Kuala Lampur, Oct. 24 -- The student from Shenzhen, China, asked a question every Malaysian has asked at least once in our lifetime: "Sir, how come some elevators in Malaysia have the number '4' but some have '3A'?"

I suspected he already knew the "basics" of the question but I felt his question had a deeper angle.

Anyhow, I led with the (very common) concept of tetraphobia, or how the word for "4" in Chinese sounds like the word for "death" (as he would surely know) and thus many building or elevator contractors replace the number with "3A" so their Chinese guests or tenants won't feel uncomfortable.

After we chatted more, I found out that in Shenzhen (at least according to him) the practice of replacing "4" with "3A" is rare though n...