly after I made my proposal to the woman who would become my wife, her grandmother dashed to the temple to drop Chinese “lucky sticks,” hoping they would fall in a certain pattern that would advise against marrying a foreigner. She must have tried five times; every time, the sticks fell in my favor. Then I was quizzed on my year of birth. Since I had been born in the year of the Tiger, I was considered a bit more of a match for my wife than, say, a suitor who’d been born in the year of the Rat.

Every Chinese New Year, I go back to that temple and say a few prayers of thanks for bringing me such good luck. I also shoot a prayer to the Buddha of Good Fortune just to put my year in the right direction. During Chinese New Year, I also am the first to buy the zodiac books that tell you how to improve your luck in each month of the upcoming year.

For those that don’t read Chinese, the process goes like this. Once you buy the book, flip to your zodiac sign. Look through the vertical lines. If you have more red (lucky months) than black (unlucky months), you are in for a decent year. Take risks during the red months. Be cautious in the black months. If a month is half-red/half-black, just be aware. The book also gives you specific advice for certain periods: “Invest money this month”, “Don’t visit anybody in a hospital,” “Watch your health,” “Don’t move your office” and “Watch out for enemies.”

For complete accuracy, find someone who you trust to read you the book. Nowadays, I have my mother-in-law do so. At first I asked my wife to read the zodiac book to me … until I figured out that she tended to interpret the advice quite loosely: “Clean the table after every meal,” “Eat more vegetables,” “Buy your loved ones expensive gifts.” I got more and more suspicious. One day, she translated “Watch out for your health” as “Get off the couch on weekends.” That was when I called her bluff.

Following the Chinese zodiac, wearing gorilla-like neck pieces, carrying a ton of jade, wearing knotted string … This all may sound a bit crazy, but I figure if I can improve my odds in life, I am up for it. As long as I don’t have to get up off the couch on the weekends.

Scott Kronick is president of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, North Asia.

Image: Pictures Depot