Belt Auction

Why are a majority of chinese antique stores like in chinatowns called 88?

Or something like 88, 88 store, or 88 shop, why 88? Only chinese thing I know of 88 is in chinese texting, whichs means byebye since the two 8's look like 2 B's.

Public Comments

1. Firstly, 88 in texting means 'bye-bye' because, if you say it in Chinese, it sounds like 'bye bye"; certainly not because it resembles two Bs. The use of 8s in business names is because the Chinese consider 8 to be a particularly number.
2. The number 8 is considered auspicious because its Mandarin pronunciation approximates the word for wealth. Chinese preference for the number 8 is visible everywhere. Many hair salons, jewelers, food markets, and other businesses find ways to work the number 8 into their name. Chinese pay extra for license plates containing as many 8's as possible. The same goes for choosing phone numbers containing 8's. No one wants the number 4. The Chinese pronunciation of 4 is similar to the word for death.
3. 88 "FA FA" means your gonna be rich.
4. The reason why is because many Chinese are superstitious. Somehow because 88 in most Chinese dialects rhymes with 'fa fa', one of its meanings being to make a lot of money, many Chinese people love to incorporate this into their business names, phone numbers, license plates, wedding dates... Seriously 'fa' could also mean to fester, recurring disease! ??