Calculating one’s fortune

Feng shui comes down to analyzing the results of calculations taken from measuring someone's face, palm, or even his furnishings in relation to natural features and cardinal directions.

Like any art that seeks contact with a higher plane, feng shui provides a fair field for charlatans. Tony Chan, on the road to his downfall and incarceration, billed Asia's wealthiest woman HK$6,500 for "feng shui" head rubs that evolved into "feng shui" full body massages.

Chinese University of Hong Kong history professor Ho Pui-yin speculates as much as half of Hong Kong's population have sought guidance from the ancient art.

She said while some may be embarrassed to admit it, feng shui celebrity columns are still found in most major dailies and fortune telling books sell briskly at convenience stores in the run up to the lunar new year.

The ancient art is also being updated for the digital age. Thirty-year-old feng shui master Kwong Ching-chuen says he is still working out the bugs of a feng shui smartphone-app by next year, which will help people orient their furniture.

Hong Kong Polytechnic University cross-cultural social psychologist Michael Bond said: "It is a system for altering one's fate when occupying a residence."

The practice is perhaps most apparent in Hong Kong's buildings where it has become part of due diligence in building design, Bond said.

"Why upset some Chinese occupants of office or other public buildings unnecessarily when the cost was low and the pay-off higher?" he said.

The ICC, IFC, HSBC building and Bank of China towers are oft-cited buildings which incorporate feng shui elements, though not all are publicly acknowledged by their owners.

Hong Kong's government is sensitive to local adherence to the belief system. The chief executive's official residence conforms to feng shui formulae and the bureaucracy has admitted it compensated17 parties who claimed nearby public works muddled the feng shui of their homes. They received an average of HK$4 million per claim, roughly the price of a second home in Hong Kong's outrageous property market.

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Calculating one's fortune