Cursed Without Knowing It?

I had a strange intercultural exchange recently with one of my Shane English Yuxi students and his father.

At the end of every class, we do an “exit drill,” which means that the students line up and have to ask or answer something before leaving the classroom. In my class of twelve-year-olds, we were getting ready for the end-of-term test. One of the items on the oral exam is “Ask the teacher a question.” So to prepare them, the exit drill for my class was to ask me a question. I told them they could ask me ANY question they wanted.

Michael, my strongest student, asked me “What would you do if your girlfriend died?” I was a little taken aback since

a) I don’t have a girlfriend; and
b) it was a slightly morbid question.

“I’d cry,” I said. I thought nothing of this Q&A after that.

Later that afternoon, I was very surprised when Michael and his father came to see me. The father speaks English, had overheard our exchange at the exit drill, and was very upset with his son. He made Michael apologize several times. He explained to me that in China, such a question is like a curse–sort of like “may your girlfriend die!”

Michael also gave me a written apology which read:

Dear Jim,
I’m sorry I said “What would you do if your girlfriend die” to you this morning. Now I know it’s a curse sentence. So, from now on, I’ll never say the curse sentence to anyone because I want to be a good student.
Your student,
Michael

The father is a real good guy, and I think he was a little perplexed about why I wasn’t upset with his son. From the note, though, it seems that Michael didn’t know this was a “curse sentence.” And it certainly went over my head.