Viewing superstition

Shi Zheng is a PhD student in Marxism at Tsinghua University. A self-professed philosophical materialist, Shi admits that he can get "superstitious" sometimes, especially before exam results come out.

The viral trend of reposting pictures of koi fish online and commenting "wish I can be as lucky" reminds Shi of his behavior back in middle school.

"After each test, I'd avoid checking grades, waiting for teachers or classmates to break the news. If I checked myself, the results were always dismal — a lesson learned the hard way," Shi said.

The habit gradually faded away as he entered university. The thought-provoking talks with professors, mind-broadening lectures on culture and history and ample time to immerse himself in a sea of books have all reshaped him to be an explorer of different thoughts, histories of civilizations and the vast, unknown world.

Shi decided to continue learning and applied for a PhD degree in Marxism.

Now he understands that there's no direct relation between beliefs in supernatural things and the final results, but still thinks that superstition goes hand in hand with people's desire for better lives.

From courses such as Research on the Basic Issues of Marx's Ethics and Contemporary Social Thoughts, Shi has learned to be realistic, dialectic and appreciate the inherent complexity of issues.

Research on Marxism has also enabled Shi to treat history as a mirror to reflect the current status quo, although he bears in mind that history is an upward spiral. "I figured there's a need to combine history with reality. Many incidents happening now have happened in history, and you want to dive into that history and study the logic behind it."

Shi said the answer as to why people pursue luck must partially lie in history. The development of a word's semantic meaning is reflexive of the state of affairs in society in different periods.

He noted that the Chinese character for "wish", zhu, contains a radical meaning divine and sacrificial offering, but over the years the connotation of the character has evolved.

"Today, when we wish someone well, it's not about divine blessings but sincere hopes for their happiness," Shi said.

"It's unrelated to superstition but represents a yearning for good and expectations of a brighter future."