Many East Asian cultures consider the number 4 to be unlucky, because their words for that number are highly homophonic to the word for death. Quite often you will see companies skipping the number 4 in their product numbers to avoid being unlucky and many buildings do not have a 4th floor (akin to how many Western buildings do not have a 13th).
When I listen to Chinese music, I hear groups of 4 beats, which seems funny given their attitude towards 4. The literature I find considers their music to be "duple," a category that includes both 2/4 and 4/4 time in Western terminology. It occurred to me the other day that the groups of 4 might be in my head, as a Westerner, as I apply my own structure to their music.
Do Chinese composers and musicians count their music differently, perhaps counting in groups of 2 or 8 instead?