Controversy of Nina Wang's Death and Hong Kong's Receptivity of Feng Shui Discussion Chapter

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Feng Shui in Hong Kong

Fengshui in Hong Kong was noted in the first book on the subject ever written for a Western audience, by E.J. Eitel in 1873. Eitel was a German missionary and inspector of the Hong Kong schools and reported a number of instances in which Western construction projects had angered the Chinese and provoked riots and disturbances because they had supposedly upset the gods and the spirits of the ancestors. A new road to the Happy Valley was being built and the "Chinese community was thrown into a state of abject terror and fright, on account of the disturbance this amputation of the Dragon's limb would cause to the Feng Shui of Hong Kong" (Bruun, 2003, 56). When Western engineers and workers began to die of fever and the new houses in the Happy Valley had to be abandoned because of malaria "the Chinese triumphantly declared it was an act of retributory justice on the part of Feng Shui" (Bruun, p. 57).

Like most Westerners, Eitel regarded fengshui as mysticism, superstition and mumbo jumbo rather than real science, but he recognized that the Chinese certainly took it very seriously. He argued that with the advance of education, progress and modern education, such beliefs would eventually disappear, although this has not happened yet in Hong Kong as the case of Nina Wang demonstrates. In fact, for the Chinese faced with Western imperialism and unequal treaties, it even became a symbol of nationalism and opposition to Western cultural encroachments. In the late-19th and early-20th Centuries, Chinese crowds frequently attacked Western buildings, railroads, and telegraph and power lines for not being constructed according to fengshui principles and therefore causing natural disasters, epidemics and other instances of bad fortune. This led to riots against railroads, tramways and Western buildings, and increasingly the builders of these projects were often forced to move them or construct them in such a way as not to disturb the spirits and graves of the ancestors (Bruun, p. 60).

The Chinese also commonly believed that the noise and smoke of locomotives, factory chimneys and machinery also caused similar disturbances, and popular movements like the Boxer Rebellion of 1897-1900 used this as justification for driving the foreigners out completely.

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Particularly in Hong Kong, fengshui was "further stimulated by the continued presence of foreigners and the willingness of the British government to take it seriously" (Bruun, p. 65). For this reason, popular belief in divination and geomancy has continued there down to the present, even though the official Chinese government position since the 1949 Revolution has always been that such beliefs and practices are a hindrance to the nation's modernization and economic development.

In retrospect, it seems highly peculiar and ironic that fengshui could figure in to the case of Nina Wang's fortune and the battle over her will, given that she was on the surface at least the epitome of modernization and one of the wealthiest property developers in the world. Teddy Wang's family had always disapproved of Nina, but the childhood sweethearts were married in 1955 when she was eighteen. They never had any children of their own and became wealthy by buying up cheap properties and simply waiting for years as Hong Kong expanded. Both were notorious for their miserly habits, and even went to lavish banquets with Tupperware containers so they could take home the leftovers. Nina was also quite eccentric and walked around Hong Kong in plaid miniskirts and pigtails dyed electric blue. She reportedly lived on a salary of $400 a month and ate regularly at McDonalds even though she was the richest woman in Hong Kong. Teddy Wang was too cheap to pay for bodyguards, which is why he was kidnapped by Taiwanese gangsters in 1983. When Nina was released,….....

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