Transcript of an interview with Raymond Lo on March 2000 for MACAU magazine

Q) How do you define Feng Shui?

A) Feng Shui was developed originally from the idea of how to find a good place to live. In the past, primitive people lived in caves. Their concern was to protect themselves against wild animals. That would require them to dwell conveniently near the water and seek shelters from the harsh weather. As such, they arrived at a kind of configuration that would contribute to their well being. As time went by that in turn evolved into a complete system of knowledge about the environment, dealing not only with the physical aspects but also embracing all kinds of extra-natural forces affecting harmony and fortune. Feng Shui is a set of system that enables us to understand the kind of energy at work in the environment and the ways to make the best use of it.

Q) How do you place Feng Shui in the system of Chinese culture and beliefs?

A) The Chinese have a certain order when they talk about the factors contributing most to their success. First they cite destiny; then, luck; Feng Shui is the third. Destiny means the qualities a person was born with. In metaphysical terms, we derive a person’s destiny from the year, month, day and hour of his birth. That refers to his personality, his health and his career direction. These are all reflected in the birth data. The second is luck. It means after a person was born he will go through the passage of life and at various stages, encounters different kinds of influences. If he has a good destiny he will be assisted with good opportunities. Luck is not random; it comes at the time of birth. Feng Shui is the third factor, something external, not passive like destiny or luck that a person cannot change. Feng Shui is active and can be controlled. Feng Shui is about environment and a person can change his environment. If you don't like a place, you have the freedom to go to another. Therefore, one can say Feng Shui is a person’s most important tool that can be used to enhance destiny and luck - to improve the odds. If you are destined to be rich, without Feng Shui you may become just a rich person. With the help of Feng Shui, an exceptional person with great wealth and fortune.

Q) Feng Shui has enjoyed a considerably expansion in the West in the last 10 years. How do you see this Western perception of Feng Shui?

A) There is a difference between oriental and western people in this area. For the Chinese, Feng Shui is deep-rooted and has been very popular in the past 6,000 years. The rich and the noble in every dynasty had no doubt about it. Peasants had faith in it. Feng Shui teachers have no need to give Chinese students any introduction. On the other hand, there is a negative side to this aspect of tradition. There is a mixture of genuine knowledge and superstition. In the past, only a small number of people were privileged enough to have education. As a result, the knowledge of Feng Shui, being very complicated, was only preserved by an exclusive group of intellectuals - people who served the emperors and the court. The common people didn't have access to this knowledge but somehow they knew it existed. Consequently, misunderstanding and misconception were born and bred. When I teach Chinese students, first I have to undo the deep-seeded superstitious elements. Westerners carry no such baggage. They are like clean sheets of paper. If you give them logic, they can easily follow with no biases or superstition. Basically, Feng Shui is not mysterious at all. One can follow a logical system. A lot of ideas come from logical deductions. We do not force people to believe in any religion. It is not religious at all. Nor do we force people to buy into any concepts, except for the fundamentals such as the theory of the five elements. This is something akin to physics. You have to aceept the law of gravity and the law of motion, etc.

Q) What about the people who practise Feng Shui in the West?

A) They are sincere people with tremendous enthusiasm to learn. However, they need to find the right knowledge. Unfortunately very few people are conveying the correct knowledge. The tradition is still quite shallow. It only started about 10 years ago. A lot of people who are practising Feng Shui still lack in experience and materials. Accurate books remain few and far in between. In 1999, 120 books were published in English about Feng Shui. Yet 90% of them were not about Feng Shui at all. Why suddenly there are so many experts appearing? Since it has become fashionable, Feng Shui is put in the title simply to promote sales. Most of the subjects actually pertain to New Age matters - aromatherapy, dowsing, etc, which are clearly not Feng Shui.

We need some more time to build a tradition, a genuine system and a high understanding of Feng Shui.

There are certain people developing a "Western style of Feng Shui" but in fact it is totally different from the Chinese system. Chinese Feng Shui has been well tested for thousands of years. This kind of new Feng Shui should also be able to withstand the passage of time.

Q) What's your opinion about the magazine FSML? Critics say it oversimplifies the subject.

A) FSML is a commercial magazine. You can't blame them for making it popular. The problem with Feng Shui is that the knowledge can be very technical and difficult to comprehend. When I write about Feng Shui I have the same problem. I cannot assume the readers have that much background knowledge and I usually explain things in a very simple manner.

Q) What is the present situation of Feng Shui in the Chinese communities over the world?

A) In South East Asia, Chinese people are more traditional than Hong Kong ones who are generally more westernized. The Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia subscribe to a lot of superstition. They are firm believers in Feng Shui but are clouded by too many superstitious elements to see the true essence. In comparison Hong Kong Feng Shui is not totally traditional as different cultures were mixed in. Also, Hong Kong people are more used to modern way of thinking. We seem to be able to distinguish the logical from the superstitious.

Q) And how is the situation in PR China nowadays?

A) In China Feng Shui is still not openly practised and real knowledge is difficult to come by. Even so, it is gaining acceptance. Books are published by mainland academia on the topic. Increasingly foreign students are flocking there to learn, through interpreters, how to use the lo pan (the compass used in Feng Shui calculations).

I Ching has never been prohibited as it is considered a classic. It was promoted in a philosophical way and only now is used in telling fortune.

Q) How did you get interested in Feng Shui?

A) When I was very young, I was already curious about things that appear to be mysterious. I read a lot of on UFO, ghost stories before taking up Western astrology. Not until I was in the university did I come in contact with Chinese culture and Feng Shui. With it I discovered a huge treasure of traditions and materials. Feng Shui remained a hobby for a long time. In 1988, I started writing a column for Hong Kong Standard. Later I collected these articles into books and then I became known. Eventually I was not able to keep up and decided to leave the corporate job.

My first book was published in 1992. Then I started travelling to South East Asia and Singapore. At that time, Feng Shui was not so popular in the West. Only a few individuals were writing in English.

Q) What do you think will happen to this Feng Shui fad in the near future?

A) I think Feng Shui will continue to grow in popularity in the next five to six years. However, there are too many compromising materials. Bad results are likely to be derived from them. May be one of these days headlines of a serious accident would appear in the newspapers and attribute to bad Feng Shui. Then people will become disappointed. Actually, the age of 8 (starting in 2004) is not good for Feng Shui. The age of 7 (1984-2003) was.