Saturday, December 17, 2005

More Government Outlays for Feng Shui

A few months ago the government decided to redesign the entrance of the main train station in Taipei due to feng shui, at no little cost to government budgets. Apparently the derision that arose over that decision was not enough to deter Yilan from doing the same thing:

Yilan County Council has decided to spend NT$20 million changing the position of the front gate of the council building because councilors have decided that the building had bad feng shui.

The Yilan Council Building cost NT$700 million to build and was completed in 2001. The structure, designed in the image of a huge sailboat, won the National Golden Award for Architecture thanks to its unique style.

But since the opening of the building, four sons of Democratic Progressive Party councilors have died in a series of accidents and numerous DPP councilors have been plagued by lawsuits. As a result, many councilors began to suspect that the building's feng shui is having a bad influence on the councilors' fortunes.

Some DPP councilors even implied that DPP nominee Chen Ding-nan's (陳定南) failure in the Yilan County Magistrate Election was down to the building's feng shui, according to the local media.

............

As the Yilan County Government has not begun the renovations yet, Kuomintang Council Speaker Chang Jian-rong said that the government had better begin construction as soon as possible to let councilors live without fear.


I feel sad for the families that lost their sons, but the fact is that feng shui had zip to do with it. Redesigning the building won't help one whit.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder how many differing opinions they had from differing feng shui experts. I agree with your statement.

Anonymous said...

And this is just one of the reasons why Taiwan will never be a first-world country.

Anonymous said...

Study some history of ancient China and you might trully understand Taiwanese culture and why people here believe that feng shui will help them. How much do you really know about it?

Michael Turton said...

The history of fengshui? What does that have to do with anything (as a matter of fact I have several books on it). The reality is that fengshui doesn't work. I feel bad for their loss, but let's spend money on what works.

Anonymous said...

Just drop by to say how do you know Feng Shui doesn't work or work? Do you know what is real Feng Shui? Do you understand the cultural differences? This is culture matter. Seems like you commented from the skeptic's point of view and/or having very little awareness of how culture influence people. Unless you are truely a Feng Shui expert and you know exactly theses incidents were nothing to do with this building. Have you ever walk into any place and feel something not right or uncomfortable to live there?

Reading books alone didn't give you the right approach to Feng Shui.