Feng Shui

Feng shui is a form of traditional Chinese magic that remains a significant element in modern Asian culture. Adherents of this superstition employ a variety of manipulations to maintain "good" feng shui and to avoid "bad" feng shui. Even an elite metropolis like Hong Kong is not immune to the influence of feng shui practices in architecture, real estate, business, and government.

Feng shui is considered a form of geomancy. Although the literal translation of feng shui means "wind and water," the significance of four environmental elements: wind, water, light, and the earth's topography are involved. These elements interact with a building's design and structure, and affect its desirability.

Feng shui originated in ancient Chinese culture and has evolved into various versions, each complex. The practice of feng shui is an art and, although often compared with astrology, lacks a scientific basis or set procedures. Feng shui has also been compared to acupuncture, the practice of Chinese traditional medicine, in that acupuncture is concerned with the currents of vital energy in the human body whereas feng shui is concerned with the vital energy in the earth's landscape. This energy is said to take the form of a dragon's breath. Emmons (1992) cites his own and other surveys of Hong Kong residents that yield little beyond vague generalizations about the exact tenets of feng shui. So complex is this supersition that the common practice is to call upon the expertise of a

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private citizens. The monolithic Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, which is considered to occupy a lucky site, employed the services of a geomancer in every phase of the construction of its $670 million headquarters (Hornik, 1993, p. 75). A prominent American bank listed "geomancy fees" on its expense sheet for the construction of a branch office in Hong Kong (Vittachi, 1993, p. 58). Even Hong Kong's British governor was forced to consult a geomancer for the renovation of the Government House after a spate of personal mishaps--blamed by the Chinese on bad feng shui created by the shadow of a neighboring skyscraper. In addition to business, feng shui plays a significant role in health for its Asian adherents: "Ill health effects from bad feng shui could be anything from mental depression to aches and pains to automobile accidents" (Emmons, 1992, p. 45). In its capacity to relieve anxieties regarding the surrounding physical and social environment, it could be that good feng shui relieves disorders caused by anxiety and stress: "The Chinese believe that those who feel secure and at peace have the confidence to progress steadily at work or in business" (Baen and Teoh, 1992, p. 19). Thus good feng shui could exert a psychosomatic ef

Category: Arts - F