International Law

Fengshui and Western Idiocy

By Stan

The ancient art of Chinese geomancy, also known as fengshui, has taken a trendy turn over the past few years in expat circles and many Western practitioners are flocking to Beijing’s biggest monuments for lessons in fengshui. (China Daily)

OK, first of all, I think it is known as fengshui, also known as geomancy. Slight, yet important, distinction.

Anyhow, this is a silly and throwaway post, but what the heck, everyone is still recovering from the holidays and probably don’t want to read up on anything serious today. That being said, this post includes some rather incendiary statements, so at least it isn’t boring.

I’ve always been amused with Western folks who romanticize Chinese culture to the extent that they buy in to local religious practices, fengshui, and other kinds of silliness.

One subset of this is the recent Western fascination with Traditional Chinese Medicine. However, there is enough actual, provable know-how with TCM to separate it from the wholly superstitious stuff. In other words, there is a lot of value in TCM, once you strip out the mumbo jumbo underpinnings.
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© Stan for China Hearsay, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Full post as published by China Hearsay on January 04, 2010 (boomark / email).