Old Chinese Superstitions

When teaching in Taiwan and China, I was given four markers with which to write on the white board during classes: black, blue, red and green. Being from an art background myself, I tend to draw on the board a lot, as a teaching tool. Plus, to stimulate young, hopefully impressionable minds, I always made it a point to change marker colors when writing the kid's names on the board. However... there is an old Chinese superstition that says that if a person's name is written in red, they will soon die! So, among a whole list of other "offenses," I was told never to write someone's name on the board in red. And that right there is "modern" Chinese CULTure.... Psst! None of the kids whose names I wrote in red ever died. Not even a single one.