A License to Spin the Wheel

The license plate of my car has the numbers 3866. “Eight”, or “bā” in Mandarin, is the luckiest number in Chinese numerology because it sounds like “fā”, the Mandarin word for “generating wealth”. In Cantonese, “six” has a similar homophonic distinction, but also a similar pronunciation to the Mandarin word for “flow” and is considered beneficial in business, i.e. “cash flow” or “customer flow”. Even the “three” sounds like the Chinese word for “birth”, thus rendering it auspicious as well, since birth is part of the three traditional major events of a man’s life (birth, marriage and death).

Numerology is big business in Asia. License plates with all eights are sold for over US$100,000 in different Chinese provinces. Shortly after I came to Taiwan, I remember reading about the lucky winner at an auction held by the Taiwanese DMV for a “super 8” plate, one containing six 8’s. I don’t remember how much was paid, but it was some astronomical amount. Just a few years ago, someone paid NT$ 3.5 million (over US$120,000) for another “super 8” plate. The car to which the plates were registered was worth only NT$600,000, or a little more than a sixth of the cost of the Taiwanese version of a vanity plate. It was intended to be a Father’s Day gift, which, in Taiwan, falls on August eighth, or “bā-bā”.

Since I have never had an accident in my car and it has never given me any major mechanical headaches, I could give credit to the luck of the numbers. The fact that I usually only drive on long trips to bigger cities and rarely around Chiayi doesn’t hurt either. I have also considered how the letters “LT” that precede the numbers may have had any impact on my driving past or future. While the “T” does not have much of a descriptive history, the “L” comes from the ancient hieroglyph for an oxen goad and the Semitic shepherd’s crook. Maybe the “L” metaphorically protects me and any riders, much like a goat-herder’s staff keeps the wolves at bay.

Taiwanese license plates are simply black numbers with a white background, definitely better than the old New Jersey puke-yellow-on-dull-blue that I remember. I saw that the design has been changed and the plates now looks like they have been partially faded by the sun. And, of course, they had to retain the assertion that NJ is the Garden State. If only I had a more favorable attitude towards cranberries, then I wouldn’t snicker every time I hear that nickname.

I must admit though that I do prefer the colorful displays put forth by various American states. However, that may not last for long. I read about an Oklahoma man suing the state because he objected to a picture of a sculpture on his license, arguing that it violated the idea of separation of church and state. The statue, Sacred Rain Arrow, depicts a mythical Native American warrior aiming an arrow straight up in the sky in an attempt to end a drought. Various renderings of the work appeared at the Olympics and the Smithsonian, but apparently, the “Christian” saw the license as a means of endorsing a specific religion. Incidentally, one of his main arguments is his refusal to pay extra for a plate without that small bit of Oklahoma culture. I wonder how he would felt with a white cowboy riding a bucking bronco. Would he have taken the animal rights tack? Somehow I doubt it.