Making a date with fate

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-15 10:42

Gloria Yu never used to believe in magic. She does now.

Strikingly attractive, slim, sophisticated and outgoing, she seemed to possess all the qualities a man could desire. But with every boyfriend, the passion would soon fizzle out of their relationship and the man would vanish.

Not into thin air, or behind a puff of smoke, but, usually, into an uncomfortable silence at the end of the telephone, or simply a text message saying, "It's over".

Having reached the end of her tether, the 28-year-old sought out the help of a fengshui master last March after deciding that anything, however dubious, was better than the empty space staring at her from the other side of the dinner table every evening.

"Many people half-believe and half-doubt the practice of fengshui," said Yu, a marketing specialist in Shanghai who comes from southern China's Yunnan province. "I was one of them."

Calculating her romantic fate based on her Chinese horoscope and birth date, the fengshui master instructed her to change the location of her bed and other pieces of furniture. She was also advised to keep a vase of fresh flowers in her apartment and change the water daily.

Despite her doubts, she dutifully obeyed. Two months later, she met a Frenchman at a pub and they fell hopelessly in love. They married that Christmas in his home country.

"Now I'm a faithful follower because, through my own experience, I know how magical it can be," she said, smiling.

Yu is one of a growing number of white-collar Chinese workers in their 20s and 30s who are turning to the traditional Chinese practice of fengshui (wind and water) to find true love, luck and prosperity.

Derived from an ancient Chinese system of aesthetics said to incorporate the laws of Heaven and Earth, the practice is based on Guo Pu's Zhangshu (Book of Burial) from the Jin Dynasty. It is essentially the rearranging of one's living space to draw a pathway for the flow of positive qi (energy), a power believed to help better the lives of individuals.

Wang Xiaohe, a fengshui practitioner in Shanghai, said he sees more young people turning to the old tradition as they look for spiritual direction in solving their jaded, confused love lives - or as a way to advance their careers.

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