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When the Technical College (now the Hong Kong Polytechnic University) moved to its new campus at Hung Hom in 1957, expatriates as well as Chinese staff were not pleased to find a funeral parlour sited next door. Not all the Europeans, the author recalls, blamed the deaths and illnesses that followed (among family members of the staff) on bad fung shui. The Chinese, of course, sought advice and took appropriate action. Nevertheless, generally, if staff were advised to swing their desks around so many degrees, all things being more or less equal, Europeans tended not to argue. After some months people stopped falling sick and nobody mentioned the funeral home any more. Some Britons argued it had all been psychosomatic. But it had been a reality, and, unless it was coincidence, what everyone had been advised to do by the fung shui master seemed to have worked.
The truth is, however, that although a few Chinese go out of their way to explain to Westerners that they do not believe in fung shui, in some cases because they think that is what Europeans wish to hear, all sorts of people living in Hong Kong do believe in it. This includes Chinese in all walks of life, including the western educated and the erudite, some Legislative Councillors, rich businessmen and 'old one-hundred names' (the average Chinese).
A private social function held in 1994 included 20 Chinese women ranging in ages from approximately 20 to 45. On being questioned by the author 16 said they believed, two more believed 'more or less', and two did not believe in fung shui.
Many Chinese are not prepared to risk 'not believing'. There are indications, however, that, with the spread of westernisation and 'modern enlightenment', the views of younger Chinese are changing (see Appendix B). But the process is slow and opinions are mixed as the following (the words of a well-educated Chinese girl) illustrates:
'I would not go to the trouble and expense of inviting a fung shui man to my flat. But if I knew I was not supposed to do something I would not do it, just in case. I would listen'
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When the Technical College (now the Hong Kong Polytechnic University) moved to its new campus at Hung Hom in 1957, expatriates as well as Chinese staff were not pleased to find a funeral parlour sited next door. Not all the Europeans, the author recalls, blamed the deaths and illnesses that followed (among family members of the staff) on bad fung shu. The Chinese, of course, sought advice and took appropriate action. Nevertheless, generally, if staff were advised to swing their desks around so many degrees, all things being more or less equal, Europeans tended not to argue. After some months people stopped falling sick and nobody mentioned the funeral home any more. Some Britons argued it had all been psychosomatic. But it had been a reality, and, unless it was coincidence, what everyone had been advised to do by the fung shu master seemed to have worked.
The truth is, however, that although a few Chinese go out of their way to explain to Westerners that they do not believe in fung shui, in some cases because they think that is what Europeans wish to hear, all sorts of people living in Hong Kong do believe in it. This includes Chinese in all walks of life, including the western educated and the erudite, some Legislative Councillors, rich businessmen and 'old one-hundred names' (the average Chinese).
A private social function held in 1994 included 20 Chinese women ranging in ages from approximately 20 to 45. On being questioned by the author 16 said they believed, two more believed 'more or less', and two did not believe in fung shui.
Many Chinese are not prepared to risk 'not believing'. There are indications, however, that, with the spread of westernisation and 'modem enlightenment', the views of younger Chinese are changing (see Appendix B). But the process is slow and opinions are mixed as the following (the words of a well-educated Chinese girl) illustrates:
'I would not go to the trouble and expense of inviting a fung shui man to my flat. But if I knew I was not supposed to do something I would not do it, just in case. I would listen'
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