Why officials are superstitious

Officials of Suqian county in Jiangsu province recently renamed Luoma Lake in guide posts because the word luoma sounds similar to "turn down" in Chinese. Public pressure, however, forced them to revert to the original name.

The Luoma Lake case is one of the many examples of how superstitious some government officials have become. The irrational belief that an object, action or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences its outcome, or the irrational belief in some mysterious divine power may not be new to Chinese. But superstition among government officials is different, for it can alter the course of public life.

Li Xiangping, professor and director of the Center for Religion and Society in East China Normal University, says superstition among some officials should not be seen simply as a kind of religious belief. It actually reflects their lack of norms in belief and has become a problem for society.