Chinese communist officials turn to feng shui masters to boost careers

SOME Chinese Communist officials have turned to once-outlawed feng shui masters to get a better chance of promotion amid nationwide job reshuffles, it was claimed yesterday.

They paid handsome fees to the masters, who help choose offices facing auspicious directions, reposition furniture or place talismans to ward off “evil spirits” from competitors, the Southern Weekend newspaper said.

Local governments at various levels began a round of leadership reshuffles late last year, marked by sweeping retirements as well as reappointments.

“I’ve received more than 30 clients in the past six months,” the newspaper quoted a feng shui master in Hangzhou in the eastern province of Zhejiang as saying.

One senior official in the Zhejiang province moved his ancestors’ tombs thousands of miles to the foot of the famed Tian Shan mountain in the north-western region of Xinjiang in an attempt to improve his career prospects, the newspaper said.

Feng shui is the ancient Chinese knowledge of geomancy, with a basic premise that one’s environment profoundly influences life. It was banned as a superstition after the Communist Party took power in 1949 and is still questioned by many.

Uncertainties about promotions or demotions in a closed political system where connections are vital fuel anxiety among Chinese officials.

With confidentiality in mind, the officials hire only non-local feng shui masters, who stand to make up to 100,000 yuan (€9,700) a year from a single client. The average income of China’s urban residents was about 10,000 yuan (€970) in 2006.

The revival of the popularity of feng shui comes at a time when the Communist Party’s “revolutionary theories” can no longer explain today’s reality, said Wang Changjiang, a professor at the Central Party School.

China is now Communist in name only after three decades of market reforms which along with breakneck growth have brought income disparities, widespread corruption and an ideological vacuum.