Fearing ‘bad luck’ omen, Chinese man repeatedly slaps twitching right eye, damaging vision

A superstitious man in central China suffered a retinal detachment after repeatedly slapping his twitching right eyelid, fearing it was an omen of misfortune.

The belief stems from a popular Chinese saying: “A twitching left eye brings wealth, while a twitching right eye brings disaster.”

The man, identified only as Le, lives in Wuhan in Hubei province. He had been troubled by a twitching right eyelid for several days. Resting his eyes and applying warm compresses brought no relief.

Convinced the twitching was a bad omen, he grew increasingly anxious and turned to the internet for a diagnosis rather than a doctor. There, he found claims that slapping the eyelid could “drive away bad luck”.

Some elderly people in China also believe that sticking a strip of white paper onto the eyelid can stop the twitching.

According to local newspaper Changjiang Daily, Le slapped the area around his right eye for three days. The twitching eventually stopped, but a far more serious problem emerged.