Chinese village changes name to improve its fortunes, but gets chaos instead

BEIJING (AP) - Residents thought changing the name of their small village in southern China would improve their fortunes. Instead, it left them in a legal limbo after police computers were unable to register a very rare Chinese character that is part of the new moniker, newspapers reported Tuesday.

"Many villagers have not been able to get marriage certificates and are facing difficulties while seeking jobs, travelling and dealing in property," the China Daily said, citing an earlier report in the Nanguo Metropolitan News.

The 50 residents of the tiny hamlet in Wenchang county on the southern island province of Hainan followed a fortune teller's advice earlier this year and changed the name "to improve the village's prosperity," the reports said.

The village's name used to be Tianmeidong, but was changed to Tianwei, plus a third character that even the Nanguo newspaper was forced to describe in its article because its computer could not write it.

Great care is often taken by superstitious Chinese in picking characters for names based on the total number of lines, or strokes, in the characters. Some also consult experts of feng shui, an ancient Chinese practice for achieving health, harmony and prosperity according to the arrangement of dates, numbers, building design and the placement of objects.

© The Canadian Press, 2007