[
    {
        "id": 213261,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1994",
        "page_number": 83,
        "title": "RAS-1994",
        "content_text": "63\n\nIn another case a post-graduate Chinese student told the author:\n\n'Before, I thought it was all superstition. But now I realise it makes sense to proceed in harmony with nature. In life, one of the most important things is to maintain harmony. Although Mother is a Catholic she also believes in fung sha.\n\nThe author, years ago, personally knew young Hong Kong Chinese teenagers who did not believe in, or were not convinced about the efficaciousness of fung shui. But now, after becoming middle-aged or elderly, they have become firm followers. 'A woman who did not believe nearly died,' the author was informed. 'After recovering, she became convinced.'\n\nAs Hong Kong has become more developed and affluent, people have had more money to spend on 'luxuries', such as fung shui. Certainly, modern education alone seems not to deal the final blow (Freedman, 1976:235). Yet it is more likely that a New Territories' villager, who lives close to nature and is a member of a tightly knit group, is more likely to believe in fung shui than his urban cousin. Urban society is divorced from close, everyday contact with mother earth and her cycles. For the urban dweller the modes of thought which underly the practise of fung shui have to be consciously cultivated in order to comprehend them. There are, of course, some New Territories' villagers who do not believe in fung shui in spite of the close web of relationships in rural life.\n\nEugene Ho (who one assumes is Chinese although he could be Eurasian) wrote in the South China Morning Post letters to the editor columns, on 25 May 1987- 'I find the whole theory of fung shui wholly devoid of cognitive content.' He went on to say that many of the casual 'laws' of fung shui, (if they are really \"laws\" at all) are no more than half a probability.\n\nNonetheless, when the British took over the New Territories on a 99-year lease in 1898, they promised to respect the then existing (Qing Dynasty) religious rites, ceremonies and social customs. The Hong Kong Government Gazette of October 7, 1899, published (one year after the New Territories were taken over) as a supplement to the Convention of Peking, said that graves in the leased Territory were never to be removed. Some law lecturers at Hong Kong University feel, however, that, because",
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    {
        "id": 213270,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1994",
        "page_number": 92,
        "title": "RAS-1994",
        "content_text": "72\n\nThus, although the doctrine has made a comeback among the citizens of the People's Republic (Superstition rife, 1989: 13), no thought was supposed to have been paid to it when the towering Bank of China was planned. The Chinese-American architect, I. M. Pei, insists, even though the building includes water features, geomancy was not a consideration.\n\nEugene Ho (Ho, 1987), in a letter to the South China Morning Post, wrote:\n\nI find the whole theory of fung shui wholly devoid of cognitive content.\n\n(For instance) that the sharp edges of the Bank of China in Central are allegedly bad luck.\n\n(It has been suggested) a triangle resembles a pyramid, called kam che tap in Cantonese, and this is similar to kam tap -- which means urns where the remains of the dead are kept.\n\nWhy (should) the mere resemblance between a triangle and a pyramid be sufficient implication of and invitation to bad luck?\n\nThere are those who maintain that paying attention to fung shui helps promote business and keeps staff contented. Few Chinese are likely to quibble over an office layout if it has been designed on the advice of a fung shui consultant. It is, one can argue, a branch of ergonomics. Altering the positions of furniture (which fung shui experts sensibly say should have rounded corners) and office paraphernalia can provide a better sense of space and convenience.\n\nCustoms in Other Countries\n\nChinese fung shui is more complex than most geomantic doctrines, yet there are comparable customs in other countries. A Hindu in India does not like building a house on a triangular site. The position of his bed is important. Such beliefs are more on account of spiritual reasons. Similarly, in the Philippines it is not good to construct a staircase or door facing the direction in which the sun will set because it signifies the disappearance of wealth. The front and back doors, as with Chinese belief, should, likewise, not be in a straight line through the building; otherwise, wealth can escape. You should also not face the door when you sleep.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g",
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    },
    {
        "id": 213301,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1994",
        "page_number": 123,
        "title": "RAS-1994",
        "content_text": "103\n\nif you wait long enough\n\nof what is prophesied is inevitable (Freedman, 1976:228). And to those who express doubts, in answer to the question 'Does fung shui work?' a master once replied: 'Do you ever ask your physician whether his treatment will be effective?'\n\nThe Chinese, including the 50 million odd diaspora, by and large, are industrious; deep down they are believers in the capitalist system. They are achievement orientated; they set great store by education and the advantages it can bring to the person with drive. After all, man is at his best when he has a strong sense of purpose. Carrying on from there, some Chinese believe 'good joss' is the just and inevitable reward of the diligent and skilful. Nevertheless, many still also believe in what can be styled the cruel apportionment of fate. This means, in effect, that when a baby 'comes down to earth and cries three times' his or her life pattern has already been decided. Yet, contrarily, most Chinese believe fate can be ameliorated by enlisting the powers of a fung shui master.\n\n'First is birth, second is luck, third is fung shui, fourth are good deeds on earth, fifth is studying.' If your fortune is good and you were born under a lucky star, that's fine. But a fung shui master can make things even better. It may take time. Investment does not always show immediate returns.\n\n15\n\nLin Yutang (Lin, 1936:301) wrote, '... although geomancy is undeniably a superstition, it has great spiritual and architectural value.' It is, of course, far more than that, and full advantage is usually taken by a competent practitioner of the interplay between luck and natural forces. A large amount seems to depend upon the cultivation of a sixth sense. Some Westerners say too much depends upon intuition and too little on logic. A Chinese might reply by asking in what other way can you handle an ancient, classical system with a name directly translated as 'wind and water'? A wind that Westerners cannot comprehend and water they cannot grasp.\n\nLike many doctrines where one is told 'to have faith', philosophical beliefs, so often, depend upon unprovable statements. Eugene Ho (Ho, 1987) asks, in his letter to the editor of the South China Morning Post, why Saint John's Cathedral, which has stood for so long, was cited by a previous Chinese letter writer as standing on a fine site which is protected by the 'dragon's vein'? Why is it not protected by the Christian God, who",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g",
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    },
    {
        "id": 213314,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1994",
        "page_number": 136,
        "title": "RAS-1994",
        "content_text": "116\n\nPoon, Clement and May Fung, 'Plenty More Fish to Fill the Tanks of Mong Kok', Hong Kong Standard, 26 November 1994,\n\n'Race-Day Rites to Exorcise Sha Tin Jinx', South China Morning Post, 3 May 1987\n\nRam, Jane, 'Asia Conjures Wind and Water to Boost Business', International Management, July/August 1987\n\nSaw Puay Lim, \"The Force is With Them', Sunday Morning Post Magazine, August 1990\n\nStewart, Rob, 'Can Your Business do Without the Feng Shui Edge?', Executive, November 1995\n\n'Superstitions Rife. Survey Reveals', South China Morning Post, 11 December 1989\n\nTatlow, Dermot, 'Safe and Sound in Domain of the Yellow Emperor', Sunday Morning Post, 7 March 1993\n\nTse, Patricia, 'Banking on a Grand Design and Good Luck', South China Morning Post, 28 May 1990\n\nWan, Melanie, 'Fungshui Experts not what They Used to Be', Hong Kong Standard, 19 August 1985\n\nWesley-Smith, Peter, Identity, Land, Feng Shui and the Law in Traditional Hong Kong, Law working paper series no 5, University of Hong Kong, 1992\n\n'What Pyramids and the River Thames have in Common', International Property Review, undated\n\nWoo, Anthony, 'The Tao of Technology', Asia Magazine, c. 1995\n\nLetters to the Editor of the South China Morning Post\n\nChan, C.W., 'Safety Concern', 24 June 1990\n\nHo, Eugene, 'Fung Shui and a Lesson from Science', 25 May 1987\n\nWebb, Richard, 'In Defence of Fung Shui', 10 July 1991\n\n'Unlucky Bank', 21 September 1991",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g",
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]