'Feng shui' belief still drives Asian businesses
'Feng shui' belief still drives Asian businesses
By Anil Penna
SINGAPORE (AFP): When a famous Western hotel chain found its Singapore property was not faring as well as expected, it called in a practitioner of feng shui, the ancient Chinese technique of geomancy.
The expert studied the location, architecture, floor plan and interior design of the building and advised management there was a simple solution: install a water fountain near the main entrance.
The advice was accepted, problem solved and the hotel began packing them in, geomancer George Koh said in an anecdote illustrating the hold of feng shui over businesses in many Asian countries where the Chinese influence is strong.
"In layman's terms, it is basically about getting a right combination of wind and water," Koh said of the Chinese metaphysical technique practiced in such countries as Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan besides mainland China.
Koh's clients include a large French bank, an international broking house and a major car rental agency, and he says Western businesses entering Asia are becoming "customized" to the practice.
He advises about 10-15 clients a month on matters ranging from the direction of the entrance and the location of the offices of the chief executive and the financial controller, to lighting and color schemes.
Feng shui -- the two words mean wind and water -- deals with the influence of the environment, including the earth, the landscape, the ocean and rivers and human dwellings, on human fortune.
"The universe is our environment, and we are ultimately affected by the forces of nature existing in our environment. Such forces of nature are able to affect our destiny," according to Hong Kong-based feng shui expert, Raymond Lo.
Lo, who is also known as "Feng Shui Lo" and has authored several books on the practice, quotes an old Cantonese saying: "Destiny comes first, luck second, and feng shui third."
"You can't control your destiny and luck. But feng shui you can control, it is positive" said Lo, who was in Singapore to lecture Western retailers and developers at the Asia-Pacific convention of the shopping-center industry.
"If you expose yourself to good influences, you are in for prosperity. You have to try to identify where such influences are, from which direction they are coming," the expert said.
In his latest book Feng Shui and Destiny for Managers, he gives the example of Hong Kong property tycoon and billionaire Li Ka-shing, saying feng shui enhances "good destiny if applied wisely."
"As Mr. Li was destined to become a rich man ... he could still have become a millionaire. With the support of good feng shui, his wealth multiplied and today, he is much more than just a millionaire."
The most common application of feng shui is in the selection of business premises, with many commercial buildings designed in consultation with geomancers.
Lo says the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank building in Hong Kong's central district is a prominent example of a good feng shui environment, both physical and intangible, guaranteeing prosperity for the bank until at least 2023.
For retailers, selecting a prosperous building is especially essential to ensure their business's popularity, and there are buildings they must avoid, he says.
A road with a curved edge facing a building, for instance, is considered inauspicious feng shui because it symbolizes the blade of a sword cutting through a building.
A pair of lion statues standing near the entrance is thought to safeguard the good luck of the building and chase away evil spirits.
Singapore geomancer Koh attributes the misfortune of a couple of prominent retailers who are now in the red to the stronger feng shui of another shopping center nearby.
"It is absorbing all the surrounding good fortune," Koh said.