Chinese Numerology, Or Spastic Statistics
Friday’s announcement of mindblowing Chinese sales numbers must have had an effect on the minds of the reporting profession, as evidenced by a quick read of the news. They are all over the landscape.
The China Post: “China’s passenger car sales jumped 49 percent in March from a year earlier.”
Associated Press: “China’s passenger car sales jumped 63 percent in March from a year earlier”
China.org: “First-quarter sales jumped 76 percent to 3.52 million units”
Sina.com: “New motor vehicle sales in China in the first three months of the year gained 2.67 percent year on year to hit 4.98 million.”
We could go on, but we don’t want to cause heavy trauma. Two options:
1. Bookmark the above. Judicious citations will allow you to win any argument about Chinese car sales.
2. Discard the above and rely on the official CAAM numbers, as reported by Xinhua via China Daily:
All auto sales, including commercial: Up 55.79 percent from a year earlier to 1.74m units in March. First quarter up 71.78 percent to 4.61 million units.
Passenger vehicles: Up 63.22 percent to 1.26m units in March. First quarter up 76.34 percent to 3.52 million units.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Actually, this form of numerology in floor counting is not unique to China. The Palms Casino in Las Vegas skips numerous floor numbers to get to the 55th floor in a 40-something story building.
This is Chinese / Western numerology: 4 = bad 13 = bad 14 = bad 23 = (no idea...)
Evidently, 23 has been very lucky for some basketball playing individuals...