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Andy Johnson
01-18-2001, 05:54 AM
Anyone know alot about Fung Shui?

HuangKaiVun
01-26-2001, 05:40 AM
Why do you ask?

Kung Lek
01-27-2001, 04:58 AM
Feng Shui is the art of harmonizing all that you surround yourself with , with yourself and the environment you are in.

It's the little things, like where a lamp gets placed and it's big things like architecture and where a door is and where the stairs lead to and how high the peak of the roof is and whether or not the shadow of the building is covering another and all sorts of stuff.

It is essentially about harmony with the environment though.

why, you got elvis on velvet paintings in your house and you are wondering if they affect the Feng Shui of the room? hahahaha, well they do! kidding, if ya like elvis paintings, make sure they are in a room that suits them.

peace

Kung Lek

EARTH DRAGON
09-13-2001, 09:01 PM
I am rearanging my house in according to feng shuii principles.
does any one else use this for their home or office and if so do you have any suggestions?
also am I trying to speed up or slow down chi movement throughout the house or both? and How? thank you for your help

http://www.kungfuUSA.net

Mojo
09-13-2001, 09:13 PM
Earth Dragon
My good friend Dr. Roger West is one of the top Feng Shui guys in L.A.
His web site is...
http://www.westfengshui.com/
You can contact him through his web site to ask questions if you want.
I'm going to see him this Saturday and ask him about the WTC's Feng Shui.

Zhin
09-14-2001, 01:38 AM
Pay no attention to Black Hat Feng Shui. They are the people who push using the bagua as a map to re-arranging your house. Finding a reputable Feng Shui Practitioner can be very hard, since the historical legend is that one of the Chinese Emperors got all the best Feng Shui Masters together, and asked them to write a book summarizing their knowledge. He then killed them all, and memorized the book, burning it when he was done.

Black hat Feng Shui was created in Berkeley in the 60's or 70's, by some guy who is now a billionaire, surrounded by his devout female followers. I kid you not.

lowsweep
02-04-2002, 03:13 PM
I know someone who is very interested in learning about Feng Shui. There are apparently two schools of thought, one that is based around the location of the front door and one that is based on the house in relation to North and South. Is there a preffered method? Does anyone know the main differences of each?
thanks,
adam

apoweyn
02-05-2002, 03:34 PM
i think you'll find that they're both elements of the same feng shui, along with a lot of other considerations.

Outcast
02-06-2002, 04:40 PM
The traditional Chinese Compass School of FS has a tool known as a Pa Kua which you place over your house plans on a North South Alignment, this then tells you which aeas of your house relate to which aspects of your life (e.g the north is your career, the south is your fame area etc.). This system is thousands of years old and originated in China.

The Black Hat school uses the same tool but refers to it as a Bagua and the career area (whch is north on the compass school) is aligned to the front door on the plan with the centre of the bagua in the centre of the house. This is a much more recent school (developed in the mid 1980s).

The location of the front door is important to both schools but the Black Hat School will actually turn the Bagua to the front door to set out the areas of the house.

Different FS practitioners use different schools, a traditional chinese pactitioner will use the compass school, the Black Hat school seems to be more popular with western practitioners.

In addition there is also the Form School which relates to the landscape around the house. As to which theory works best, I cant say (I have herd of some practitioners combining both schools) but I have herd positive and negative comments about both schools.

I hope this goes some way to explaining the basics but a good teaching academy would be able to advise your friend then I can here.

All the best

Outcast

Radhnoti
02-06-2002, 08:12 PM
I'm thinking of building a house soon, if I'm reading you correctly Outcast your take on Feng Shui would lean toward putting the front door to the North?
Anyone have any good websites with some decent basic pointers for someone planning a home?

Outcast
02-08-2002, 12:07 PM
Hi Radhnoti

Putting the door to the north would get around the problem of which school of FS you use, but there are a couple of things worth bearing in mind:

The traditional chinese consultant will work out which are auspicious and un-auspicious directions for your front door from your own birthday (north may not actually be on of your auspicious directions). It just depends if you like to stick to the traditional school or if you feel more comfortable with the modern way of thinking.

Also putting the door to the north may not suit the site or your desired house layout.

I would be more interested in the site to begin with. This means getting to grip with the Form School. I wouldnt want to choose a site where I was overshadowed or overlooked, or where other environmental influences could cause problems (heavy traffic near by, overhead powerlines, high risk of flooding, too exposed etc). I am also a dowser so there are other unseen factors I would look for.

If you want further information I could come up with a few book titles which could help. I am afraid most FS web sites I have seen tend not to go into finding a location and building a home, more moving the furniture, astrology and applying FS cures. I will keep my eye open incase I see a useful one

Hope ths is of some use

Cheers

Outcast

Radhnoti
02-08-2002, 02:23 PM
Outcast,

First of all, thanks for bothering to answer. I'd be interested in a book title or two, if you don't mind making the recommendations.
I decided not to PM or e-mail you in case someone else is following along or interested later.

Thanks again.

Outcast
02-10-2002, 09:00 AM
I have a book by Stephen Skinner called "Feng Shui", this is a beginners book which teaches the traditional approach. It covers Compass school, the five elements, astrology etc. Its easy reading and not too expensive (I have found copies in cheap book shops for about £6.00)

For a BHS book try Carole J Hyder "Wind and Water-Your Personal Feng Shui Journey"

There is a magazine called Feng Shui for Modern Living, I havent bought a copy for a while now but that covered the basics as well as giving you the usual interviews articles etc. It may be worth picking up a copy.

The magazine also released some Feng Shui software which is OK. I bought a copy and installed it at work, I quite enjoyed using that (the folks at work loved the chinese astrology and how it worked out what kind of day you would/could have). It also gave a good introduction to the basics and the FS schools. If your interested in this maybe see if Feng Shui fo Modern Living have a web site as you could order it from there.

It also may be worth taking a foundation course if there is a good school near you and your interested enough to spend a little more money (I found that the best introduction to be honest)

I hope these are useful, if I can be of any further help do feel free to ask.

Former castleva
10-28-2002, 08:34 AM
Any thoughts appreciated.

Going to do some study...

It seems everyone is not happy with this kind of oriental art either http://www.qi-****.com/

Former castleva
10-28-2002, 08:36 AM
Oh great,that link was infected somehow...

http://www.qi-w-hiz.com/

(just delete the "-")
;)

Budokan
10-28-2002, 08:59 AM
I suppose there's nothing wrong with wanting to live in a harmonious environment, and the way we live is a reflection of our inner selves: a cluttered living space reflects a cluttered mind, a Spartan living space reflects someone who is into minimalism both in lifestyle and thinking, etc.

But I don't buy into the mysticism at all surrounding FS. There's nothing "magical" about picking up after yourself and arranging your furniture (and your life) so that the elements of each are in harmony with each other. People don't need FS for this, they just need to get their heads out of their collective a$$es and start taking better care of themselves.

My two yen

yenhoi
10-28-2002, 09:00 AM
Budokan, how are you going to convice a grand mage to open your third eye for you talking like that?

Budokan
10-28-2002, 09:07 AM
hahaha! Good point. But I already have a "third eye". I call him "Mr. One Eye". :D

Former castleva
10-28-2002, 09:30 AM
Budokan,you´re talking of one of the main chakras right?

yenhoi
10-28-2002, 09:50 AM
Former castleva:

You can read the Feng Shui official handbooks, they are free and distributed online. You must do the historical research yourself tho, there are some fantastic claims in dem der papers.

There is also a collection of lectures I have not completly read through, I figure the last 700 are the same as the first 200 or so.

GeneChing
10-28-2002, 11:12 AM
I've always been skeptical of Feng Shui, but after working with a few FS masters, I've learned a lot. Some of them are really good, but like any art FS or martial, it depends more on the art then the man. It ties into your practice in an oblique way and can be very deep, especially if you study the internals.

Check out our FS horoscopes - http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/resources/horoscope.html

dezhen2001
10-28-2002, 12:18 PM
my Sigong does some Feng Shui sometimes, and from the little i have read or talked about with him, it's not so much like all this mystical 'Qi' BS that most people have here... everyone seems to want to buy crystals to 'harmonise their qi' and just hang them up (reminiscient of the CMA scene generally with all the snakes and fakes) - but its actually very much a science and bloomin difficult to do correctly. just like gong fu ;)

just my thoughts :)
dawood

dezhen2001
10-28-2002, 12:20 PM
Gene: are those horoscopes out of date by a few months? :confused:

pretty cool though thanks :)
dawood

Former castleva
10-28-2002, 01:01 PM
OK.
Thanks a herd everyone. :D
I should gather some information on this "art" (well it is)
And it should work out.

David,where have you been? I thought you were found. :)
Well my work needs a boost anyway,check your PM (nah,I have not written anything yet,I´ll try :D )
Hopefully we will accidentally meet at fighterschat until I work something out.
Best regards.

dre_doggX
06-30-2003, 01:43 PM
What has work for you?

chen zhen
06-30-2003, 01:45 PM
Have'nt really done any, so I can't answer.
But good subject!:)

Kristoffer
06-30-2003, 02:34 PM
Don't use Feng Shui but it's interesting..

http://www.fengshuisociety.org.uk/

Former castleva
07-01-2003, 03:03 AM
"Don't use Feng Shui but it's interesting.."
:D

It´s an "interesting" superstition.

I´m losing it,but I do know more than most I guess,having studied some.

In the distant past,it used to be somewhat of a practical method (a protoscience?) for a Chinese villager.I´m not talking about flower pot arrangement...

Of course superstition was a part of the game during those days too.Dead relative´s remains might have been moved to another grave after burial,would it have been found out that,according to feng shui,it was an unfortunate place to rest at.

chen zhen
07-01-2003, 03:12 AM
It has become a household concept used by many single women in the western world, like Yoga, tai Chi (noooo..!!) & to a certain degree, some aspects of Zen (aarrgg).
I hate it.

Former castleva
07-01-2003, 03:16 AM
You said that.
Young women and esoteric+pseudoscience. :) I have noticed that too.

Theoretically,I know how to attract single,western women with their woo-woo. ;) At least to a degree.

Paint your door red btw,so ghosts won´t get in.

chen zhen
07-01-2003, 03:18 AM
Theoretically,I know how to attract single,western women with their woo-woo.

So there is something practical about it.;)

The "woo-hoo" could be misunderstood.:p

Former castleva
07-01-2003, 03:19 AM
woo-woo=pseudoscience. :p

How could it be misunderstood?

chen zhen
07-01-2003, 04:16 AM
From what u said, a woo-hoo must be something a woman has.:p

bodhitree
07-02-2003, 08:10 AM
It has become a household concept used by many single women in the western world, like Yoga, tai Chi (noooo..!!) & to a certain degree, some aspects of Zen (aarrgg).
I hate it. Chen Zhen

I hate that kind of thing. this stupid hoebag I know told me she was doing feng shui, I asked her what feng shui meant and she said "candle making". I just thought to myself 'you dumb hoe'. Its the same with Yoga and Taijiquan. People discard half of the discipline to get an easy way to reduce stress or appear to be spiritual or new age or trendy or whatever. Taijiquan we all know is a formitable martial art. Yoga is also an intense discipline, not a lose weight in 20 min. a day kind of thing. I saw a Yoga teacher on the television doing a guided meditation and he was saying "let you happy little cells dance around" he didn't say anything about Dyana or Vipsanna, very sad!

chen zhen
07-02-2003, 09:46 AM
hoebag is your new favourite word, I see.;)

Former castleva
07-02-2003, 09:49 AM
Ho,ho,ho! :cool:

chen zhen
07-02-2003, 09:57 AM
Hey Ho, SIIILVEERR:D

Heidi Ho.:cool:

Kristoffer
07-03-2003, 06:05 AM
jeHOva

Kristoffer
07-03-2003, 06:06 AM
:D :rolleyes:
I'm outta here, gotta buy some beer

Former castleva
07-03-2003, 07:57 AM
:D :D Like the best lines I´ve seen for days....

chen zhen
07-03-2003, 08:01 AM
The HO-bbit.:cool:

Kristoffer
07-04-2003, 04:57 AM
I'm all sHOber, gotta drink some mHO

MasterKiller
12-14-2009, 08:27 AM
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1946757,00.html

SPJ
12-16-2009, 08:45 AM
I am not an expert

but my brothers are.

they said, believers be aware!

there are many hoaxes. only a few masters really know the number, the direction

alignment of your personal signs/weights (your birthtime) with the nature or stars in the sky---

they are only statistics. or reference points

meaning that there are time and place/conditions for things to unfold. we would take advantage of these conditions and not working against them.

in the end, the future IS in your hand. You are the main factor that make things happen to you. not the environment or timing of events etc.

then again, we may plan things and make efforts, whether we succeed or not. it is in the hand of God or other factors beyond our control.

---

SPJ
12-16-2009, 08:48 AM
feng shui or wind and water

it is our goal that we are aware of things in the nature

somehow we may steer away from troubles and steer close to comfort/happiness conditions.

people also believe that magnetic fields

we are also a mass so much so the earth is a giant mass

so alignment of our magnetic fields with the stars and earth may effect our sleep, working hours, and ultimately chances to succeed.

---

SPJ
12-16-2009, 08:52 AM
they are only suggested ideas

but some realtors or furnishing companies may go to extremes

and prop up their realty or furnitures prices

these are what people strongly against.

feng shui is like that

there maybe 10 years of east wind. there may be 10 years of west wind.

the yellow river changed directions all the time, we may be east of the river for 10 years, and then west of the river for 10 years.

10 years means a long time or many years in Chinese.

everything changes. even feng (wind) and shui (river/water).

so they said.

SPJ
12-16-2009, 08:59 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5atOfOlZ6XU&feature=related

ok

I am listening.

:)

SPJ
12-16-2009, 09:01 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j0oP8jXC-U&feature=related

I strongly believe in this.

hehehe.

:cool:

GeneChing
03-10-2010, 02:45 PM
I'm of the Penn & Teller school of Feng Sham. ;)

http://www.dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/000000/80000/4000/500/84507/84507.strip.gif

David Jamieson
03-10-2010, 03:00 PM
yeah, we all want to live and work in an environment that is clean, tidy and somewhat peaceful and not stressful.

Who wouldn't!?

Think of feng shui people as a different kind of interior designer. :)

But yeah, if you think that chair is messing with your spiritual energy because it has a pointed leg, well...you are nuts. lol

GeneChing
03-10-2010, 03:08 PM
...oh too late.

See my archived e-zine article: Iron Crotch Opens the Door (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=654). ;)

kfson
03-10-2010, 03:20 PM
My office had a Chinese client who had a Wu, a kind of Chinese shaman, flown in from China to determine the best location of the front door to their business. A exterior freestanding wall had to be built to block some bad energy from down the street. And don't get me going about numbers and what day to sign a contract, etc.

GeneChing
03-11-2010, 10:13 AM
Coincidentally, I have a Dilbert calendar here at the office.

http://www.dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/000000/80000/4000/500/84508/84508.strip.gif

Also in the comics this week, Sherman's Lagoon (http://www.slagoon.com/cgi-bin/sviewer.pl) is doing a kung fu spoof. Unfortunately, unlike Dilbert's official site (http://www.dilbert.com/), SL doesn't post its strips until they are a week or so old. I suppose I can grab it off a newspaper, but those tend to evaporate later, so I'll probably wait until it goes official in hopes that it is more stable from the source.

Lee Chiang Po
03-11-2010, 11:27 AM
foon sui is like chi. It only exists in ones mind. Everything we do is dependant upon ourselves really. Luck is a strange thing. It favors no one and it can go blindly either way. However, by covering all points you can remove more of what you do from under that umbrella. Leave less to luck by planning everything with good sound basic knowledge of what you are doing. Do that in everything and you will always have a much better chance of success. There are always factors that will alter your best plans, such as the actions of other people, but if you can even plan against that you will still not have to depend upon luck. Unless making good solid judgements and planning for things can be considered foon sui. Otherwise it is little more than superstition. And then again, doing superstitious things can actually releave stress to some extent.

GeneChing
03-12-2010, 10:48 AM
It's not the first time I've poached a quote from Wally...;)

http://www.dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/000000/80000/4000/500/84509/84509.strip.gif

Gowgee
09-25-2011, 07:33 PM
Green dragon protecting the waterways to the east, white tiger protecting the roads to the west, red pea**** protecting the fields to the south, and black tortoise protecting the mountains to the north.

While this formula works great for the northern hemisphere, English colonists discovered that building houses with entrances facing the south in New Zealand identically to in their homelands would expose them to freezing Antarctic winds.

How do the constants work in both hemispheres (such as the rotation of the earth, and the position of the sun), what are the differences (such as north and south pole magnetism) and how can feng shui be adjusted for the south?

extrajoseph
09-28-2011, 09:25 AM
Adjust the orientation of the houses to suit the changes on the physical level, but keep the metaphysical calculations/considerations the same for both hemispheres, because the physical is local and needs adjustments while the metaphysical is universal and it remains the same all over the world.

Gowgee
10-01-2011, 09:12 PM
Thanks for your advice, extrajoseph.

I'm wondering how this works on a directional level though, since Winter is traditionally associated with North, Autumn with the East etc. Do these still remain in their traditional positions?

GeneChing
08-07-2015, 09:37 AM
Feng Shui is supposed to follow nature, not paint it green. :rolleyes:


Look: Chongqing man paints 900m cliff green for 'better feng shui'

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/katienelson/feng-shui-mtn.jpg

Feng shui is serious, serious business for some people in China. The ancient art has led men onto the path of corruption and, in extreme cases, driven them to a murderous state. Recently in the Qijiang county of Chongqing, a resident went as far as to cover an entire cliff face with green paint, as its original color had 'a negative influence on the feng shui of his house'.

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/katienelson/feng-shui-mtn2.jpg

The man, Yang Zhigang, commissioned a team of five to six workers who were seen dangling from safety ropes to coat the cliff face a bright, some might say horrible, shade of green. The workers spent over a week spray-painting around 2,000 square meters of the 900-meter high cliff, leaving areas on either side untouched.

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/katienelson/feng-shui-mtn3.jpg

Local authorities are now investigating the case to determine the extent of the damage, although Zhang seems to consider the makeover a vast improvement.

“I think it [the cliff] looks good after a coat of paint, what’s right or wrong about it?” he was quoted as saying.

[Images via CRI]

GeneChing
08-12-2016, 10:47 AM
Couldn't cut&paste the pic. He does look like a K-pop star.


A FAMOUS FORTUNETELLER REVEALS HIS SECRETS (http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/a-famous-fortuneteller-reveals-his-secrets/69639)
BY LESLIE NGUYEN-OKWUAUG 122016
RISING STARS

The ancient practice of fortunetelling in China may conjure up images of white-bearded sages on misty mountaintops, but there’s no crystal ball in Lee Shing Chak’s cramped office. It’s the Year of the Monkey, and those born as “roosters” like me can look forward to plenty of sex and romance in the coming months, Lee announces. If I argue with others, though, he warns, my “joints, bones, fingers and muscles may ache.”

The bearer of this hallowed wisdom is an urbanite from Hong Kong. The 47-year-old Lee looks recklessly young, like a K-pop star, but his boyish appearance belies his decades of feng shui experience. Lee sees his work through a “scientific perspective,” and he’s on a mission to bring the timeworn philosophy into the 21st century.

Lee is among the best-known feng shui masters in Hong Kong, with a growing roster of both local and international clients. He enjoys media attention and rarely shies away from a camera. For the past 15 years, his sculpted face and soulful sloe eyes have graced magazine covers and TV screens; he’s appeared on the biggest stations and channel news networks, including TVB’s Hong Kong Enigmata. Lee also lectures at everything from financial institutions to land developers, and pens articles for media publications like Sing Tao Daily and the Hong Kong Economic Times. He abides by the 3,000-year-old art of feng shui — a belief system about far more than organizing your room: It purports to spread good qi (life force) by balancing yin (dark energy) and yang (light energy) across your life. The goal, Lee says, is to bring people closer to the natural and invisible pulse of their environment. Lee wants to make something clear: He isn’t pulling rabbits out of a hat or using smoke and mirrors. Rather, he’s drawing from millennia of expertise in metaphysics, statistics, astronomy, sociology and a whole host of other disciplines to bring balance into the world.

Every lunar year, Lee relays his prophecies of doom and nuggets of wisdom with “scary accuracy” to the world, says fellow fortune teller Thean Nang. Lee claims to have published accurate predictions, with empirical data, in a yearly prophecy almanac on the 2014 World Cup winner, Osama bin Laden’s death, the birth of Prince George and the Ebola epidemic in West Africa — all months, or even years, ahead of the curve. Which explains how Lee has cashed in on millions in book sales, though he was too stately to go into specifics (“I try not to boast,” he says).

It helps that Lee’s growing roster of clients pays big bucks for him to divine the future, pick the best burial spots or choose a baby name that will bring good luck. Lee says that real estate companies and corporations like Citibank and Samsung seek his counsel on everything from the ideal office location to the best paint color for walls (both companies declined to comment for this story). Lee declined to name specific price tags; other feng shui services typically cost anywhere from $25 to $3,000 in China. The more involved and time-consuming the service, the more expensive.

Banned as superstition for 60 years and counting in mainland China, feng shui is making a quiet comeback, with families and businesses alike seeking spiritual guidance in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, where newly middle-class mainlanders with more disposable wealth have been crossing the border to seek supernatural guidance and spiritual shortcuts to success. Perhaps the verboten nature only increases the appeal — the Communist Party forbade feng shui books in 2013 as part of an anti-superstition campaign; it certainly isn’t hurting business abroad. Hong Kong’s distance from the Communist Party has allowed feng shui to flourish, says Lee. During our interview, a handful of businessmen stop by his office anxious for guidance on big financial decisions. Meanwhile, expectant mothers are lining up at nearby hospitals hoping to deliver on so-called auspicious days that Lee determines, to give their babies a head start in the world.

At 10, Lee learned to cultivate good qi from his father, who learned it from his father. Traditionally, masters relay their techniques to their next of kin. Dad also taught geomancy skills — the discerning of specific earth formations and watercourses — as well as how to read a luopan (羅盤), or a Chinese magnetic compass that is used to help balance energy. At 19, Lee became the youngest feng shui master ever in Hong Kong. But he still had to prove himself to patrons wary of his inexperience. To conceal his baby face, Lee advertised with a silhouette of himself rather than a photograph.

In those days, though, Lee had even bigger reasons to conceal his identity. People who dabbled in feng shui were beaten and disgraced by the government in mainland China, particularly during the height of the Cultural Revolution, which coincided with Lee’s prepubescence. Over the years, leading a more public life hasn’t become any easier for Lee. Skeptics of feng shui still question the “superstition of it all, the pseudoscience,” says a Hong Kong expat and dissatisfied former client of Lee’s who prefers to go unnamed. “He doesn’t hold all the answers. Not even God does.”

But every leader has his detractors — and this feng shui guru believes he’s fulfilling his destiny, like a “boat in a vast ocean,” Lee says in reply to the criticism. “Apart from having a clear direction, you must also have an unswerving, steadfast heart when powerful winds or big waves come, just like the anchor of that ship.” Which sounds a tad more lyrical than scientific.

Leslie Nguyen Bio
LESLIE NGUYEN-OKWU
OZY AUTHOR REPORTER

Leslie Nguyen-Okwu is OZY's Southeast Asia roving reporter. Stuff she loves: running half-marathons (in sweltering Thai heat), chowing down on local street food and fumbling with new languages.

GeneChing
09-16-2016, 01:06 PM
Beyond being the Associate Publisher of Kung Fu Tai Chi (http://www.martialartsmart.com/19341.html) and the main administrator of this here forum, I am also an expert in this ancient Chinese traditional method of fortunetelling. :cool:


Look after your assets! Bizarre video shows a man 'telling a woman's fortune' by feeling her breast (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3793135/Look-assets-Bizarre-video-shows-man-telling-woman-s-fortune-feeling-breast.html)

Popular video on social media is believed to be filmed in China
Man was apparently predicting the woman's future on the street
He was seen having one hand on her breast and another on his crutches

By JULIAN LUK FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 12:15 EST, 16 September 2016 | UPDATED: 12:29 EST, 16 September 2016

Is this the most bizarre way to have your fortune told?
A bizarre video has emerged online showing a man allegedly predicting a woman's future by touching her breast.
The footage was believed to be filmed in China and has been shared on social media.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/16/17/3872524800000578-3793135-image-a-29_1474045094975.jpg
So your future looks like... A video has emerged on social media claiming a man was telling a woman's fortune by feeling her breast

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/16/17/3872523500000578-3793135-image-a-30_1474045099233.jpg
Strange practice: The video is believed to be filmed in China and has been shared by a photographer to social media platform Miaopai

The eight-second clip was posted on Miaopai, a short-video sharing platform in China, on September 8.
It was uploaded by a user named Xiao Yuwen, who claims to be a travel photographer from China's Yunan Province.
Xiao wrote in the post: 'Fortune telling by touching the breast, this man is taking great advantage.'
However, the post did not specify where the video had been filmed.
In the short video, a bespectacled man can be seen touching a woman's breast.
The man, who is believed to be a fortune teller, held a pair of crutches in the other hand.
The woman can be seen staring at him with a puzzled face.
The pair were surrounded by a group of people as the alleged fortune-telling was taking place.
However, there was no conversation between the fortune-teller and woman in the video.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/09/16/18/3872FC5E00000578-3793135-image-a-42_1474046884194.jpg
Fortune-telling is commonly seen across China. Palm reading (pictured) is a popular method

The video has attracted nearly two million views in less than a week.
Many social media users thought the fortune-teller had gone too far.
One user said on Weibo, a Twitter-like platform in China: 'This is disgusting.'
While another sounded confused: 'What happens if a man comes for fortune telling, will he still touch his breast?'
However, some Weibo users expressed interest in learning the skill: 'Does he teach anyone? I want to learn this.'
Many others simply made fun of the video, with comments such as 'all men know how to do it' and 'this is the job benefits of being a fortune teller'.
The practice of fortune-telling is commonly seen throughout the mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and some parts of south-east Asia.
Many believe certain body parts could hold clues for their future.
Face-reading and palm reading are the most common methods.

GeneChing
02-01-2017, 08:46 AM
Chinese mystic who predicted Trump win warns of 'NIGHTMARE' for Prez in September (http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/583923/chinese-fortune-teller-priscilla-lam-donald-trump-nightmare?utm_source=applenews)
DONALD Trump faces a “nightmare” of “problems and challenges” from September this year, according to a Chinese fortune teller.

By Joshua Nevett / Published 31st January 2017

http://cdn.images.dailystar.co.uk/dynamic/1/photos/744000/620x/Priscilla-Lam-predicts-nightmare-for-Trump-583923.jpg
SOUTHCHINAMORNINGPOST/GETTY
PREDICATION: Priscilla Lam correctly tipped The Donald for the top job
Mystic Priscilla Lam correctly predicted the billionaire businessman would become leader of the Free World.

Now she believes his luck is about to run out.

The master of feng shui – a mystical Chinese philosophy – told South China Morning Post Trump's good fortune will continue in the first half of the year.

But as his policies begin to take effect, Lam said the “problem and challenges” of governing will come to a head.

http://cdn.images.dailystar.co.uk/dynamic/1/photos/749000/donald-trump-811749.jpg
GETTY
NIGHTMARE: Lam believes Trump's luck will run out in September

She warned: “In the first half of the year America will be OK, no problem. But in the second half, the nightmare will start.

“Trump has made so many people upset or irritated, so when his luck runs out in the second half of the year, problems or challenges will go with it.

“In business he’s definitely a successful person, but in politics it’s another thing.”


“In the second half, the nightmare will start.”
Priscilla Lam

Lam tipped Trump to win in the election last November – despite polls suggesting Hillary Clinton was the runaway favourite.

Speaking to CNN, she said: “[Trump’s] fire is stronger than Hillary’s.”

To come to her conclusions, Lam, who has advised movie star Jackie Chan, uses a combination of astrology and feng shui.

Lam, a fortune teller of 20 years, also believes his marriage to Melania could hit the rocks too.

She added: “No time to talk about love. When the honeymoon time has passed, he faces a lot of things.”

It comes as Brit psychic Craig Hamilton-Parker, who predicted Trump's win, Brexit and the Nice terror attacks, revealed what 2017 has in store.

I wonder how many times she advised Jackie.

GeneChing
04-03-2017, 09:29 AM
The don't say 'feng shui' in this article, but that's what this is. You'd think there'd be feng shui for websites, right?


What's in a Chinese name? Ancient rites and growing business (http://artdaily.com/index.asp?int_new=94926&int_sec=11#.WOJ5zm_yvcs)

http://artdaily.com/imagenes/2017/04/03/china-2.jpg
This picture taken on February 28, 2017 shows fortune-teller Mao Shandong looking on as he waits for customers in his shop in Beijing. In a one-room shop tucked inside a Beijing alley, a bearded 74-year-old fortune-teller in crimson tunic offers what Chinese parents have sought for centuries: an auspicious name for their newborn. But business has been tough lately for Mao Shandong and others in his trade as tech-savvy entrepreneurs have turned the ancient naming tradition into a lucrative online business. WANG Zhao / AFP.

by Yanan Wang

BEIJING (AFP).- In a one-room shop tucked inside a Beijing alley, a bearded 74-year-old fortune-teller in crimson tunic offers what Chinese parents have sought for centuries: an auspicious name for their newborn.

But business has been tough lately for Mao Shandong and others in his trade as tech-savvy entrepreneurs have turned the ancient naming tradition into a lucrative online business.

"We can't make a living these days," lamented Mao.

Chinese have for centuries believed that a well-chosen name can ensure a lifetime of good fortune.

Unlike in English, where one draws from a lexicon of Josephs and Richards, a Chinese name can be created from any combination of two or three characters.

And for many Chinese parents, making the right choice has become even more imperative as they seek to help their children stand out in the world's most populous country.

"Parents care more and more about personal brand," said Zhang Ruxin, the 37-year-old co-founder of the Beijing-based naming service Qimingtong, which essentially means "Clear Naming."

"They realise that the name will follow their child for their entire life, be judged by their employers and have an impact on their values."

Qimingtong operates almost entirely online, with parents filling out web questionnaires and Zhang offering consultation services through the popular messaging app WeChat.

A quick web search reveals more than a hundred such businesses in China, each promising names that will pave the way for future success.

Branding for babies

Zhang founded Qimingtong in late 2014 with her business partner, Chen Jun, after working for two decades as a newspaper reporter while pursuing a hobby helping friends and colleagues name their children.

Qimingtong's software uses an algorithm to compile the best names for a child based on their parents' responses to a personality quiz. It has been used by more than 10,000 people.

Zhang and her employees also help name dozens of newborns every day either via walk-ins or online consultations.

Rates range from 400 yuan ($60) to 10,000 yuan for a private consultation with Zhang.

Liu Qiang, a police officer in central Henan province, and his wife wanted to use a modern naming method that still accounts for "bazi" -- the traditional belief in a destiny determined by one's date of birth.

"Bazi" or "eight characters," refers to the eight digits denoting the year, month, date and hour of birth. It is believed to determine the natural elements present in one's life, such as metal, wood, water, fire and earth.

A name can compensate for the elements that a child lacks.

Liu's son lacked a wood element, so Qimingtong named him "Bailin," combining the characters for cypress tree and a mythical, dragon-like creature from Chinese folklore to create a name which his parents hope will help him forge a unique identity.

"We want him to realise his personal dreams," said Liu, 39.

A colleague called 'Eleven'

Chinese looking to move abroad or work for international companies may also seek help choosing an English name.

At Lindsay Jernigan's first job in Shanghai, she worked alongside Apple, Yoyo and Eleven.

The last co-worker's English name, inspired by a Liverpool footballer's jersey number, regularly caused confusion.

Was the meeting with Eleven, or at 11 am? Was she making a reservation for Eleven, or for 11 people?

While her company was filled with "really smart, driven" professionals, Jernigan, a 27-year-old American, feared their names would hurt their prospects in English-speaking work environments.

Two years ago she founded BestEnglishName.com, which charges 248 yuan for a 30-minute consultation via WeChat.

Some clients request English names that still adhere to "bazi", forcing Jernigan to get creative.

If someone wants a water element, she may suggest "Brook," "Morgan" (a water sprite in Welsh), or "Lindsay," which means "Linden trees by the water."

"Of course you can just get lists of names online, but we're the only ones that truly understand the Chinese mentality," Jernigan said.

"Naming is a way of self-expression. The demand is definitely here."
Not everyone shares her optimism.

Mao said he is ready to abandon his fortune-telling business, even as he scorns his rivals in the naming industry.

"All those websites, they're the scams," he said with a sigh.
"They don't truly understand Chinese tradition."

GeneChing
10-12-2017, 08:48 AM
OCTOBER 11, 2017 / 7:00 PM / UPDATED 14 HOURS AGO
China's top paper warns party officials against 'spiritual anesthesia' (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-congress-religion/chinas-top-paper-warns-party-officials-against-spiritual-anesthesia-idUSKBN1CH06O)
Reuters Staff
3 MIN READ

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s top newspaper warned Communist Party officials on Thursday not to “pray to God and worship Buddha”, because communism is about atheism and superstition is at the root of many corrupt officials who fall from grace.

China officially guarantees freedom of religion for major belief systems like Christianity, Buddhism and Islam, but party members are meant to be atheists and are especially banned from participating in what China calls superstitious practices like visiting soothsayers.

The party’s official People’s Daily said in a commentary it had not been uncommon over the past few years to see officials taken down for corruption to have also participated in “feudalistic superstitious activities”.

“In fact, some officials often go to monasteries, pray to God and worship Buddha,” it said. “Some officials are obsessed with rubbing shoulders with masters, fraternizing with them as brothers and becoming their lackeys and their money-trees.”

Chinese people, especially the country’s leaders, have a long tradition of putting their faith in soothsaying and geomancy, looking for answers in times of doubt, need and chaos.

The practice has grown more risky amid a sweeping crackdown on deep-seated corruption launched by President Xi Jinping upon assuming power in late 2012, in which dozens of senior officials have been imprisoned.

The People’s Daily pointed to the example of Li Chuncheng, a former deputy party chief in Sichuan who was jailed for 13 years in 2015 for bribery and abuse of power, who it said was an enthusiastic user of the traditional Chinese geomancy practice of fengshui.

Another much more junior official, in the southern province of Jiangxi, wore charms to ward off bad luck, it said.

“As an official, if you spend all your time fixating on crooked ways, sooner or later you’ll come to grief,” it said.

The founder of modern China, Mao Zedong, banned fortune telling and superstition in puritan, communist China after the 1949 revolution, but the occult has made a comeback since the still officially atheist country embraced economic reforms and began opening up in the late 1970s.

In one of the most famous recent cases, China’s powerful former security chief Zhou Yongkang was jailed for life in part due to accusations he leaked undisclosed state secrets to a fortune teller and healer called Cao Yongzheng, known as the “Xinjiang sage” after the far western region where he grew up.

The People’s Daily said officials must remember Marx’s guiding words that “Communism begins from the outset with atheism”.

“Superstition is thought pollution and spiritual anesthesia that cannot be underestimated and must be thoroughly purged,” it said.

Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Christian Shepherd; Editing by Paul Tait

Feng Shui (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?9565-Feng-Shui)& Cao Yongzheng (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?56283-Busted-Qigong-Masters&p=1294761#post1294761)

GeneChing
11-16-2017, 09:42 AM
Sorcery, geomancy, soothsayers, and other superstitious practices aren't quite feng shui (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?9565-Feng-Shui) and qigong (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?56283-Busted-Qigong-Masters), but there's plenty of overlap. Actually, geomancy is basically feng shui.


NOVEMBER 15, 2017 / 7:45 PM / UPDATED 13 HOURS AGO
Senior China minister says some officials practice sorcery (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-politics-religion/senior-china-minister-says-some-officials-practice-sorcery-idUSKBN1DG0CG?il=0)
Reuters Staff
3 MIN READ

BEIJING (Reuters) - Some top Chinese officials are guilty of practicing sorcery and would rather believe in gurus and Western concepts of democracy than the Communist Party, a senior minister wrote on Thursday, warning of the danger they presented to its survival.

China guarantees freedom of religion for major belief systems such as Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, but party members are meant to be atheists and are barred from what it calls superstitious practices, such as visits to soothsayers.

Recent years have seen several cases of officials jailed as part of President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on corruption being accused of superstition, part of the party’s efforts to blacken their names.

Some senior officials in leadership positions had “fallen morally”, their beliefs straying from the correct path, wrote Chen Xi, the recently appointed head of the party’s powerful Organisation Department that oversees personnel decisions.

“Some don’t believe in Marx and Lenin but believe in ghosts and gods; they don’t believe in ideals but believe in sorcery; they don’t respect the people but do respect masters,” he wrote in the official People’s Daily, referring to spiritual leaders or gurus.

People in China, especially its leaders, have a long tradition of turning to soothsaying and geomancy to find answers to their problems in times of doubt, need and chaos.

The practice has grown more risky amid Xi’s war on graft, in which dozens of senior officials have been imprisoned.

Attacking officials whose faith in communism is wavering, Chen said some consider it an “entirely unreal mirage”, and have lost faith in socialism.

Instead, they look to Western concepts of the separation of power and multi-party systems as their ideal, added Chen, who also runs the Central Party School that trains rising officials.

He did not name any officials guilty of practicing superstition or fawning over the West.

But elsewhere in the article he named some of those caught up in the most high-profile recent cases, such as the feared former domestic security chief, Zhou Yongkang and the former party boss of Chongqing, Sun Zhengcai, sacked for corruption in July.

They were “political careerist plotters”, whose cases showed that officials’ political problems were no less a threat to the party than corruption, Chen wrote.

“The higher the position, the greater their platform, the greater the harm they caused to the party,” he added.

Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

GeneChing
12-14-2017, 09:46 AM
Holy cats! $10K+USD?!?! :eek:


http://image5.sixthtone.com/image/5/7/95.jpg
Hotel Guest Charged Feng Shui Fine for Bringing Mother’s Ashes (http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1001389/hotel-guest-charged-feng-shui-fine-for-bringing-mothers-ashes)
Northern Chinese establishment turns away visitors who arrive in an urn, under its strict good-vibes-only policy.
Qian Zhecheng
Dec 14, 2017

A hotel in northern China’s Shanxi province made a guest pay 70,000 yuan ($10,600) in compensation for bringing his late mother’s ashes through its doors, local newspaper Shanxi Evening Post reported Tuesday. The guest is now pursuing an extortion claim against the hotel, which argued that the man’s actions violated local taboos.

On Oct. 1, Qin Anping, a 63-year-old former law enforcement officer, and his family checked into a hotel in Lucheng, Shanxi — their ancestral hometown — ahead of his mother’s burial ceremony the following day. Among his luggage was an urn containing his mother’s ashes.

As Qin was unloading funeral garlands from his vehicle, hotel owner Bai Guangbin spotted him and demanded 100,000 yuan in damages for violating local customs.

“This is such a taboo for our hotel,” said Bai Pengcheng, the hotel owner’s son, according to Shanxi Evening Post. The Bai family also claimed they had suffered financial losses, as they had rejected other guests that day because they believed it wasn’t acceptable to have living guests under the same roof as the remains of the dead. They said Qin’s family hurt them psychologically with their unforgivably inauspicious actions.

Though death is considered taboo in Chinese culture, there is no law barring guests from bringing ashes into a hotel.

Qin initially refused to pay up, but the hotel retaliated by holding two of the funeral procession’s vehicles hostage. Though Qin called the local police, the conflict continued until nearly midnight, when the two parties finally reached an armistice. According to an apology letter seen by Sixth Tone, Qin agreed to pay 70,000 yuan to the hotel as compensation for “psychological damage.”

Qin later reported Bai and his hotel to the municipal police force. According to a photo of the case file report seen by Sixth Tone, municipal police have opened an extortion investigation.

“I did nothing wrong!” Qin told Sixth Tone. “They just used the custom as an excuse to make a fuss.”

Ouyang Xiaobin, a Shanghai-based lawyer specializing in criminal law, told Sixth Tone that criminal charges were unlikely to stand, as the victim must be forced to do something out of fear for the case to be considered extortion. “Judging from the materials and videos we have, I would say Qin’s family were mostly under stress rather than fear,” he said.

However, Ouyang continued, the hotel also had no legal grounds to claim compensation. The lawyer suggested that the issue could be better handled as a civil case, especially as the compensation was exorbitant. Even if a court accepts that the hotel owner suffered psychological damage, he said, “to my understanding, the compensation is just too high.”

Editor: Qian Jinghua.

(Header image: A man holds an urn filled with ashes in Fuzhou, Fujian province, June 12, 2014. Lin Lianghua/VCG)

GeneChing
07-06-2018, 09:01 AM
Matt Polly's new book, Bruce Lee: A Life (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65795-Bruce-Lee-A-Life-by-Matt-Polly) has been generating a lot of Bruce news lately. I've heard the bad feng shui (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?9565-Feng-Shui) thing about his Cumberland place (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?70543-Bruce-Lee-Museums-and-Gallery-Exhibits). I prefer the 'assassinated by ninjas' theory.


Did bad feng shui kill Bruce Lee? Talk continues to this day that it played a part in actor’s death (https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2153615/did-bad-feng-shui-kill-bruce-lee-talk-continues-day-it-played-part)
Forty-five years after he died, there is still speculation that the martial arts superstar died because of a curse, with Lee’s home at 41 Cumberland Road, Kowloon Tong, long rumoured to have suffered from bad feng shui theory about his
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 04 July, 2018, 7:04am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 04 July, 2018, 7:03am
Staff Reporter

https://cdn1.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/980x551/public/images/methode/2018/07/03/084354f6-7ea1-11e8-8c40-58d9485981d4_1280x720_190948.JPG?itok=izvdQCfl

According to a new biography, the Chinese icon also had English and Dutch-Jewish blood, and as an action star admired the whole world over he would have felt at home today

There’s still speculation that Bruce Lee died because of a curse. But according to the Post publication Memoirs of an Asian Moviegoer, the word at the time was that he was a victim of bad feng shui.

Quoting an article published a week after Lee’s death on July 20, 1973, the book says: “Lee’s sudden and untimely death last Friday immediately led a neighbour to say that he knew something bad was in the offing because a tree in the star’s home at Kowloon Tong was blown down by Typhoon Dot. [Typhoon Dot struck Hong Kong in July 1973, causing storm force winds and killing one person]. This, the neighbour claimed was a bad omen resulting in the death of Lee.”

Feng shui is a supernatural belief that the spatial arrangement of objects can have favourable or unfavourable effects on nearby people, their wealth or poverty, health and death. When moving into a new apartment, a geomancer is hired to arrange furniture so that the feng shui is benign, and architects sometimes consult geomancers while designing buildings.

Location can also play a role, with some areas being deemed to have bad feng shui. Kowloon Tong, where Lee lived at 41 Cumberland Road, was rumoured to have bad feng shui. (Lee did not die in Cumberland Road, but in the flat of actress Betty Ting Pei, at nearby 67 Beacon Hill Road.)

https://cdn2.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2018/07/03/40d7dff8-7ea1-11e8-8c40-58d9485981d4_972x_190948.JPG
A neon sign shines outside the Romantic Hotel occupying the house where Lee lived in Kowloon Tong. Photo: Antony Dickson

“The Chinese press said that Bruce Lee knew about the bad feng shui prevailing in the area and he installed a feng shui deflector on the roof of his home in Cumberland Road,” the book says, quoting the same article. “This deflector, a pat kwe [bagua] – an octagon-shaped wooden frame with a mirror in the centre – was found missing after Typhoon Dot lashed Hong Kong. In the absence of it, Bruce Lee became vulnerable, some say. So the story goes that if he had lived elsewhere, Bruce Lee would have lived longer.”

Other reports suggest that Lee’s friends Unicorn Chan and Wu Ngan set up the deflector, as they had arranged for a geomancer to examine the property before Lee moved in. Lee himself was apparently not superstitious, but he didn’t object.

It was also rumoured that Lee’s choice of The Game of Death as the title of his next film was responsible for his death. “The Chinese press reported that film director Lo Wei [who directed Lee in The Big Boss and Fist of Fury] had warned him about the film’s name, which he said should be carefully chosen,” the book says, quoting the article.

https://cdn4.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2018/07/03/abd50d0e-7ea0-11e8-8c40-58d9485981d4_972x_190948.JPG
Lee’s picture in a funeral parlour after his death. Photo: SCMP

Lee died of a cerebral oedema, although what brought that on has never been confirmed, and speculation has run rife since. The coroner’s inquest said that it may have been an allergic reaction to aspirin, and recorded a verdict of death by misadventure. In his biography Bruce Lee: A Life, Matthew Polly speculates that the cause of death might have been heatstroke.

In a television interview, Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan, who worked as a stuntman on the set of Lee’s Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon, said that the notion of any supernatural causes behind Lee’s death was ridiculous. “Everyone in Hong Kong knows what happened,” he said. “I don’t want to say it, but just Google it.”

GeneChing
11-15-2018, 09:52 AM
Hong Kong environmental issues
Feng shui issues and fears of disturbing the dead stump Hong Kong officials dealing with illegal graves, Ombudsman says (https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/2173314/feng-shui-issues-and-fears-disturbing-dead-stump)
Government watchdog takes lands and home affairs departments to task for ‘lax attitude’ to such burials
Some tombs as far as 333 metres away from permitted sites
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 15 November, 2018, 12:07pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 15 November, 2018, 12:07pm
Ernest Kao
ernest.kao@scmp.com
http://twitter.com/ernestkao

https://cdn2.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/980x551/public/images/methode/2018/11/15/689d2240-e7e3-11e8-bfde-9434090d4df7_1280x720_120728.JPG?itok=ku4K4Atc

Excuses about feng shui and concerns over disturbing the dead were stumping officials trying to deal with illegal graves on public land, Hong Kong’s government watchdog said in a report on Wednesday.

The Ombudsman took the city’s lands and home affairs departments to task for their “lax attitude” in tackling burials outside permitted areas across the New Territories, which it said was encouraging rule breaking and damaging the environment. This is the second time in four years the watchdog has raised the issue.

Ombudsman Connie Lau Yin-hing’s latest direct investigation found that officials were often unable to take enforcement action and were too accommodating to the villagers’ excuses and dawdling.

While many hillside graves outside designated areas were probably dug there by accident, the report said, in some cases, the graves were several hundred metres beyond the boundaries and “could hardly be excused as inadvertent mistakes”.

“If the departments concerned fail to rectify such irregularities, it will not only cause damage to the natural environment but also encourage other people to follow suit and aggravate the problem of burials outside permitted burial grounds,” it added.

Under a policy that dates back to 1983, swathes of government land were opened up to indigenous villagers In response to rampant illegal burials.

There are about 520 such sites – totalling 4,000 hectares, roughly half the size of Hong Kong Island – all on unoccupied government land across the New Territories.

https://cdn1.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2018/11/15/dc641080-e7e3-11e8-bfde-9434090d4df7_1320x770_120728.JPG
There are about 520 legal burial sites on government land across the New Territories. Photo: Roy Issa

In its report, the Ombudsman cited four cases. In one incident, a district land office received a report of a burial 333 metres outside the permitted site listed on the burial certificate.

The case was referred to the district officer, who urged the certificate holder to relocate the grave.

However the offender refused to comply on “grounds of feng shui” and claimed to be unaware that the burial site was outside the permitted area. He said he would move the grave only seven years after burial, as per village custom. The district officer gave him a warning letter.

In a similar case, district and lands officers could not reach a consensus on whether a hillside tomb was illegal – there were no structures built on it yet – or whether to acquiesce to the affected party's request for discretion on grounds that moving the grave would “disturb the peace of the deceased”.

The Ombudsman recommended the department designate the boundaries of permitted burial sites more clearly as only eight had been marked so far.

While it understood that it was awkward for officers to get people to move graves, the watchdog said, it urged them to tackle the problem at the source and ensure villagers knew where the boundaries were.

It reminded the Home Affairs Department that it was empowered to revoke burial certificates and require removal of the human remains.

Lands officials could not continue allowing illegal occupation of government land for years at no cost, it said.

“They should consider taking punitive measures, such as imposing a fine,” the report read. “It is indeed a matter of justice and fairness.”

Eddie Tse Sai-kit of the Alliance for the Concern over Columbarium Policy said little had been done to address issues raised since the Ombudsman’s first investigation in 2014. The report then urged the departments to implement better planning and limit grave sizes.

Problems such as land degradation, occupation of private lots and the illegal sale of burial privileges to non-indigenous villagers for profit remained commonplace, and the rules were rarely enforced.

“They need to start over and do a major tally of burial sites to get a snapshot of how many have been occupied by certificate owners and set strict planning guidelines for all new grave applications,” Tse said.

The home affairs and lands departments agreed that there was room for improvement and said they would study the watchdog’s recommendations while exploring other measures to prevent burials outside of permitted areas.

This reminds me of Shaolin's OZ situation with the aboriginal graves (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?64712-Shaolin-Temple-OZ&p=1311495#post1311495). I guess Aborigines don't count in Feng Shui? :o

GeneChing
03-04-2019, 09:33 AM
I know a Peter Chan. He's done Lion Dance for TCEC (http://www.tigerclawelite.com/). This isn't that Peter tho...


Religious studies give jailed former feng shui master Peter Chan different focus – but he is still trying to clear name over forged will of late billionaire Nina Wang (https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/2188359/religious-studies-give-jailed-former-feng-shui-master)
Chan, 59, says he has completed two distance learning courses from Baptist Theological Seminary since being jailed in 2013 and is now on his third one
He has filed a civil lawsuit in mainland China and is seeking a public apology from various parties involved in the legal fight over HK$83 billion estate
SCMP
Alvin Lum
Su Xinqi
Updated: Saturday, 2 Mar, 2019 11:25pm

https://cdn1.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1200x800/public/images/methode/2019/03/02/eaf8e4d6-3cac-11e9-a334-8d034d5595df_image_hires_184934.JPG?itok=gjew6_oG
Peter Chan was jailed for 12 years for forging and using a will he claimed was made by Chinachem billionaire Nina Wang in 2006. Photo: Handout

For the past five years behind bars, former feng shui master Peter Chan Chun-chuen, who was convicted of forging a will to inherit the multibillion-dollar estate of late tycoon Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum, has followed a simple daily routine – pray, jog for an hour, and eat healthy.
In a written reply to the Post, via a source in contact with him, Chan, 59, said he had already completed two distance learning courses from Baptist Theological Seminary since 2013, on the Old and New Testament respectively, and had just started another one on biblical studies.
“I hope in the future I can help other discharged prisoners,” Chan wrote. “Maybe start some missionary work, if this pleases almighty God.”
While religion may have given Chan a new direction in life, he is still trying to clear his name through a roundabout route in mainland China after exhausting all legal channels in Hong Kong.
Chan, who was named Tony before he converted to Christianity soon after being jailed, first made the headlines days after Wang’s death in April 2007.
He revealed he was the billionaire’s lover, and later asked the court to appoint him as the sole heir to her HK$83 billion (US$10.6 billion) estate, claiming he had a will made by Wang, boss of the Chinachem Group, in October 2006.

https://cdn3.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2019/03/02/20adcd9e-3cad-11e9-a334-8d034d5595df_972x_184934.JPG
Peter Chan revealed shortly after Nina Wang’s death that he was her lover and claimed he had a will she made in 2006. Photo: Reuters

Chinachem Charitable Foundation, led by Wang’s brother, Kung Yan-sum, argued Chan’s will was a forgery. A key witness, lawyer Winfield Wong Wing-cheung, said he witnessed only a “partial will” signed by Wang in 2006, which amounted to a sum of around HK$10 million.
After a lengthy legal battle, which included testimony from handwriting experts, the court in 2010 found the 2006 will was forged and the foundation was awarded the estate. In 2011, Chan lost his final appeal in Hong Kong’s top court over his claim to the estate.
The verdict led to the prosecution of Chan in 2013 for forging the 2006 will. Later that year, a High Court jury convicted Chan of one count of forgery and another of using a false document, and jailed him for 12 years. In 2016, the appeal court refused to grant him permission to take his case to the top court over the conviction.
In that appeal hearing, Chan cited a civil lawsuit in Hong Kong filed by Chinachem subsidiary Right Margin against Kung and he alleged that key witnesses in his trial were paid to testify. But the judge said while this was an alleged great matter of injustice, it stopped short of being a legal argument.
That civil suit Chan referred to involved a 122 million yuan (US$18.2 million) commercial dispute in Xiamen on the mainland. Kung also faced related suits in which he was accused of using the Xiamen project to fund the fight for the estate. Chan is now trying to use these cases as a launch pad to continue his own legal fight.
Insisting the 2006 will was genuine, Chan filed a civil lawsuit in Xiamen last May and named eight companies connected to the fight over Wang’s estate in Hong Kong and Kung’s cases.
They include Chinachem Group, the foundation and Wong’s law firm. The remaining five are companies involved in the civil disputes.
According to a Xiamen court document, Chan is suing Chinachem and others for “infringing the applicant’s civil rights, including reputation, personality and dignity”.

I’m very confident about the case, because I have never forged any will!
Peter Chan, former feng shui master
He claimed he faced a miscarriage of justice in the city, and demanded a public apology from them to be published on the mainland, and in Hong Kong, Macau and the international media.
An employee from the Fujian provincial judiciary confirmed Chan’s application was registered on June 21, 2018. The plaintiff’s Chinese name was the same as Chan’s.
“The case is not closed yet but I can’t tell if there has been any hearing due to limited authorisation,” the employee said on Thursday.
In his written reply to the Post, Chan said: “I’m very confident about the case, because I have never forged any will! I’ve often believed what’s real cannot be falsified, and vice versa – that’s the simple but eternal truth.”
Asked why he did not demand monetary compensation, Chan said he could not afford the deposit to the mainland court, so he could not raise the claim.
“So in demanding an apology, that can prove they collectively … infringed my rights,” Chan said.
A Chinachem Group spokeswoman said they noted the Xiamen case but would not comment at this juncture before studying it.
It would be rare for a case tried in Hong Kong to be reheard on the mainland.
Hong Kong and the mainland do not formally have an agreement that would recognise civil lawsuits reciprocally in both jurisdictions, and any verdict in Xiamen would not affect a ruling in Hong Kong.

GeneChing
07-03-2019, 12:29 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdBiKUezfiE

THREADS
Feng Shui (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?9565-Feng-Shui)
Fengshui (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71374-Fengshui)

GeneChing
07-25-2019, 09:05 AM
I wasn't sure where to post this on the qigong forum but the belly breathing (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?15673-belly-breathing) thread came up when I searched 'belly'. It's not really Feng Shui (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?9565-Feng-Shui) either but I'm posting it there anyway. If there's more news, I'll split it off into an indie thread because 'Beijing Bikini' is a hilarious thread topic.


Outlawing “Beijing Bikini” May Clash with Feng Shui and Qigong (https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/outlawing-beijing-bikini-may-clash-with-feng-shui-and-qigong/)
BANNING EXPOSED MIDRIFFS CONFLICTS WITH OPEN QI PASSAGEWAY
July 23, 2019
By Jonny Lupsha, News Writer

A new law passed in Beijing forbids men rolling up their T-shirts in the heat, according to CNN. The popular method of combating high temperatures has earned the nickname “Beijing Bikini.” But qigong stresses the belly as a passageway of qi.

https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Beijing-Bikini-Feature.jpg
Chinese man in streets of Tangzhou, China sporting the "Beijing Bikini"

During hot temperatures, men in China have been rolling up their T-shirts above their bellies to cool off. Photo by Kristoffer Trolle / Flickr (CC by 2.0)
CNN reports that authorities in Jinan, a city of nearly nine million people, issued a notice earlier this month ordering all members of the public to keep their shirts on—and unfurled—in public places. The law is the result of a movement that hopes to label shirtless men, public bickering, littering, and some other social practices as “uncivilized.” However, in feng shui and qigong, the belly area is considered a center for qi, or natural energy, to be gathered and released again. So where do these practices stand in the “Battle of the Belly”?

Feng Shui and the Beijing Bikini
Qi is said to be a form of natural energy—not the kind that powers your house or car, but a flowing life force in nature that is often compared to wind and water. Both wind and water are light and almost intangible but they can erode mountains. Qi is said to be the same. So how could we hope to control such a thing?

“Wind and water in the Chinese language is ‘feng shui,’ which is also the name of an ancient Taoist science of manipulating or designing our environment so that wind and water and qi energy can flow in just the right amounts and in the most beneficial ways in our lives,” David-Dorian Ross, International Master Tai Chi Instructor, said. “Qigong [is] the ancient Chinese craft of manipulating the inner life force—the qi—for health, self-defense, and spiritual development. By learning certain breathing and visualization techniques, we learn how to improve the circulation of qi throughout all parts of the body.”

Much of qi circulation in the body revolves around the body’s center, the abdomen. The yoga-like qigong practice of tai chi is meant to encourage the flow of qi, and keeping the abdomen open and free is a major component of tai chi. Jinan’s new law, requiring the covering up of bellies in public, can easily be seen as being in direct opposition to that.

Five Element Theory
Another popular theory of balancing one’s qi is that of the five elements. “From the most ancient times, Chinese culture has imagined that the world is made up of five basic elements: wood, water, fire, earth, and metal,” Ross said. “In fact, the flow of qi is mapped as to when each element is most influential on the human body.” Here, Ross alluded to the fact that each of the five elements represents a different time of year. It’s little surprise that fire represents summer and heat. “But the five elements are also an expression of qi energy,” he said. “Fire, as the season of summer, is also associated with the sun, the color red, and the human organ of the heart.” Other examples follow for each element—for example, Ross mentioned wood’s association with growth, the liver, and springtime, but also with emotions like anger.

Like the rest of qigong, the Five Element Theory emphasizes balance and a harmonious relationship. “The five elements both create and destroy each other,” Ross said. “Water creates wood (you pour water on a seed and it grows); wood creates fire (you take wood and light it on fire and it creates a flame). Fire creates earth, because after the wood is burned, you’re left with ashes, which are like the soil; earth creates metal (if you dig into the earth, you can pull out iron); and metal creates water, because if you heat up metal and it melts, it becomes a liquid.”

Ross also explained that when these five elements are out of order, they destroy one another. “Fire destroys metal (if you heat up the metal with fire, the metal is no longer consistent); but metal destroys wood (the sharp point of the ax destroys the tree),” he said. “Wood destroys earth—again, if you look at the tree as it sends its roots down into the earth, it makes it erupt and move out of the way—but the earth destroys water. If you put it up in enough quantity it makes a dam, blocking the river. And water destroys fire—of course, you pour water on the fire and it puts it out.”

As record summer temperatures rage on, there couldn’t be a worse time for Jinan to outlaw the Beijing Bikini. The practices of feng shui and qigong agree, since they focus on energy flow throughout the body’s center.


David-Dorian Ross contributed to this article. Ross is the founder and CEO of TaijiFit and the creator of the TaijiFit mind-body exercise program. He has a B.A. in Human Movement Studies from San Francisco State University and has completed graduate course work in Physical Education and Chinese.

GeneChing
08-02-2019, 12:03 PM
We don't have a Busted Feng Shui masters thread, so I'm copying this from the Feng Shui thread (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?9565-Feng-Shui)to the Buddhists behaving badly (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68723-Buddhists-behaving-badly) thread.


Hong Kong murders: when five women were killed by feng shui master with cyanide ‘holy water’ (https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3020085/hong-kong-murders-when-five-women-were-killed)
Three close friends and the two teenaged daughters of one of the women were poisoned by Chinese feng shui practitioner Li Yuhui during a ‘longevity rite’
Mercedes Hutton
Published: 10:45am, 26 Jul, 2019

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Feng shui master Li Yuhui was executed in 1998 convicted of manslaughter after for killing five women in Telford Gardens. Photo: TVB screenshot
“A mother, her two teenage daughters, and two women friends were found dead in a suspected suicide pact in a flat in Kowloon Bay last night,” ran a story in the South China Morning Post on July 24, 1998.
The five were later identified as Becky Lam Chun-lai, the 49-year-old executive director of a publicly traded company, who lived with her husband and three children in Repulse Bay; Choi Sau-chun, 44, a mother of one and resident of Telford Gardens; Tsui Shun-kam, 40, who lived in the fifth-floor flat, also in Telford Gardens, in which the bodies were found; and Tsui’s daughters, Lee Ying-fai, 17, and Lee Ying-hei, 13.
In the days before they died, the women, who were close friends, had each withdrawn large sums of money, totalling HK$1.3 million. An examination showed all five had died from cyanide poisoning, reported the Post on July 27.
Mainland Chinese feng shui expert Li Yuhui was named in a July 28 article as a person of interest. On August 5, the Post reported that Hong Kong police had lost contact with Li, who was in China. Li’s arrest was announced on October 9. A day later it was reported that he would stand trial in the mainland, where he would face the death penalty if convicted, following an alleged confession.

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A police drawing showing where the five bodies were found inside the fifth-floor flat in Telford Gardens. Photo: SCMP

According to an October 10Post article: “The women, who had only known Li a month, were given ‘holy water’ – later confirmed to have been cyanide – to drink and told that every $10,000 could buy another year of life” as part of a longevity rite. Tsui was told to give each daughter a cup of “holy water” to drink. Once all five were dead, Li took the HK$1.3 million and returned to the mainland.
Li’s trial began on March 4, 1999, in Shantou, Guangdong province. The accused denied the charges levelled against him, claiming a Zen Buddhist was the master*mind behind the crime. “I’m not the real murderer,” he reportedly told the court. However, he was unable to provide the judge with any details about the alleged Zen practitioner.
On March 24, the Post announced Li had been sentenced to death for the murders. Li appealed the decision, but on April 20, his plea was rejected and he was executed by firing squad.

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Andrew Hui King-chun officiates at his wife Becky Lam Chun-lai's funeral service at Hong Kong Funeral Home. Photo: SCMP

GeneChing
01-27-2020, 09:42 AM
Hong Kong feng shui masters say worst is over for Carrie Lam, unrest will continue but weaken in Year of the Rat (https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3047581/hong-kong-feng-shui-masters-say-worst-over-carrie-lam-unrest)
Soothsayers offer glimmer of hope for city, saying Rat won’t be as savage as the Pig
Hong Kong economy likely to stay bad; Rat expected to be good for Donald Trump
Ng Kang-chung
Published: 9:00am, 25 Jan, 2020

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Hongkongers may be in for a less tense time this year after the upheaval of 2019. Photo: SCMP

Hong Kong’s feng shui practitioners are predicting another uneasy 12 months for the city with the arrival of the Year of the Rat.
But they offer a glimmer of hope, saying the Rat will not prove as savage as the Pig, who arrived this time last year to deliver anti-government protests, chaos, and a sharp downturn in the economy.
Feng shui – literally, “wind” and “water” – is the ancient Chinese art of geomancy, which practitioners use to foretell what lies ahead.
The Chinese zodiac comprises a repeating cycle of 12 years, each with a designated animal possessing its own characteristics, with effects not only on those born in that year, but also on those born under other animal signs.
The arrival of the Metal Rat this year marks the beginning of a new cycle of the zodiac.

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Carrie Lam’s zodiac sign clashed with the Pig last year. Photo: Reuters

The Post asked some of the city’s leading feng shui practitioners what the Rat will bring for beleaguered Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, politics, the economy and US President Donald Trump, who is seeking re-election in November.
Better year ahead for ‘Rooster’ Carrie Lam
The city’s leader was born in 1957, the Year of the Rooster. Overall, the Year of the Rat promises to be good for Roosters, particularly in their careers.

Last year, Carrie Lam’s sign clashed with the Pig and her boss was also too weak to support her
Priscilla Lam
Geomancer Priscilla Lam, who gained prominence by predicting that Trump would win the 2016 US presidential election, expected Hong Kong’s leader to remain in her job, despite persistent rumours that she would be replaced over her handling of the ongoing social unrest.
“Carrie Lam faces very big pressure, but the worst is over,” she said. “Last year, her sign clashed with the Pig and her boss was also too weak to support her. So, she had a very difficult time over the past 12 months.”
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Priscilla Lam says Carrie Lam can expect an easier life this year. Photo: May Tse
Asked who she meant by Lam’s “boss”, the geomancer said: “The central government’s liaison office.”
Beijing’s top representative in Hong Kong, Wang Zhimin, was replaced recently by Luo Huining.
“Now Lam’s got a new supervisor, and she can get along well with the new boss. She can expect an easier life in the year to come,” she said.
Raymond Lo Hang-lap, who has been declared a “grandmaster” by the International Feng Shui Association in Singapore, also predicted a relatively smooth year for Lam.
“She might have a career boost. The moon is present and dominates, and this favours female Roosters,” Lo said.
His predictions were based on how the five elements – metal, earth, water, wood, and fire – interact based on the movement of the sun and moon to create auspicious or inauspicious forces.

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Raymond Lo also predicts a smoother year for Carrie Lam. Photo: Winson Wong

He accurately predicted the death of international terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in 2011 and the break-up of Hollywood stars Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes in 2012.
His advice for Hong Kong’s leader: “Stay focused in career and business, and refrain from complacency and making careless mistakes.”
Celebrity geomancer Yunwenzi, or Master Cloud, who last year correctly predicted the rise of a radical social movement and great split in Hong Kong society, said another eventful year lay ahead.
“Young people will feel restless and tend to resort to violence. So there could be more conflict and disputes in society,” she said.
Relying on the ancient Chinese art of divination called Qimen Dunjia for her predictions, she said 2020 was represented by an “unrestful dragon” and Hong Kong could expect a lot of ups and downs.
“The internal social disputes will linger, but the atmosphere could turn less tense later in the year,” said Yunwenzi, whose clients include Credit Suisse and the designer Vivienne Westwood.

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Yunwenzi expects the atmosphere may turn less tense later in the year. Photo: SCMP

Lo agreed, though his interpretation was based on 2020 being a Metal year while the Rat was a Water element.
Both are “cold” elements and in their effect, people might choose to use violence to achieve their goals.
“But with metal sitting on the water element, the Rat lacks support and is weak. So the unrest will gradually die down,” he said.
Eric To Chung-yin, a third-generation master Chinese astrologer, said: “The Metal Rat symbolises a year of change. Change is not necessarily bad. If Carrie Lam can try to change her governance style and perhaps listen more to people’s views, the social unrest might be over sooner.”
Economy: Good year for some sectors only
The outlook for the economy is not good, the geomancers said, and it all had to do with the water element prevailing.
“The fearful energy of the water element cycle is going to take over and prevail. Pessimism, cynicism, and despair will set in and contribute to the economic recession,” Lo said.
The past Year of the Pig marked the exit of the fire element, which will not return until the Year of the Snake in 2025.
Lo said 2020 and 2021 “belong to the water element” and added: “Without the fire element, the general economic atmosphere will remain gloomy and the pace of growth will slow.”

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Eric To says the Metal Rat represents a year of change. Photo: May Tse

However, he said the fire element prevailed over some sectors such as energy, restaurants and entertainment, and they could expect a better year ahead. But he had no good news for the shipping, transport, and media sectors, saying they could expect hard times.
Yunwenzi had similar predictions, and also expected the US-China trade war to drag on because “the US will stir up more trouble”. continued next post

GeneChing
01-27-2020, 09:43 AM
There could be some corrections in the first half of the year, but it will gradually pick up
Yunwenzi
Despite the looming recession, she did not expect Hong Kong’s property market to collapse. “There could be some corrections in the first half of the year, but it will gradually pick up. Prices will not drop by more than 10 per cent,” she said.
She warned investors there could be “a great impact” on stock markets in the summer and advised them to invest in sectors such as environmental protection, infrastructure and natural energy.

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The widespread social unrest was not predicted by many feng shui practitioners. Photo: AFP

Since Hong Kong’s pan-democratic camp swept last November’s district council elections, taking control of 17 out of 18 district councils, all eyes are on this year’s Legislative Council elections in September.
Like most political observers, Lo expected pro-Beijing candidates to face an uphill battle, though he had these words of comfort for them: “It will not be a big defeat though, not like the district council elections last year.”
Priscilla Lam said the pro-government camp would be able to draw on female Rooster Carrie Lam’s likely good fortune to perform fairly well in the Legco elections, although she declined to elaborate.
‘Dog’ Donald Trump can expect a good year
Donald Trump was born in 1946, the Year of the Dog. The Rat Year was good for Dogs, the geomancers said.
“There are several lucky stars on the Dogs’ horizon,” Eric To said. “Largely, Dogs can succeed in the areas they wish to pursue, but they should pay attention to details in their work, because missing parts can land them in trouble.”

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Donald Trump may get some help from the Metal Rat. Photo: AP

Agreeing, Lo expected the Metal Rat to help Donald Trump survive his ongoing impeachment trial and improve his chances of re-election.
A more cautious Priscilla Lam was not ready to predict the outcome of Trump’s bid for a second term.
“Actually, as a president, he is not particularly great. But his rivals were too weak so he made it the last time. Let’s wait and see who will emerge as his opponent before assessing his chances,” she said.
As for Chinese President Xi Jinping, Lo noted that he was born in 1953, the Year of the Snake, and that might mean not a very good year ahead.
“The Snake clashed with the Pig last year,” Lo said. “This year, the clash will continue. So China could very well continue to be under pressure in its economic relationship with the US and the Western world.”

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President Xi Jinping was born in the Year of the Snake, and that might mean not a very good year ahead. Photo: AFP

How accurate are the predictions, anyway?
At the beginning of the Year of the Pig last year, few feng shui practitioners foretold the widespread social unrest about to befall Hong Kong, though some insist they saw trouble ahead.
Eric To said: “We did foretell that Carrie Lam would be in deep trouble in the Year of the Pig because the Rooster clashes with the Pig. But the scale of the mess she created was a bit unexpected, I have to say.”
To those who dismiss the geomancers’ predictions as being no better than guesswork, To has this to say: “People think the purpose of predictions is to tell you exactly what is going to happen, but that may not be 100 per cent the case. The purpose of fortune-telling is to give you information to help you create your own future.”

THREADS
Feng Shui (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?9565-Feng-Shui)
Year of the Rat (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71622-2020-Year-of-the-Rat)

GeneChing
11-20-2023, 09:54 AM
185 Hongkongers tricked into buying ‘stocks picked by feng shui masters’ lose HK$100 million in as little as a week (https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3241817/185-hongkongers-tricked-buying-stocks-picked-feng-shui-masters-lose-hk100-million-little-week)
Police urge public to be vigilant as scammers impersonate feng shui masters on WhatsApp groups to lure victims
‘There are many posts on social media platforms that promote using feng shui to select stocks,’ police warn
Clifford Lo
Published: 8:57pm, 16 Nov, 2023

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Scammers impersonating feng shui masters lure victims into buying stocks. Photo: Elson LI

More than 180 Hongkongers lost over HK$100 million (US$12.8 million) in just a week after being tricked into buying “stocks” swindlers claimed were selected based on tips from feng shui masters and investment experts, police have revealed.

The force urged the public to be vigilant in a post on its CyberDefender Facebook page, the second alert in two weeks. The previous warning was issued on November 1 after more than 110 people were conned out of a similar amount also within a week last month.

“There are many posts on social media platforms that promote the use of feng shui in selecting stocks,” the post said on Wednesday.

“They claim that by joining these WhatsApp groups, you will receive exclusive tips from feng shui masters and investment experts, guiding you to avoid market downturns.”

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Police handled 185 online investment scams within a week. Photo: Warton Li

A source with knowledge of the matter said victims were lured into visiting a sham trading website or downloading an app to buy stocks after joining the groups.

He added they invested through the bogus platforms but when they wanted to withdraw their funds they were blocked.

On their Facebook page, police also said the bogus trading apps included ARAMEX, BtePro+ and Yomaex.

Police revealed they handled 185 online investment scams within just a week this month, with the losses exceeding HK$100 million in total.

One victim lost more than HK$1.2 million after being tricked into joining an instant messaging group called “To be flourishing”.

Police said the man was later lured into downloading a bogus trading app to invest in stocks from mainland China. He was then coerced into transferring the money to various Hong Kong bank accounts through 10 transactions.

The victim realised he had been scammed when he attempted to withdraw the funds on the trading platform but to no avail.

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Victims investing on bogus platforms could not withdraw funds. Photo: Shutterstock

“Before making any investments, you should check on the Scameter search engine,” the force said.

Scameter, accessible through the CyberDefender website and app, helps the public identify suspicious web addresses, emails, platform usernames, bank accounts and mobile phone numbers or IP addresses.

In July, police warned that swindlers impersonating investment experts had tricked victims into buying stocks they alleged were picked by artificial intelligence software.

Separately, a 37-year-old professional lost HK$3.92 million last month after a purported assistant to a feng shui master coaxed her into making “donations” to ward off bad luck through WhatsApp.

The woman who lives in an upscale neighbourhood in Ho Man Tin received a WhatsApp message on October 19 purportedly sent by an assistant of a local feng shui master she knew.

“The victim was told she would encounter bad luck and could experience unfortunate events,” a source told the Post on Monday.

The woman was then persuaded to make “donations” to ward off the misfortune. “She was lured into transferring HK$3.92 million into 10 bank accounts in 24 transactions in six days.”

She realised it was a scam about a week later when she received a text message from the genuine assistant, whose WhatsApp account had been hacked by impersonators who requested money transfers from her phone contacts.

I am distrustful on Feng Shui masters...