Cashing in on superstition
Many Western practitioners are flocking to Beijing's biggest monuments for fengshui lessons despite skepticism
The ancient art of Chinese geomancy, also known as fengshui, has taken a trendy turn over the past few years in expat circles and many Western practitioners are flocking to Beijing's biggest monuments for lessons in fengshui.
James Jay, CEO of the fengshui resource center, Feng Shui Designs, and his wife Helen Jay have been offering yearly pilgrimages or "Fengshui immersion programs" to Beijing for the last decade.
The program, which costs roughly 23,000 yuan ($3,393), offers to guide fengshui novices through China as they learn the ins and outs of the spiritual practice by visiting Beijing's biggest monuments.
"We analyze places like the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Ming Tombs, and so on for their fengshui significance," said Jay.
Fengshui is the philosophy of how spatial arrangements, in most cases furniture, relates to the patterns of yin and yang and the flow of qi.
At the end of the 15-day journey, students are given a certificate of "completion of Fengshui immersion in China."
The 58-year-old American has studied fengshui for more than a decade and half, learning from various fengshui masters throughout China and the US. He said he was initially drawn to fengshui because of his interests in Chinese cosmology.
He said recently he has noticed an increasingly heavy interest in fengshui throughout the US.
But the trendiness of the trade in the US gives fengshui a different taste than that back home.
"In China, [fengshui] is regarded with much more reverence," Jay said.
In Europe, many people are getting interested in fengshui, according to member of the Slovakian branch of the European Feng Shui Organization, Petr Bily.
"Many people want to have fengshui projects in their homes. It is like fashion," the 31-year-old Slovakian said.
The boost in popularity has led to an increased amount of people claiming they are consultants, but in reality, they have only taken a two-month course, he said.
Bily has been practicing fengshui for more than seven years and said that he still has much to learn about the art.
He said in Slovakia, fengshui consulting can cost as much as 500 yuan or 50 yuan per square meter for bigger projects.
Bily said his interest in fengshui stemmed from his studies of traditional Chinese medicine.
While working at the Dongzhimen Hospital he met a fengshui master who began teaching him the philosophies and methodologies.
"Through the process of healing people with needles, I got to fengshui. It is like acupuncture for a living space," he said.
Like acupuncture, Bily said many Westerners are quick to criticize the effectiveness of fengshui, claiming it's simply superstition.
He responds to them by saying it doesn't matter if you believe in it or not as long as you can see the results.
For German Aluair from the US, founder of the Beijing-based cultural consultation company, Dao West, and a fengshui hobbyist, it's not necessarily about believing the superstition behind fengshui, its about looking at it objectively.
He said he combines Western mentality with eastern spirituality. "They overlap," said Aluair. "I think the eastern spirituality has a totally different take, but for me I like to explain it in a Western way.
"There are always skeptics, but you can break it down for them and have it make sense."
He uses the example of a bed facing the doorway to prove his point. In ancient China when someone died their bed would be placed, feet first, in front of the door as people would come visit them. In fengshui, having a bed facing the door has come to symbolize death.
Ignoring the old superstition, Agruila said that positioning the bed outside of the doorway can increase someone's sense of security.
"If you're door faces a doorway someone can just walk in, if someone should break in, it makes you a clear victim," he said.
Using this approach, he said he can often convince skeptics of the practical nature surrounding fengshui.
(China Daily 01/04/2010 page28)
