Have you ever walked into a beautiful apartment, house, or a hotel lobby that left such a positive and lasting impression that even recalling it later gave you a moment of bliss? In the West we call this great design. In China arranging interiors and buildings to create balance and harmony is called feng shui (pronounced fung shway). However, they even go further and emphasize that it also provides you with happiness and success?

There are people that see feng shui as the magical elixer to solve their life problems. Having visited China many times for business I made an effort to learn about feng shui while I was there – to see if it could be applied to architecture. After meeting with several so-called masters I discovered that feng shui was not a unified discipline or school of thought at all – it’s completely fragmented, there are dozens of different schools all fighting against each other.

Over the course of several years some of my design clients hired feng shui practitioners and showed me the results – It was more than comical – it was bad interior design. One client interviewed several purported feng shui masters and they all recommended opposing solutions from one another. The only thing they agreed upon was a high fee.

Feng Shui is Not as Ancient as They Tell You
An often repeated myth is that feng shui is thousands of years old. Although some of the underpinnings may have contributed to its evolution, i.e. from the I-Ching, Chinese astronomy and Taoism. several records indicate feng shui may have appeared during the Tang Dynasty (ca. 700 AD). Scholars most closely associated with it were Lao Tzu, Mo Ti, and Confucius. The version of feng shui that most Chinese are familiar with comes from a written source called “The Book of the Burials” by Guo Pu (276-324 AD).

In the Cultural Revolution in the ’60s and ’70s. there was a concerted effort to expunge feng shui and other related forms of superstition but it only drove it underground. Nonetheless feng shui still thrived in Hong Kong (under British rule) and Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and other Chinese communities around the world.

The most recent iteration of feng shui began in the 1980s, with the advent of contemporary or modern feng shui. This is when it was reformulated for the modern world by individuals who abandoned the traditional methods – they just made it up along the way. It quickly spread to the West where opportunists saw it as an easy way to make money.

What is Feng Shui?
Feng Shui means “the way of wind and water.” It’s a method of arranging space, objects and buildings in a way to achieve balance and harmony. The purpose is to cultivate “good chi.” Chi is made up of both the yin and yang, which are opposing life forces that complement each other, the Chinese say it is the life-force of everything. It’s linked to a complicated and incongruous collection of abstract assumptions that have no basis in reality, these include: astrology, metaphysics, the 5 Elements and the 8 Trigrams.

As in all early civilizations and cultures, superstition and mysticism has persisted until modern times, however in China it’s still alive and kicking – and the Chinese government has been unable to eradicate it.

Some Popular Superstitions:
The Number 4
Just as the number 13 in the West is a sign of bad luck, so is the number 4 in China, (it’s linked to death). I doubt you will ever find a 4th floor on any elevator in China.

Avoiding Haunted Properties
In Hong Kong and other parts of China people avoid haunted houses and apartments where a death has occurred. It’s believed that living in a space where someone has died will bring great misfortune and harm.

Never Open an Umbrella Indoors.
Umbrellas are known to carry ghosts (of course), because spirits tend to be attracted to shadows. So avoid opening an umbrella indoors, since the shadow from the umbrella acts as an entrance for ghosts to enter your home.

Giving a Watch or Clock as a Gift
Watches and clocks are symbols of time running out which is why they are considered bad luck, especially when given to seniors. The word is also very similar to the word for attending a funeral ritual.

Never Build a House Facing North or Northwest
This is rooted in the traditional belief that the north represents darkness, evil and bad luck (most probably from the many successful invasions that came from the north during China’s history.
… and there are literally dozens more

Feng Shui Tips for Interior Design
In ancient times feng shui occasionally offered some reasonable guidelines for everyday life. They were communicated via the oral tradition since most of the population was illiterate; what better way to broadcast them then on the backs of superstitions?

Here Are a Few Examples
1) Don’t build your bedroom above your kitchen / Translation = to avoid being burned if your kitchen catches fire, 2) Don’t face your back to a door / Translation = For security, you never know when someone will sneak up behind you, 3) Never face a bed towards the door / Translation = often called the “coffin position,” the feet or head face the door and resemble how the dead are carried out of a home, 4) Placing some plants in your home / Translation = Plants attract the Chi and bring in rejuvenating wood energy.
… and there are dozens more

Feng Shui in Large Building Projects
On a larger scale, feng shui has been used in traditional Chinese architecture and civil building projects. A good example would be the Great Wall of China. The curved walls of the Great Wall was said to allow the flow of chi to keep moving, inviting prosperity to the environment (which it never did – all their invasions came via the Great Wall?)

Evil Buildings Stealing Your Chi
Many modern mega structures in Hong Kong and some on the mainland were built according to feng shui principles. A few of them violated feng shui guidelines, for example the Bank of China building designed by I.M. Pei (which is by far the most beautiful skyscraper in Hong Kong) was said to create bad fortune for the opposing HSBC building. It seems its sharp corners resembled a knife protruding in the sky producing shaqi (killing the energy!)

To counter this, the ugly (Lego inspired) HSBC building mounted two objects on the roof resembling cannons to ward off the evil spirits? Additionally, in the atrium, they built the escalators in opposite directions – preventing evil spirits from flowing upwards into the building (of course).

Another famous example of bad feng shui are the Lippo Towers (Aka. the Koala building ), it’s been sold several times and under-occupied due to its negative feng shui reputation, including evil symbolism, i.e. the X’s, the C-shaped glass resembling koala bears and its sharp edges.

Buildings With Good Chi
Many tall buildings in Hong Kong have square hole cutouts in the center. The purpose of course is to provide a clear path for the dragons that come from the mountains to fly to the harbor and quench their thirst?

Conclusion
The link between you and the cosmos has absolutely no effect on your life, your happiness or success. Using complicated charts and diagrams will never enhance your life. Sadly, feng shui targets the gullible and misinformed, exploiting their hopes and dreams. Many so-called feng shui masters have made thousands of dollars scamming home owners – to millions of dollars consulting on mega structures. It’s all about stealing your money under the guise of enriching your life.

At the end of the day feng shuai is complete and utter nonsense comprised of hundreds of rules and dominated by charlatans who trick people into paying for extravagant services they don’t need. It’s a gimmick – a selling point. Like all get rich schemes it attracts the unscrupulous; many of them take a few classes and voilà, they become instant feng shui masters? They get away with it because there are enough people naive enough to believe in the mystical gibberish they sell.

Feng shui has always been perceived as an innocent and virtuous term, the truth is that its a feel-good myth that has been repeated so many times it sounds like the truth – (the Illusory Truth Effect). All in all the Japanese have done a far better job in creating harmony and balance in their interiors and buildings through their principle of Kanso than feng shui ever did.